The WSOP International Circuit is heading to Australia at the end of the month for what is going to be a huge tournament. It will make an appearance at The Star Poker Room in Sydney from November 27 to December 17, offering a number of WSOP gold rings, as well as a prize pool that is one of the biggest seen in the history of poker in Australia.
There will be a total of 15 events, starting with the AU$500 (US$363) Opening Event. It has four starting flights from November 27-30, followed by Day 2 and the Final Day that weekend. Up for grabs is a guarantee worth more than US$436,000.
Also on tap are a wide variety of events – ladies, turbo, teams, Pot-Limit Omaha and more. One of the most intense games will be the AU$5000 (US$3,637) Challenge. It is a rebuy big blind ante event with a prize pool of AU$1 million (US$727,496). Kicking it up a notch from there is an AU$20,000 (US$14,550) High Rollers Event that will also offer re-entries and use the big blind ante format. It doesn’t have a guarantee, but, at that level, the prize pool is sure to impress.
The Main Event will certainly be the big attraction. The buy-in is AU$2,200 (US$1,600) and the guarantee is a whopping AU$2.1 million (US$1.52 million). In addition, the winner will pick up a free entry for the 2019 Global Casino Championship.
Michael Kanaan won the big event last year, overcoming a field of more than a thousand entries to take the top prize of $297,241. He said of his victory, “Winning the WSOP Main Event was great. It was even more amazing being able to do it here in my hometown of Sydney. Living in Sydney is great at the best of times but having a world-class poker room like the one at The Star which attracts tournaments as big as the World Series of Poker is the icing on the cake.”
This will be one poker festival for the history books. Turnout is expected to be even bigger than last year and the prize pools should provide huge paydays for a number of players. To check out the entire schedule, take a look at the WSOP’s website.
