Aussies Represented Well at 2019 Wsop

Rose Varrelli | July 19, 2019 | Updated on: January 8th, 2024

The 2019 World Series of Poker has now run its course at the Rio Casino. Aussie WSOP players have subsequently left Las Vegas to return to their lives and pursue poker in other places.

What started during the last week in May ended on July 16 when Hossein Ensan of Germany won the 2019 WSOP Main Event for $10 million. After 49 official days of tournaments and a total of 90 bracelet events, the WSOP has closed its doors in Las Vegas for another year.

Aussie WSOP Star Robert Campbell

The shining star of all Aussie WSOP players was Robert Campbell of Melbourne.

He was the only player during the summer series in Las Vegas to win two gold WSOP bracelets. The first was in the $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw tournament, for which he won $144,027. The second was in the $10K Seven Card Stud-8 event, which resulted in a first-place payout of $385,763.

Campbell also cashed in at other tournaments at the WSOP:

$1,500 Dealer’s Choice 6-Handed: 8th place for $13,861
$10K Omaha-8 Championship: 5th place for $102,868
$1,500 Razz: 7th place for $12,837
$1,500 PLO-8: 63rd place for $4,083
$3K PLO: 33rd place for $10,351
$1,500 Omaha Mix: 101st place for $2,249
$1,500 NLHE Closer: 174th place for $3,500

Player of the Year So Far

The WSOP Player of the Year race is dominated by the summer series in Las Vegas. With all of the points calculated from the 90 tournaments that were completed, Campbell solidified his place at the top of the POY leaderboard.

Robert Campbell: 3,418.78 points
Shaun Deeb: 3,280.13 points
Daniel Negreanu: 3,166.24 points
Daniel Zack: 3,126.13 points
Phillip Hui: 2,881.67 points

The points system is used for all open events – no invitationals or age/gender restricted tournaments – and is based on the buy-in amount and number of entries. There is subsequently one points chart for the Main Event and one for the rest of the bracelet events that qualify. Final table players are awarded the most points, but any in-the-money finishes help accumulate points as well.

As the summer WSOP is complete, the only other chance to win points for this Player of the Year race will therefore be at the WSOP Europe, set for October 15 to November 4 at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. There will be 11 qualifying events on that schedule.

2019 WSOP Categories

There are other ways to measure the success of Aussies at the 2019 WSOP. It is important to keep in mind, though, that the WSOP in Las Vegas is generally dominated by American players and those from other countries that are closer in distance.

The earnings category is, of course, dominated by players from the Main Event final table and other tournaments that generated very large prize pools. The only Aussies in the top 100, therefore, were:

38th place: Michael Addamo ($703,702)
40th place: Robert Campbell ($679,359)
69th place: Joel Feldman ($485,201)
85th place: Kahle Burns ($424,578)

As for the most cashes of the summer in WSOP bracelet events, there were only two Aussies on the top of the list: James Obst with 10 cashes and Campbell with nine.

In the category of most earnings for players under 30, Addamo was ranked ninth, and for cashes among players under 30, James Obst ranked near the top by tying several other players for fifth place.

Seniors from Australia did make the rankings. Seniors are players aged 50 and over. Joe Hachem made the earnings’ list top 20 (17th place) with his $241,236 in winnings this year, but Warwick Mirzikinian topped him (11th place) with $324,650. And for the most cashes, Jeff Lisandro tied with eight other players, all of whom cashed eight times this summer, and made sixth place.

Aussies Represented

There are categories ranked solely by country participation. The United States players then took the majority of gold bracelets (53), and Israel came in second with six bracelets. Meanwhile, the UK took four, and three countries took three each – Canada, France, and Russia. Australia tied with Germany, Brazil, and South Korea, each with two bracelets.

Another category for country rankings is by earnings:

1. USA ($168,318,500)
2. Canada ($18,239,490)
3. UK ($15,907,530)
4. Germany ($15,581,440)
5. Italy ($7,796,855)
6. France ($6,460,638)
7. Russia ($5,454,870)
8. Australia ($4,490,434)
9. Brazil ($3,995,688)
10. China ($3,449,001)

Countries are also ranked by the number of cashes:

1. USA (19,616)
2. Canada (1,288)
3. UK (890)
4. France (572)
5. Germany (456)
6. China (393)
7. Brazil (382)
8. Russia (258)
9. Israel (249)
10. Austria (244)
11. Australia (230)

Addamo Dominated Aussie WSOP Players in 2018

The name of Michael Addamo also made the 2019 list. However, he was in Campbell’s position last year.

At the 2018 WSOP in Las Vegas, Addamo won the $2,620 NLHE Marathon event for $653,581 and then travelled to the WSOP Europe and won the €25K NLHE High Roller for €848,702.