Back in April, a multi-year agreement between the World Series of Poker and Crown Melbourne was signed, one that would bring the world’s premier poker tournament series to Australia in April 4 to 15th 2013.
The partnership between the two parties seemed like an ideal step for the WSOP, especially considering the tremendous success WSOP Las Vegas and WSOP Europe have generated over the years. WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart wanted to build on the success of the WSOP to go with the growing poker scene in Australia to, in essence, “establish the worldwide grand slam of poker and use our platform to elevate the game through a series of major championships”.
The agreement is also somewhat historical for the WSOP given the fact that outside of the birth of WSOP Europe in 2007, the poker tournament series has has never ventured outside of Las Vegas. Now that Australia’s in the docket, you can expect nothing less than for the best poker players both in Australia and the entire Asia Pacific region to be out in full force.
Proving that WSOP Australia is going to be one of the most anticipated poker events next year, our very own Tatjana Pasalic sat down with WSOP Media Director Nolan Dalla to talk about what people can expect from such a groundbreaking event like WSOP Australia. Dalla was straightforward with his proclamations that 2013 is going to be a huge year for poker, “specifically for the World Series of Poker going for the very first time to Asia”.
“It’s going to be spectacular!”
It goes without any need for explanation that the World Series of Poker is the grandest poker tournament series in the world, and the mere fact that it’s bringing its prestige Down Under isn’t lost on both the organizers and the players ready to trade chops on the felt. Selling the event to players isn’t going to be too much of a problem, either, especially because of the potential to scoop up gold bracelets – five bracelets are scheduled to be up for grabs – and stake history as the first ever Main Event winner of WSOP Australia.
For Dalla, a big part of the excitement of hosting WSOP Australia stems from the players that are expected to attend. “It’s going to be much more Asian-centric,” he said. “There’s going to be players from countries we haven’t seen play in World Series events before. Players from Korea, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines…this could potentially be a jumpstart to a whole new era of poker.”
“The World Series of Poker doesn’t do anything second-class,” Dalla adds. “It’s always first-class; it’s always the most prestigious event, and we’re looking forward to being in Asia for the first time.”
