- The Melbourne-based events will award a total of five WSOP gold bracelets over the course of 12 days.
- Many of poker’s elite were on hand to help kick off the inaugural event.
The inaugural WSOP Asia Pacific (WSOP AP) has started with an AU$1.1k No-Limit Hold’em Accumulator tournament. The Melbourne-based events will award a total of five WSOP gold bracelets over the course of 12 days.
The Crown Casino is home to the renowned Aussie Millions tournament and a natural start point for WSOP AP. WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart exclaimed: “Ever since Australian Joe Hachem won the WSOP Main Event in 2005, we dreamed of the day we could hear Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi, Oi on native soil.”
The first event is also a first for the Accumulator format where players can play one or all of three Day 1s. At the end of each day, each players chips are bagged and carried forward to Day 2 where they are added together. Players start Day 2 with the chips they won at the Day 1s they have entered.
Poker’s tournament glitterati were out in force, with Phil Hellmuth, 2010 World Champion Jonathan Duhamel, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown and Eugene Katchalov all registered for the opening event.
Phil Helmuth needs only five more cashes to become the first player to make the money 100 times in WSOP events.
The bracelet events include the Accumulator as well as $1.65k PLO, $2.2k Mixed, $5k 6 Max NLHE and the $10k buy in NLHE Main Event itself.
Running concurrently with Day 3 of the Main Event is a $50k High Roller No-Limit Hold’em with Re-Buys event and the following day kicks off the Caesars Cup Invitational—a team event that pits Asia Pacific vs Europe vs The Americas.
WSOP statistics show that the tournament brand has awarded million dollar plus payouts to 258 players. The first WSOP AP gives the Southern hemisphere a good chance to increase their share of players on that enviable list.
