Australian Takes Down World Poker Tour Prime Gold Coast Championship

A hometown hero prevailed at the latest World Poker Tour Prime Gold Coast championship, besting a field of 719 entries in the $2,000 AUD no-limit hold’em event at The Star Gold Coast near Brisbane. Australia’s own Joshua McSwiney of nearby Sunshine Coast came out on top, earning a career-best score of $177,680 as the last player standing.

Prior to this WPT Prime victory, McSwiney’s top payday had been the $120,165 he secured with a sixth-place showing in a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha and no-limit hold’em mixed event at the 2022 World Series of Poker. This latest triumph has him approaching $560,000 in career cashes.

In addition to the title and the hardware, McSwiney was also awarded 912 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first POY-qualified score of 2025, but it alone was enough to move him inside the top 150 in the overall standings presented by Global Poker.

The strong turnout for this event built a prize pool worth more than $1.2 million when rendered in US dollars. The top 140 finishers all earned a share, with five figures or more for the final 16.

Jiaxu Chen held the chip lead heading into the final table, with McSwiney sitting in seventh chip position when cards got in the air. It took just nine hands to narrow the field to seven. Chen then busted Gary Lin (7th – $32,746) for his second knockout of the day.

Daniel Klinger (6th – $42,500) got the last of his stack in with top pair, top kicker in rough shape against the top set of Patrick Yazbeck. Klinger ended up with aces and kings, but it was not enough.

McSwiney scored his first elimination with pocket kings, with the preflop monster holding up against the K-10 suited of Michael Egan (5th – $55,744). Joseph Antar soon followed Egan to the rail when his pocket eights were 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 finishing third. His final hand pitted A10 against the pocket queens of Patrick Yazbeck, who made queens full of nines to win the pot. Chen earned $98,910 for his podium finish.

Heads-up play began with Yazbeck holding roughly a 2:1 lead over McSwiney. The two battled it out for 74 hands before a champion was decided. Along the way the two hashed out a deal that redistributed the remaining prize money a bit. By the time the final hand arose, McSwiney had taken nearly a 7:1 chip lead. The last deal saw McSwiney limp with QJ and call a shove from Yazbeck, who held K5 in the big blind. The board came down A2237 and McSwiney made a backdoor flush to scoop the pot and the title. Yazbeck took home $156,775 as per the heads-up agreement.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: WPT.