Welcome to the 2025 WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship!

Photo: Defending champion Lorenz Schöllhorn

Welcome back to Australia, mate! The World Poker Tour returns to the sunny Queensland for the WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship at The Star Gold Coast, only a short walk away from the lush beaches with splendid conditions for surfing. Flagship tournament of the festival, which already kicked off on March 13 and runs until March 26, 2025, is the 2025 WPT Prime AU$2,000 Championship Event that will officially get underway at 1.30 p.m. local time today.

One year ago at this very same venue, the tournament featured three starting days instead of four and attracted a total of 1,395 entries. While many local poker pros aimed to keep the trophy on home soil, the heads-up for the title unfolded between Lorenz Schöllhorn from Switzerland and Andres Vasquez from Colombia, though the latter does reside in Sydney. It was the largest WPT Prime Event with three starting days until then and the final duo split the largest piece of the AU$2,511,000 (~US $1,611,811) prize pool.

Schöllhorn earned the top prize of AU$401,510* (~US $257,729*) along with a US $10,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, which he then also turned into an in-the-money finish in Sin City as well. Runner-up Vasquez earned AU$267,615 (~US $171,782) for his efforts while other notable finalists included Travis Endersby, Michael Fraser and Martin Ward.

Many of those in contention one year ago will likely be back in action again and they have four starting flights to pick from in as many upcoming days. All four heats will play a maximum of 16 levels of 40 minutes each or until the top 12.5% of the field are reached, whichever of the two scenarios comes first. The players start their journey with 40,000 in chips, which represents 400 big blinds in the opening level.

Unlimited re-entries are available for the start of level ten and there will be a scheduled break every three levels on each Day 1 with a 45-minute dinner break prior to the end of the registration period. For all players to be in the money at the start of Day 2, each of the four Day 1 flights have to reach the last 12.5% of their respective field.

As of Day 2, the level duration increases to 60 minutes each and the penultimate tournament day will play until the end of level 27 or stop prior if the final table of nine players has been reached. The WPT Action Clock will be introduced as of level 16 and gives all players 30 seconds to act.

Stay tuned right here on WPT.com for all of the live poker action from the Gold Coast in Australia as we crown another WPT Prime champion in the following days.