Alan Pham had a tall hill to climb heading into the final table of the WPT Australia Championship. He started final table play with an impressive 124-big-blind stack, but Jordan Bautista had nearly twice as many, with almost half of the total chips in play.
By the time Bautista and Pham got heads-up, Pham faced a 4.5:1 chip deficit. But on this day at The Star Sydney, a comeback was in the cards. Pham, an up-and-coming Australian pro with a handful of significant results, took a sizable step forward in his career by capturing his first major title.
Pham earned $364,958 as the champion, his career-best victory by a significant margin. This win came with several other notable benefits. His name will be permanently engraved on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. More immediately, Pham’s prize includes a $10,400 seat to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.
After outlasting a field of 600 players, this victory also earned Pham 1,680 points in the Card Player Player of the Year race presented by CoinPoker. This was his first win and second qualified score of the year.
Bautista Wields His Mighty Stack
All six players at the final table of the WPT Australia Championship had a chance to make a definitive statement on home soil. The all-Australian cohort had only three previous six-figure results between them. Two belonged to Corey Kempson, who won a high roller at last year’s WPT Australia festival. The third was earned by Jarrod Thatcher, who took home just north of $100,000 at GUKPT London in 2022.
Jiaxu Chen had a close call on his record, finishing third in the WPT Prime Gold Coast championship earlier this year. Pham’s previous best came in Vietnam in 2023, when he won the APT Summer Series Hanoi Superstar Challenge.
Everyone stood to gain something, but they all had a long way to go to catch Bautista’s gaudy starting stack. The perilously short-stacked Thatcher doubled up twice, but Chen wasn’t so lucky. He lost a coin flip to Bautista, K♠J♦ to 7♥7♦, to go out in sixth place.
Thatcher continued to rise with yet another double, and Kempson was the next at risk. On a 10♠5♥3♣ flop, Kempson got his chips in with top pair, 10♦7♥. Bautista had an open-ended straight draw with 4♦2♠, but pulled out the win in the unlikeliest of runouts, with a 4♥ turn and 2♥ river for a winning two-pair.
A Path To Victory
Pham recorded his first final table knockout at the expense of Luo Ming Liu. Pham’s J♣J♦ held off Liu’s Q♦8♦ despite a flopped flush draw.
After starting the final table with just five big blinds, Thatcher’s ladder of good fortune ran out of rungs. Thatcher called all in on a K♦7♦7♣5♠8♣ board with K♠Q♣and was pipped by Bautista’s A♣K♥.
Bautista extended his lead over Pham to more than 8:1 before Pham started his comeback. Pham doubled up twice to pull himself closer, and then a third time with a full house to take a 2-to-1 lead of his own.
Bautista found one double back, but A♣K♥ would spell his doom. He got all-in with a three-bet shove holding that hand on a 8♦7♦4♠ flop, and Pham was too happy to oblige with his 7♣4♥ for two-pair. Pham had it locked up by the J♣ turn, and was celebrating by the time the J♥ hit the river.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Alan Pham | $364,958 | 1680 |
| 2 | Jordan Bautista | $243,013 | 1400 |
| 3 | Jarrod Thatcher | $179,094 | 1120 |
| 4 | Luo Liu | $133,356 | 840 |
| 5 | Corey Kempson | $100,331 | 700 |
| 6 | Jiaxu Chen | $76,270 | 560 |
Photo credit: WPT.
