David Tang Wins First-Ever World Poker Tour Main Tour Stop in Australia

The World Poker Tour hosted its first-ever main tour stop in Australia during the second half of September. The centerpiece of the series was the $5,000 AUD ($3,702 USD) buy-in WPT Australia no-limit hold’em main event. The tournament ran from
Sept. 23-27 at The Star Gold Coast in Queensland, with 710 entries creating a prize pool equivalent to nearly $2.3 million when rendered in US dollars.

After two starting flights and another three days of tournament action, Melbourne resident David Tang emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $425,712. This was by far the largest tournament cash yet for Tang, who told WPT reporters that he was primarily a cash game player.

“I just heard it was going to be a big tournament. I figured a lot of people from Australia were going to be here, so it seemed like a good chance to catch up with people that I hadn’t seen in a while, and a few of the Melbourne guys as well,” he told WPT after coming out on top.

As a result of his win in this event, Tang earned a seat in the WPT Championship in Las Vegas later this year. He also secured 1,824 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his first tournament cash of the year, but it alone was large enough to see him climb into 125th place in the 2022 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker.

Tang came into the final day of this event in fifth chip position among the remaining six contenders. Daisuke Ogita held the chip lead when cards got in the air. Ogita added to his lead early on when his pocket kings held against the A-6 suited of De Kun Li (6th – $87,464 USD), but then lost a few all-ins against shorter stacks to slide down the leaderboard. In one such hand, Ogita ran pocket jacks into the pocket kings of Tang and failed to come from behind.

Josh Hutchins was the next to fall. He shoved from the small blind with K-9 and got looked up by the A-5 suited of Naj Ajez. Ace-high played in the end and Hutchins was sent packing in fifth place ($114,721).

Ogita’s run came to an end when his A-K clashed with the pocket aces of Po Ho. A ten-high runout kept Ho ahead and Ogita was eliminated in fourth place, earning $152,215 for his strong showing.

Three-handed action lasted for nearly 120 hands. Ajez was ultimately the next to be knocked out. He three-bet shoved from the big blind over the button raise of Ho with A-5. Ho called with A-4 and made trip fours by the river to secure the pot. Ajez earned $204,269 for his third-place showing.

With that, Ho took 21,000,000 into heads-up play with Tang, who held 14,500,000. It didn;t take long for Tang to turn the tables, though. On the first deal of heads-up, Tang min-raised from the button with KQ and Ho moved all-in from the big blind with Q10. Tang called and the board ran out A832A. After that, tang held nearly a 5:1 lead.

The very next hand, Ho min-raised from the button with A8. Tang moved all in from the big blind holding K10. Ho called all-in for just over 12 big blinds and the 875AK runout gave Tang the nut flush to lock up the pot and the title. Ho earned $277,225 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: World Poker Tour.

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