Australian Takes Down World Poker Tour Prime Gold Coast Championship

A hometown hero prevailed on the newest World Poker Tour Prime Gold Coast championship, besting a subject of 719 entries within the $2,000 AUD no-limit maintain’em occasion at The Star Gold Coast close to Brisbane. Australia’s personal Joshua McSwiney of close by Sunshine Coast got here out on prime, incomes a career-best rating of $177,680 because the final participant standing.

Previous to this WPT Prime victory, McSwiney’s prime payday had been the $120,165 he secured with a sixth-place displaying in a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha and no-limit maintain’em blended occasion on the 2022 World Collection of Poker. This newest triumph has him approaching $560,000 in profession cashes.

Along with the title and the {hardware}, McSwiney was additionally awarded 912 Card Participant Participant of the Yr factors. This was his first POY-qualified rating of 2025, however it alone was sufficient to maneuver him inside the highest 150 within the general standings introduced by World Poker.

The sturdy turnout for this occasion constructed a prize pool price greater than $1.2 million when rendered in US {dollars}. The highest 140 finishers all earned a share, with 5 figures or extra for the ultimate 16.

Jiaxu Chen held the chip lead heading into the ultimate desk, with McSwiney sitting in seventh chip place when playing cards received within the air. It took simply 9 arms to slim the sphere to seven. Chen then busted Gary Lin (seventh – $32,746) for his second knockout of the day.

Daniel Klinger (sixth – $42,500) received the final of his stack in with prime pair, prime kicker in tough form towards the highest set of Patrick Yazbeck. Klinger ended up with aces and kings, however it was not sufficient.

McSwiney scored his first elimination with pocket kings, with the preflop monster holding up towards the Okay-10 suited of Michael Egan (fifth – $55,744). Joseph Antar quickly adopted Egan to the rail when his pocket eights had been cracked by the pocket sevens of Chen, which made a seven-high straight on the river after the chips went in preflop. Antar earned $73,874 for his deep run.

Chen ended up ending third. His last hand pitted A10 towards the pocket queens of Patrick Yazbeck, who made queens filled with nines to win the pot. Chen earned $98,910 for his podium end.

Heads-up play started with Yazbeck holding roughly a 2:1 lead over McSwiney. The 2 battled it out for 74 arms earlier than a champion was determined. Alongside the best way the 2 hashed out a deal that redistributed the remaining prize cash a bit. By the point the ultimate hand arose, McSwiney had taken almost a 7:1 chip lead. The final deal noticed McSwiney limp with QJ and name a shove from Yazbeck, who held Okay5 within the large blind. The board got here down A2237 and McSwiney made a backdoor flush to scoop the pot and the title. Yazbeck took house $156,775 as per the heads-up settlement.