American Cash Player Wins Australia WPT Main Event
In Australia, the stage of the WPT was held with a prize fund of 4,500,000 Australian dollars (about $2,900,000). More than 600 entries were made in the two opening flights of the event, making the tournament the second largest in Star Gold Coast history. The ITM zone consisted of 76 places, which divided the prize money.
And the biggest prize went to the American Richard Lee, who came out the winner from heads-up against the local player Martin Kozlov. For his success, Lee received not only the title of WPT champion and the main prize of $550,267, but also, no less importantly, a ticket to participate in the main event at the end of the year, the WPT World Championship with a record guarantee. Now Lee will be able to compete for a share of the record prize pool of $40,000,000.
The eventual champion was the only US representative at the final table. In his interview, he said that he was incredibly lucky with his position, since the strongest opponents were on his right hand. Previously, Richard had not achieved such successful results in tournaments; he mainly played inexpensive cash games online and sometimes streamed on Twitch.
Final table results on WPT Australia 2023
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richard Lee | USA | $550 267 |
| 2 | Martin Kozlov | Australia | $360 244 |
| 3 | Nino Marotta | Australia | $266 398 |
| 4 | Gary Lin | China | $198 572 |
| 5 | Romain Morvan | France | $149 795 |
| 6 | Ken Demlakian | Australia | $114 294 |
Julianna Svyrydenko
