Sydney becomes Australia’s home of poker in October

The focus of the Australian poker community turns to Sydney this month with a raft of headline events taking place across the harbour city.

With the warmer spring weather providing ample reason for players to head south following last month’s Queensland sojourn – which was headlined by WPT Australia – October sees major series being held by leading mid-tier operators APL and APT, as well as local poker rooms Poker Palace and Pavilion, while King’s Room will follow from early November with its biggest series yet: the Sydney Millions.

Already underway is the Poker Palace Spring Championships, which really kicks into gear from this Wednesday 11 October with Day 1A of the $2,500 High Roller. The $1,150 Main Event, featuring four Day 1 flights, gets underway on Thursday evening while a $3,000 6-max tournament, The Masters, kicks off on Friday afternoon.

For those looking for a smaller buy-in event with bang for its buck, the $250 Mammoth begins tomorrow (Tuesday 10 October) at 5pm with further flights taking place on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and an estimated prize pool of $70,000.

For more information visit pokerpalace.com.au.

Also underway is the WPT League Championship Sydney, running from 4 to 23 October in the Pavilion Poker Room at St John’s Park Bowling Club.

Featuring events ranging from $60 to $1,150, Bruno Rao and his team are offering $700,000 in guarantees across 13 events, including the $300,000 GTD Main Event. There is also a $100,000 GTD WPTL500 and $100,000 GTD High Roller.

Adding to the alure is the WPT League Championship Player of the Series promotion which will see the top three players on the end of series leaderboard win a $10,000 WPT Prime Championship Las Vegas package.

For more information sjpbowling.com.

Getting underway on Tuesday is the latest edition of the Australian Poker League’s APLPT Sydney at Castle Hill RSL Club.

Offering an estimated $750,000 in prizes, APLPT Sydney will offer a massive six-day schedule of 60 events, including 13 dealer dealt events.

Feature events include the $1,150 Survivor Bounty, the $2,500 Centurion, the $600 Deep Freeze and the always popular $1,500 Jackstar Super High Roller. This week’s Jackstar includes a chunky $100,000 prize pool guarantee.

And, as always, the $180 main event remains one of the best value tournaments in the country with six flights and an estimated prize pool of $150,000.

For more information visit playAPL.com.

Rounding out a busy month will be the return of the Australian Poker Tour for APT Sydney at Bankstown Sports Club, running from Sunday 22 to Sunday 29 October. This will be the first APT series held under the watch of the company’s new majority owner, Hachem Management Group, and there are some truly massive events in line to celebrate this new APT era. For the first time ever, the APT will host the TLPT International $25K Challenge from Monday 23 October, featuring a $25,000 buy-in and a guaranteed $500,000 prize pool courtesy of Hong Kong’s The Lord Poker Tour. 

Among those locked in to take their seat is none other than high stakes legend and two-time WSOP Poker Players’ Championship winner Dan “Jungleman” Cates, while a who’s who of the Aussie poker scene is also expected to take part.

Complementing the $25K event will be the TLPT International $10K Challenge, starting from Thursday 26 October and also offering a $500,000 guarantee.

All the old favourites remain as well, including the $1,500 Dracakis Jewellers Players Champs, The Vault, The Goliath, The Grind – sponsored by Absolute Prestige Cars – and the main event itself, offering a $675 buy-in and four starting flights.

For more information visit australianpokertour.com.au.

Finally, in November, all eyes turn to Sydney’s newest poker room, Kings Room at St George Leagues Club in Kogarah, for the inaugural Sydney Millions. 

His series is attractively spaced out to deliver 21 events over 16 days from 9 to 24 November and has buy-ins ranging from $250 up to the $2,500 High Roller.

Standout events include the $1,150 Mini High Roller, the $600 Colossus, $1,500 6-max High Roller Shot Clock and the $2,000 Main Event with five opening flights, but there are a wide variety of buy-ins, formats and variants on offer.

For more information visit kingsroom.com.au.