The World Poker Tour captivated Australia on the weekend with the WPTDeepStacks festival at The Star Sydney breaking records for both prizemoney and entrants.
Casual Australian poker player Mark Fester outlasted 2,023 other entrants - in the largest field in the event's history - to win the WPTDeepStacks Main Event and collect first prize of AU$413,006.
There was a prizepool of nearly $2.7 million - a WPT Asia Pacific all-time record - for the top 253 players in the Main Event, with the total field size annihilating the previous WPTDeepStacks record of 1,684 entrants in Seminole Hard Rock, Florida in 2016.
With the WPTDeepStacks festival including 11 events and satellites, there was 8288 entries - which was both The Star and WPT Asia Pacfic all-time record - during the series, which spanned from March 30 until April 11.
A total prizepool of close to $6.6 million, also a WPT Asia Pacific record, was awarded to entrants over the 13 days of action in The Star's poker room.
Main Event winner Fester, who was one of the many non-professionals competing at the festival, couldn't believe that he is now a WPT Champion.
"I’ve been playing poker casually for so many years, I got involved during the poker boom and at that time, WSOP and WPT were the big names," Fester told Poker Media after he clinched the famous victory.
"I watched so many tournaments, and all of my favourite players, through the years, so to now say that I am a champion when I thought that it was just a dream that would never be achieved … and it’s now come true, that’s amazing."
Australian poker will continue to see big events Down Under in 2022 with another WPTDeepStacks festival (set to be rebranded as WPT Prime) to be hosted at The Star Gold Coast in June
WPTDEEPSTACKS SYDNEY MAIN EVENT (AU$1,500 buy-in, 2,023 entries, 253 players paid)
| Place | Name | Country | Amount |
| 1st | Mark Fester | Australia | $413,006 |
| 2nd | Nick Wright | Australia | $275,328 |
| 3rd | Anthony Cierco | France | $204,270 |
| 4th | Luke McCredie | Australia | $152,906 |
| 5th | Benedikt Erbele | Austria | $115,507 |
| 6th | Lirui Zhang | China | $88,090 |
| 7th | Darius Bucinskas | Australia | $67,803 |
| 8th | Spencer Davies | Australia | $52,655 |
| 9th | Marco Perri | Australia | $41,274 |