Lorenz Schollhorn Wins the Biggest-Ever WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship – PokerNews.com

If you ever needed proof that live tournament poker is as popular in Australia than it has ever been, the WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship is it. Some 1,395 players piled into The Star Gold Coast over three starting flights, each paying AU$2,000 and creating an AU$2,511,000 (US$1,611,811) prize pool.

The bumper attendance was not only a record for the WPT Prime Gold Coast but also the largest of any WPT Prime event (that had three starting days) in the tour's history. Lorenz Schollhorn will forever be known as this mammoth-sized tournament's champion.

The WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship's prize pool was distributed among the top 177 finishers. It should have been 175, but Paul Murray, Jesse Stanley, and Omer Silajdzija busted at the same time on the bubble and they chopped up a $2,211 min-cash.

Seasoned grinders such as Will Davies, the WPT Anchor Lynn Gilmartin, Kahle Burns, Billy "The Croc" Argyros, Sean Ragozzini, Kannapong Thanarattrakul, and Guy Taylor, finished in the money places but missed out on a final table appearance. Those who did navigate their way to the final table secured an AU$40,140 (US$25,766) payout.

Martin Ward's time at the final table was short-lived because he bowed out during the first hand. Schollhorn min-raised to 500,000 from the cutoff with ace-queen before snap-calling Ward's eight big blind shove, which he made with the dominated ace-eight of diamonds. Schollhorn's queen-kicker played, and Ward was gone.

Eighth place was settled a mere six hands later. Having lost all but two big blinds when Chin Yaw Chan cracked his pocket kings with pocket tens, Marco Perri pushed all in from under the gun with king-ten. Chan called in late position with pocket eights, and Schollorn came along for the ride in the big blind with seven-five offsuit. Both active players checked down the board, and Chan's snowmen claimed the pot and Perri's tournament life.

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The frantic pace continued, with Dylan Desmarchelier falling in seventh place on only the tenth hand of the final table. Travis Endersby min-raised to 500,000 with king-queen in late position, Desmarchelier three-bet all-in for 1,750,000 with pocket sixes, and Endersby called. The race was over almost as quickly as it began, thanks to the door card being a king. Neither the turn, nor the river came to Desmarchelier's rescue, and he had to make do with a seventh-place finish.

Endersby claimed his second scalp of the final table when he sent Rikiya Jibiki to the showers. Again, the chips went into the middle preflop, Jibiki three-bet shoving with ace-ten of hearts, and Endersby calling with pocket jacks. A queen-high board meant Endersby's fish hooks remained good, and Jibiki headed for the cashier's desk.

Five-handed play lasted 42 hands, ending with Chan's demise. From the small blind, Chan open-shoved for around ten big blinds with jack-ten of diamonds, only for Andres Vasquez to snap him off with pocket queen. Vasque flopped a set and improved to quads on the river.

Michael Fraser's participation ended a couple of hands later, pushing all-in for 15 big blinds with queen-ten only to lose to the pocket tens of Schollhorn, which propelled Schollorn into the chip lead.

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Schollhorn's stack increased again when he added Endersby's chips to it. After defending his big blind from a min-raise, Endersby check-called a continuation bet on the king-high flop, and did the same again on the five of spades turn. Endersby checked for a third time on the nine of diamonds river, which had paired the board. Schollhorn set Endersby all-in for his last 19 big blinds, and Endersby couldn't let his king-eight go, which is a shame considering Schollhorn had turned a set and improved to a full house with his pocket fives.

That hand gave Schollhorn a chip advantage of more than two-to-one over Vasquez. Schollhorn drew first blood, but Vasquez refused to back down. However, the final hand of the WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship played in such a way that someone was destined to go broke.

With blinds of 250,000/500,000/500,000a, Vasque raised to 1,250,000, and Schollhorn called. A ten-eight-five flop with two diamonds was greeted with a check from Schollhorn, a bet of 1,650,000 from Vasquez, and a check-raise to 4,800,000 from the chip leader. Vasquez moved all-in, and Schollhorn called.

Vasquez was in front with his pocket jacks, but Schollhorn's king-jack of diamonds had plenty of outs. The nine of clubs on the turn was not one of them, but the nine of diamonds on the river was. Vasquez busted in second place, leaving Schollhorn to take down the record-breaking WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship.

Your next chance to play in a WPT Prime event is between May 12 and 21, when the tour heads to Montreal. Also in May, from May 23 to 27, WPT Prime Vietnam takes place.

Once May is out of the way, there is WPT Prime Sanremo, WPT Prime Taiwan, WPT Prime UK, WPT Prime Liechtenstein, and WPT Prime Paris between June and October.

Remember, you can win your way into WPT Prime Main Events online at WPT Global. WPT Prime Passport satellites are available, awarding you a seat and some expenses into any WPT Prime tournament of your choosing.

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Lorenz Schollhorn Wins the Biggest-Ever WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship - PokerNews.com