Opened in 1995, this Brisbane Casino is set in a magnificent and vastly restored building by the Brisbane river, in the heart of the city. There, you can play Texas Hold’Em Poker, Texas Hold’Em Bonus Poker, Three Card Poker, Mississippi and Caribbean Stud Poker. The location features Hotel (starts at 240USD), six restaurants, five bars,. For fans of poker tournaments, Conrad Treasury’s poker room holds three types of tourneys: Bounty Hunter events (where beating other tournaments players means earning their bounty cards which are exchanged for cash at the end of the tournament), Deep Stack tournaments on the first Sunday of each month, and Super Sixty contests held two or three times a month with a low buy-in of AUD $60 and a.

• »News
• »January 2021 Live Poker Options for Asia-Pacific Players

The past year was especially brutal for Australian poker players. Their choices for poker are already limited, as major online poker operators like 888poker, PartyPoker, Natural8, and PokerStars don’t accept Australian players. When the coronavirus pandemic shut down every live poker venue – for at least a part of 2020 – players were out of luck.

As 2020 came to an end, much of Australia seemed to have squashed the spread of Covid-19, at least enough to allow many venues to reopen.

Other countries in the Asia-Pacific region are doing the same, opening venues and allowing live poker tournaments to move forward.

Let’s see what’s on tap for the first few months of 2021.

Cash Games Available

Our last update reported that quite a few live poker rooms were dusting off their tables for cash games to resume. These are the ones that remain open for cash games:

• The Star Gold Coast
• Treasury Brisbane
• Crown Perth

The Star Sydney poker room is not yet open, nor is the poker room at Crown Melbourne or the one at SkyCity Adelaide. The Poker Pit at Casino Canberra is still closed, too. Crown Sydney’s casino has yet to open for any gambling.

Asian Poker Tour 2021

When the pandemic first grabbed hold of the region in early 2020, the Asian Poker Tour partnered with Natural8 to offer APT tournaments online. As restrictions eased in some countries in late 2020, the APT hosted some tournaments at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Clubs in Taiwan. That was October and November, prior to another surge of positive Covid-19 cases around the world.

However, the APT is confident about 2021. Organizers scheduled several events for February and March.

• 6-26 February: APT Event (location to be determined)
• 19 February-8 March: APT Taiwan at Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association (CTP Club) in Taipei and Taichung
• 17-28 March: APT Vietnam at Phu Quoc Corona Casino

The tour even scheduled the next APT Philippines for April 28 to May 9 at Resorts World Manila.

Meanwhile, the APT is hosting its APT Online Series India 2021 from January 15-26 on PokerBaazi. There are more than 50 tournaments on the schedule, as well as a leaderboard competition.

Japan Open Poker Tour 2021

This year, the Japan Open Poker Tour hosted several events, one online in partnership with PokerStars, others in Tokyo in March, July, and October. The 2021 schedule, however, is ambitious. This is the listing so far:

• 8-11 January: Season 19 Grand Final at Bagus Place in Ginza, Tokyo
• 30 April-3 May: Season 20 Tokyo at Bagus Place in Ginza
• 8-9 May: Season 20 Osaka at Bluff Bar in Osaka
• 21-24 July: Season 20 Grand Final (location to be determined)

There are also events scheduled to open the 21^st season in Manila and host events in Osaka and Tokyo in October.

WPTDeepStacks 2021

The World Poker Tour found its WPTDeepStacks tour to be very popular in Australia and other countries in the region. The tour was booming and continuously adding more events in 2019 and into early 2020. The pandemic stopped that, obviously, though only temporarily.

WPTDS did just host a festival in Taiwan, of course at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association in Taipei City. The entire festival ran from 11-26 December, but the WPTDS Main Event closed it out with a massive 526 entries and TWD 6,887,970 prize pool (approximately A$318,420).

The tour is preparing for its next event in the United States, at the Venetian in Las Vegas, and it hopes to return to Europe in April. But Aussies may be able to play the WPTDeepStacks Gold Coast again, as the schedule shows it heading to the Star Gold Coast in April. The entire festival will begin on 23 April and run through 3 May, but the Main Event will start on 29 April.

More details will emerge in the next month or so, as the World Poker Tour and Star Gold Coast can confirm the dates and guarantee that the casino will be able to host the event per coronavirus protocols.

Australian Poker Tour 2021

The Australian Poker Tour was anxious to get players back to the tables and did so in October 2020. That event was at the Eatons Hill Hotel in Brisbane and hosted 14 tournaments. With nearly 1,000 unique players, the APT Brisbane awarded nearly A$750K.

Not long after that, the APT was clear about hosting another event in Brisbane. It is set up the APT Brisbane Season 4 for 19-24 January, again at Eatons Hill Hotel. There will be 24 events over the course of the six days. Organizers estimate that approximately $1 million will be awarded in total.

Next up, the APT hopes to head to Southport Sharks for an APT Gold Coast event 17-21 March.

WPT League 2021

As with most things regarding 2021, the WPT League isn’t planning too far into the year. Few will forget the disappointment that came with the shutdowns in 2020.

The WPT League does have one big event on its calendar, though. The WPT League Quarterly Poker Championship is set for 24-28 February, 2021. The Gold Coast Turf Club & Event Centre in Queensland will host the tournament series, complete with $550K in prize pool guarantees. The Main Event alone will guarantee $200K.

Details of the schedule are listed on the WPT League AU website under “special events” in the next 90 days.

• »News
• »Live Poker Returns to Casinos from Sydney to Queensland

Australians did the hard work and nearly eradicated Covid-19 from its nation. While the pandemic cannot be over until vaccinations become readily available, the number of positive cases has decreased significantly, enough to allow most businesses to reopen. And that not only includes casinos but the poker rooms that have been closed for much of 2020.

The Star Gold Coast

Just before the pandemic, the Star Gold Coast introduced an expanded and updated poker room. Closing it due to pandemic restrictions was all the more difficult but, of course, necessary. After many stops and starts since March – reopening announcements and reclosing notices – the room did reopen this week.

The Star Gold Coast opened its poker room again on Friday, 11 December.

Cash games returned at noon that day and now offer action from 10am every day of the week. Play is limited to 7-handed cash games at this time. But that was enough to bring a lot of players back to the tables, including Lynn Gilmartin of the World Poker Tour.

Treasury Brisbane (Star)

Another Star Entertainment venue, Treasury Brisbane, also opened its poker room on Friday, 11 December. As of 12 December, the room was open seven days per week for cash games.

Cash games will remain 7-handed for the foreseeable future. Dealers spread Hold’em but will add Pot Limit Omaha upon request. The buy-information for basic NLHE cash games is as follows:

• $1/$3 = $80 minimum to $300 maximum
• $2/$5 = $100 min to $500 max
• $5/$15 = $200 min to $1K max
• $5/$10 = $1K min to $3K max

APT to Brisbane 19-24 January

Treasury Casino Poker Tournaments No Deposit

The Australian Poker Tour was the first to host a major series since the pandemic took hold of Australia. With much communication with venues and government officials, not to mention a lot of support from players, the APT hosted a series in Brisbane in October.

The Eatons Hill Hotel hosted the APT Brisbane 7-11 October, complete with 14 tournaments and an abundance of safety protocols. And as players scrambled to get back to the tables, they made the event very successful. There were 4,555 entries in the tournaments from 972 unique players. And the events awarded $749,405 in prize pools.

With that, APT Brisbane is now on the calendar for 19-24 January at Eatons.

Over the course of the six days, the schedule shows 24 tournaments estimated to produce about $1 million in prize pools. The $200 buy-in Main Event will be a repechage tournament with four starting flights 20-23 January with Day 2 set for 24 January. Other features of the series will include a tag team event, ladies’ championship, and high roller. And players will find Hold’em and PLO, even Pineapple, in a variety of formats like shootouts, bounties, and shock locks. Players can also choose from freezeouts, some reentries, or unlimited reentries.

All tables will play 8-max to abide by government recommendations.

APL to Queensland 4-7 February

The Australian Poker League was shut down for most of 2020, as were most tour operators, but the APL is planning for a comeback in 2021.

The group’s FB page posted a teaser for an APLPT Queensland event at Southport Sharks with a $150K prize pool for the series. The short video hints of a $150 buy-in Main Event with multiple starting flights, which will serve as the centerpiece of the 16-event series schedule for four days (4-7 February).

APL will release more information, including the full schedule of tournaments, before the end of December.

WPT League Quarterly Championship 24-28 February

Regular events from the World Poker Tour – in the form of WPT League Australia – are now playing regularly in the Sydney and Brisbane areas.

The WPT League did join with St. Johns Park Bowling Club and cSports to offer a December 13 Xmas Cash event with $200K guaranteed.

It is also planning for the WPT League Quarterly Poker Championship at the Gold Coast Turf Club & Event Centre in Queensland. The series will offer $550K guaranteed overall from 24-28 February, 2021.

Riverside Casino Poker Tournament

Southern Poker Tour Tanunda Thunder 5-7 January

Treasury Casino Poker Tournaments

On a bit of a smaller scale, the Southern Poker Tour is on the move. The tour focuses on Southern Australia (obviously), and hosted a Riverland Ruble series in November. The seven events culminated in Rob Keszler winning the Main Event for $4,500.

The tour already set up the next one, which is set for the Lambert Estate Winery in Barossa Valley. Organizers expect the 5-7 January series prize pool to exceed $60K.

More to Come as Covid Clears

Poker players are anxious to return to the tables, the live ones with other people. Each event hosted in the past few weeks and months, as documented in more detail by Poker Media Australia, delivered solid numbers and showed the desire to resurrect live poker.

The number of positive Covid-19 cases in Australia declined substantially in August and September. By the start of October, there were barely a dozen new cases reported throughout the entire country. Through November, the numbers remained very low.

As of 12 December, the entirety of Australia reported only 6 new cases, three in NSW and one each in NT, VIC, and WA. And the approximately 50 cases that remain active from past weeks are contained in hotel quarantines.

Treasury Casino Poker Tournaments Poker

With vaccines now in final stages of approval around the world, combined with Australia’s coordinated efforts to eradicate it, the country may return to normal – or close enough – within the coming months. Meanwhile, poker entities seem ready to step back into the waters and bring the players together.