Poker Central Announces Australian Poker Open and SHRB Australia
More poker is coming to Australia, as Poker Central recently announced further international expansion of its events with the Australian Poker Open and Super High Roller Bowl Australia headed Down Under in early 2020.
The Australian Poker Open will follow a similar format to the U.S. Poker Open held in Las Vegas and the British Poker Open that took place in London. It’s a series of high-stakes tournaments over a week’s time with the goal of crowning an overall series winner as the first-ever Australian Poker Open Champion. The Australian Poker Open is scheduled to run January 25 through February 1, featuring seven events ranging in buy-ins from $10,000 up to $100,000.
Super High Roller Bowl Australia ups the antes with a $250,000 buy-in starting February 2. The event is scheduled to run for three days.
APO and SHRB Australia Schedule
| Date | Event |
| January 25 | $10,000 No Limit Hold’em |
| January 26 | $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha |
| January 27 | $10,000 No Limit Hold’em |
| January 28 | $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha |
| January 29 | $25,000 No Limit Hold’em |
| January 30 | $50,000 No Limit Hold’em |
| January 31 | $100,000 No Limit Hold’em |
| February 2 | $250,000 Super High Roller Bowl |
All buy-ins listed are in Australian dollars.
Both the Australian Poker Open and Super High Roller Bowl Australia take place at The Star Gold Coast in Broadbeach, Queensland, and will stream exclusively on PokerGO. The two events are said to be held in partnership with the World Poker Tour.
What To Expect
With a start date of January 25, the Australian Poker Open kicks off one day after the conclusion of the 2020 Aussie Millions at Crown Melbourne. It can be expected that several high-profile players will bundle the two festivals into one trip, hitting Melbourne first for Aussie Millions and then hopping over to Gold Coast for the Australian Poker Open and Super High Roller Bowl Australia events.
The two schedules line up conveniently for players looking to compete in a heap of high buy-in events in a short time period. The Aussie Millions schedule calls for a $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha event starting January 13, the $25,000 Challenge starting January 15, the $10,600 Main Event and the $50,000 Challenge starting January 17, and the $100,000 Challenge starting January 22.
It can also be expected that we’ll see several of the region’s top talents on display, which can provide us with some newer faces in the crowd. Players such as Danny Tang, Kahle Burns should be in the mix, and then we might even see the likes of Joe Hachem, Alexander Lynskey, Jonathan Karamalikis, and Jason Gray taking part. We also know that big names such as Phil Ivey, John Juanda, and Patrik Antonius absolutely love Australia. Although we don’t see these players on the scene as much as we once did, there’s a good chance we’ll see them compete in these tournaments.
History of the Super High Roller Bowl
Australia will be the fifth country to host Poker Central’s Super High Roller Bowl. The event began in Las Vegas in 2015. In 2018, the Super High Roller Bowl took its brand to China, and then in 2019 it hit London and the Bahamas.
There have been eight Super High Roller Bowl events to date, with five being held in Las Vegas and then one in each of China, London, and the Bahamas. Super High Roller Bowl Australia will be the ninth Super High Roller Bowl to take place.
The smallest Super High Roller Bowl field size was Super High Roller Bowl London in 2019. It had 12 entries. The largest field size came from Super High Roller Bowl China in 2018 with 75 entries.
Super High Roller Bowl Winners
| Event | Entries | Winner | Prize |
| SHRB I | 43 | Brian Rast | $7,525,000 |
| SHRB II | 49 | Rainer Kempe | $5,000,000 |
| SHRB III | 56 | Christoph Vogelsang | $6,000,000 |
| SHRB China | 75 | Justin Bonomo | $5,000,000 |
| SHRB IV | 48 | Justin Bonomo | $4,821,516 |
| SHRB V | 36 | Isaac Haxton | $3,672,000 |
| SHRB London | 12 | Cary Katz | $2,610,317 |
| SHRB Bahamas | 51 | Daniel Dvoress | $4,080,000 |
The eight Super High Roller Bowl events that have taken place have awarded more than $113 million in prize money, with Justin Bonomo, the winner of two Super High Roller Bowl titles, leading the list of earners from these events.
SHRB All-Time Money List
| Player | Cashes | Wins | Earnings |
| Justin Bonomo | 4 | 2 | $10,931,516 |
| Brian Rast | 1 | 1 | $7,525,000 |
| Christoph Vogelsang | 2 | 1 | $7,200,000 |
| Rainer Kempe | 2 | 1 | $7,039,806 |
| Scott Seiver | 1 | 0 | $5,160,000 |
| Isaac Haxton | 2 | 1 | $4,599,515 |
| Erik Seidel | 3 | 0 | $4,535,000 |
| Daniel Dvoress | 1 | 1 | $4,080,000 |
| Jake Schindler | 1 | 0 | $3,600,000 |
| Jason Koon | 4 | 0 | $3,539,512 |
| Fedor Holz | 1 | 0 | $3,500,000 |
| Stephen Chidwick | 3 | 0 | $3,410,058 |
| Connor Drinan | 1 | 0 | $3,225,000 |
| Patrik Antonius | 1 | 0 | $3,152,434 |
| Daniel Negreanu | 1 | 0 | $3,000,000 |
| Wai Leong Chan | 1 | 0 | $2,677,500 |
| David Peters | 2 | 0 | $2,617,621 |
| Cary Katz | 1 | 1 | $2,610,317 |
| Stefan Schillhabel | 1 | 0 | $2,400,000 |
| Bryn Kenney | 2 | 0 | $2,283,495 |
| Alex Foxen | 1 | 0 | $2,160,000 |
| Timofey Kuznetsov | 1 | 0 | $2,150,000 |
| Leon Tsoukernik | 1 | 0 | $1,800,000 |
| Kethy Lehne | 1 | 0 | $1,785,000 |
| Dominik Nitsche | 1 | 0 | $1,668,932 |
| Ali Imsirovic | 2 | 0 | $1,658,707 |
| Mikita Badziakouski | 1 | 0 | $1,600,000 |
| Phil Hellmuth | 1 | 0 | $1,600,000 |
| Byron Kaverman | 1 | 0 | $1,400,000 |
| Talal Shakerchi | 1 | 0 | $1,188,000 |
| Seth Davies | 2 | 0 | $1,110,000 |
| Matt Berkey | 1 | 0 | $1,100,000 |
| Tom Marchese | 1 | 0 | $1,075,000 |
| Pratyush Buddiga | 1 | 0 | $1,000,000 |
| Adrian Mateos | 1 | 0 | $972,000 |
| Nick Petrangelo | 1 | 0 | $900,000 |
| Steve O’Dwyer | 1 | 0 | $765,000 |
| Igor Kurganov | 1 | 0 | $756,000 |
| Daniel Cates | 1 | 0 | $742,012 |
| Dan Shak | 1 | 0 | $600,000 |
| Dan Smith | 1 | 0 | $556509 |
