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Hari Varma claims first-ever WPT Australia Main Event title

The World Poker Tour (WPT) continues to plant its flag in major continents and yesterday saw Hari Varma becoming the star of the night through his win at the WPT Australia Main Event. With 10 featured events from 27th September-7th October, the festival at The Star Gold Coast was immensely successful.

The Main Event saw a massive field of 658 entries who registered for a buy-in of A$2,500 to create a record prize pool of A$1,480,500 (~INR 7.10 Crores) to be shared among 83 top finishers who would receive a paycheck. Some of the big names who made a deep run but failed to make it to the final 9 included the Godfather of Aussie Poker, 2005 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem. 2017 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Shane Vijayaram and the ‘King of Spin’ Australian cricket legend Shane Warne. Besides these, other notables who cashed were the 2019 WPT Vietnam winner Hamish Crawshaw (36th), Mexican pro Angel Guillen (47th) and Joe Hachem’s son Daniel Hachem (77th).

Varma took the chip lead into the final table beating Joshua Bell in 9th place. He continued to apply pressure and chip up as his opponents struggled throughout the action. As the tournament progressed, Travis Enderby shoved Jd 6h with under 10 blinds who was eventually called and defeated by the Ad 2h of Louis Yin. George Psarras sent Yin to the rail, shoving from the small blind with Queen-Six and Yin called for his remaining 12 big blinds with Ace-Five. The river card gave Psarras a straight and moving action into the 3-way stage.

Varma strengthened his position having started with the chip lead and was once again responsible for another knockout eliminating Julius Colman in 3rd place to set the final table for heads-up. Psarras held 9d 3c with Varma holding Qd 3s. The flop opened 8c 3h 2c, Psarras check-raises 350k which is flatted by Varma. 3d on the turn meant that all chips were certain to go into the middle. Another check-raise by Psarras which was once again slowplayed by Varma with just a call. The Qd on the river gave Varma the absolute nuts and predictably the rest of the chips quickly went into the middle. Varma’s full house over his opponent’s set of Threes ensured that he walked away with the top prize of AU$ 274,247 and the coveted inaugural WPT Australia title.

Top 9 final payouts

1. Hari Varma – AU$274,247 (~INR 1.31 Crores)
2. George Psarras – AU$192,273
3. Julius Colman – AU$123,933
4. Louis Yin – AU$90,207
5. Travis Endersby – AU$69,139
6. Luke Stewart – AU$55,326
7. Chris Barker – AU$45,851
8. Josh Emerton – AU$36,509
9. Joshua Bell – AU$27,419

With the end to this fantastic Main Event, the WPT will continue its journey making a stop here in India with the WPT India series scheduled to run from 15-21 October in Goa. Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com for the latest updates on poker news from India and around the world.

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