WPT Cambodia 2025 Festival Awards More Than $11 Million in Prize Money

It was one of the most highly-anticipated live poker tournaments for the mid-stakes grinders in the Asia-Pacific region and the WPT Cambodia 2025 festival certainly lived up to these expectations. From February 6 to 24, 2025, the series generated more than $11 million in prize money and reached five figures in terms of total entries.

WPT Cambodia 2025 Final Wrap

For the first time, the WPT Cambodia festival hosted the WPT Championship Main Tour stop and the WPT Prime Championship under the same umbrella outside of Las Vegas and that may have very well played a significant role to attract an even bigger international player pool than usual.

WPT Cambodia Championship

The entire schedule included 73 trophy events and these awarded $11,202,500 in prize money, generated by a total of 10,218 entries. On top of that, the various satellites added another 873 entries to the resume for the largest World Poker Tour festival on Asian soil so far. It comes as no surprise that the biggest prize pool emerged in the 2025 WPT Cambodia $3,500 Championship Event,which easily sailed past the $1.5 million guarantee.

Thanks to 750 total entries, the crown jewel of the series paid out $2,400,750 in prize money and Russian online grinder Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov claimed the top prize of $390,650, which includes a seat for the season-ending WPT World Championships in Las Vegas worth $10,400. Vezhenkov had to overcome a stacked final table which also included Ankit Ahuja and WPT Champion’s Club member Dominik Nitsche. The attendance equals the field size of the 2019 WPTDeepStacks $1,100 Main Event, which also attracted 750 entries.

#44 WPT Cambodia Championship ($3,500)

In a roller coaster final table that saw his chips drop to the shortest, Russia's Artem Vezhenkov persevered to take down the prestigious WPT Cambodia Championship title. Along with the glory, he claimed a career high top prize of $390,650, which also includes an entry worth $10,400 into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. His name will also be etched in history on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.

Three-handed play was incredibly deep and all three contenders held the top spot at some point before the momentum slowly shifted towards Vezhenkov. He won two big pots to leave Ahuja short and eventually finished the job with jack-nine versus ten-seven in a preflop contest to enter heads-up play with a two-to-one advantage over Ronald Haverkamp.

In a short-lived and intense heads-up duel, Dominik Nitsche had the opportunity to add a second WPT title to his resume but ultimately came up short in fifth place. Vezhenkov becomes the latest WPT Champions Club member.

Total Prize

$2,400,750

Guaranteed

1,500,000

Entries

750

ITM

94

#	Payout	Player
1	$390,650	AV Artem Vezhenkov Russian Federation
2	$255,000	RH Ronald Haverkamp Netherlands
3	$189,000	AA Ankit Ahuja India
4	$142,000	SA Supakit Anukoolpitaknil Thailand
5	$107,000	DN Dominik Nitsche Germany
6	$82,000	DC Daniel Charlton United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
7	$63,000	AA Aditya Agarwal India
8	$49,000	NZ Neng Zhao Australia
9	$38,500	CH Collin Ho Singapore

Check the 94 Payouts & Results ...

WPT Prime Championship

Many eyes were also set on the WPT Prime $1,100 Championship Event, which previously had its own standalone festival at the world class NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh. The previous record stood at 1,050 entries that was obliterated thanks to 1,484 entries across three starting days. Canada’s Alexander Puchalski had already won the APPT Cambodia Main Event and earned his second-ever title on the live poker circuit for a payday of $233,680.

#28 WPT Prime Cambodia ($1,100)

Deja vu as Alexander Puchalski wins his second major title at this very location and at the same exact final table seat.

"I had the same seat when I won the APPT Cambodia. It's incredible. It feels like a dream. It's amazing. I don't come here that much but every time I do I get lucky and win. It is also very nice here in Cambodia."

Puchalski topped a field of 1,484 entries and defeated Khorshad Sagor in a grueling two and a half hour heads up battle. For his victory, he was awarded the US$ 233,680 inclusive of a seat worth US$ 10,400 to the WPT World Championship in December.

Total Prize

$1,429,080

Guaranteed

750,000

Entries

1,484

ITM

186

#	Payout	Player
1	$233,680	AP Alexander Puchalski Canada
2	$150,000	SK Sagor Khorshad Alam
3	$111,200	PD Patrik Demus Hungary
4	$82,700	YJ Yannick Jobin Switzerland
5	$63,000	YC Yita Choong Australia
6	$48,800	YY Yuan Yu China
7	$37,500	MC Manuel Carvalho Portugal
8	$29,200	TM Tom Maguire Australia
9	$22,900	XL Xiao Liu China

Check the 186 Payouts & Results ...

Other WPT Cambodia Highlights

The High Roller tournaments all attracted very solid field sizes and higher stakes action kicked off with Event #19 SHR Warm-Up, which reeled in 92 entries for a prize pool of $419,428. Spain’s Valeriano Toledano defeated Manuel Carvalho in heads-up to earn the top prize of $114,767 while his opponent from Portugal reached the final table in the Prime Championship.

#19 SHR Warmup ($5,000)

Building up the momentum for bigger action in the next two weeks, two-day SHR Warmup, drew in a solid 92 entries, sizing up a grand prize pool of $419,428. Day 1 concluded with only 15 players surviving the initial fifteen levels, and capped with Manuel Carvalho leading the Final Day charge.

With 14 guaranteed a payday, the bubble burst right at the start of Day 2 with Valeriano Toledano delivering the elimination. Martin Ng went with pocket fours for his last 9 BBs and ran smack into Toledano's rockets to crash out one spot shy of the money.

A great forecast of what lay ahead, Toledano eventually reached three-handed with the lead against day chip leader Carvalho and Viet superstar Nang Quang Nguyen. Shortest stacked Nguyen was the first to bow out after he risked his tournament life with an open ended straight draw and bricked the runout against Carvalho's aces. While Carvalho picked up a boost following the bust, Toledano remained with a substantial advantage onto the heads up duel. Despite deep stacks - a 92 big blind average, the match was over in less than twenty minutes, where it all came down to one key hand.

Toledano defended his big blind and read a flop 5♣ 5♥ 2♣ . A series of back and forth between the two saw Carvalho eventually call off for his entire 40 BBs with Q♦ Q♥ , up against Toledano's combo draw 4♣ 3♣ . Runout A♥ J♥ , instantly filled up Toledano's wheel straight, sealing the final victory for the Cambodia first-timer.

In a post-match interview, Toledano shared with SMP that he is primarily an online player and wasn't accustomed to the ante format. To overcome this, he decided to ramp up his aggression and take on a more assertive strategy. On the final deal, Toledano admitted he felt behind but his instincts told him otherwise, pushing him to risk it all. His bold decision paid off by mounts, earning him the largest series payout to date at $114,767, along with his first-ever trophy.

Total Prize

$419,428

Entries

92

ITM

14

#	Payout	Player
1	$114,767	VT Valeriano Toledano Spain
2	$76,546	MC Manuel Carvalho (2) Portugal
3	$52,043	NQ Nang Quang Nguyen Viet Nam
4	$36,687	MH Mostafa Haidary Australia
5	$26,852	AK Asish Kumar Ghosh India
6	$20,435	SK Simas Karaliunas Lithuania
7	$16,198	AA Arjun Agrawal India
8	$13,388	NA Najeem Ajez Australia
9	$11,564	GT George Tomescu

Check the 14 Payouts & Results ...

In Event $5,000 High Roller, Belgian top pro and poker coach Thomas Boivin came out on top of a big field of 162 entries, which crushed the $200,000 guarantee and paid $738,558 across 21 spots. Boivin took home the top prize of $196,315 while runner-up Michel Molenaar had to settle for $128,620.

#55 5K HR ($5,000)

It took several twists and turns but in the end Thomas Boivin of Belgium is crowned the champion of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Cambodia 5k High Roller (HR) event at NagaWorld in Phnom Penh besting a field of 162 entries enroute to his fifth cash and first title here.

“It feels good, yeah. I haven’t won a live tournament in maybe seven or eight months. So it’s really good. And this was my last tournament here, and I’m going to play Triton in Jeju, so it’s a really good warm-up.”

Total Prize

$738,558

Guaranteed

200,000

Entries

162

ITM

21

#	Payout	Player
1	$196,315	TB Thomas Boivin Belgium
2	$128,620	MM Michel Molenaar United Arab Emirates
3	$75,776	AS Aliaksandr Shylko Belarus
4	$46,123	VF Valeriy Fokin Russian Federation
5	$35,598	DA Dinesh Alt Switzerland
6	$29,505	CC Charlie Chiu Taiwan
7	$25,554	TP Timon Prill Germany
8	$22,526	AK Akihiro Konishi Japan
9	$19,631	QQ Quan Qiu China

Check the 21 Payouts & Results ...

Australia had reason to celebrate in the $10k Single Day Challenge with Daniel Neilson and Yongjia “Gary” Lin going heads-up, the former earning the trophy and top prize worth $127,255. Lin also narrowly missed out on a trophy in the $20k Super High Roller after he came third in a field of 52 entries. The top eight finishers earned a slice of $988,624 in prize money and Roman Hrabec (277,779) had the bigger share of a deal with Dominik Nitsche ($261,000).

#30 10K Single Day Challenge ($10,000)

One of the most prestigious events of the WPT season, the 10K Single Day Challenge, has officially wrapped up with Australia’s Daniel Neilson emerging as the champion once again. Neilson outlasted a competitive 40-entry field to take home the $127,255 top prize after an intense twelve-hour grind.

This victory not only adds a second WPT title to his illustrious resume but also pushes his career earnings past the $5 million mark. Remarkably, Neilson captured the same title last year during the inaugural WPT Championship, proving that history has a way of repeating itself.

Total Prize

$374,420

Entries

40

ITM

7

#	Payout	Player
1	$127,255	DN Daniel Neilson Australia
2	$84,836	YL Yongjia Lin Australia
3	$56,556	MA Mario Arrocha Spain
4	$39,220	AR Amin Riyazati Australia
5	$28,336	FG Fabian Gumz Germany
6	$21,368	SK Simas Karaliunas Lithuania
7	$16,849	KN Kyosuke Nagami Japan

Nitsche himself already had a trophy by then, as he took down Event #34 Deepstack Turbo High Roller with a buy-in of $3,000. His victory came with a payday of $48,942 and runner-up Sho Homma earned $32,628 for his efforts. Homma later went deep in the Championship Event, nearly joining Nitsche on the final table but coming up just short of that feat in tenth place.

These three deep runs by Nitsche were quite impressive, yet he didn’t come close to the top three spots on the Player of the Festival leaderboard. Amin Riyazati cashed in nine tournaments, won two of them and reached the final two tables in the $3,500 Championship Event to rack up a tally of 1,715 points. Another two-time champion finished behind him in Erik Rozhynskyi, who took down two Bounty Events for 1,615 leaderboard points. Last but not least, aforementioned Carvalho remained ahead of Thomas Boivin to claim the last podium spot for extra prizes.

All three top finishers received cash and a seat for the WPT Prime Championship 2025 in Las Vegas as follows:

• Amin Riyazati (Australia) $1,100 seat and $3,900 in cash
• Erik Rozhynskyi (Ukraine) $1,100 seat and $1,900 in cash
• Manuel Carvalho (Portugal) $1,100 seat and $900 in cash

Another seven players earned two trophies with four-card specialist Fabian Rolli from Switzerland sealing that feat on the final day of the series. He won the Mini Championship for $79,000 and the Superstack 6-Max for another $10,650. Chun Ping Lo locked up his two victories in the first half of the series and the same also applied for Tom Maguire as well, the latter of which also reached the final table in the Prime Championship, too.

Further notable winners during WPT Cambodia include Martin Sedlak, Hongru Zhang, Nino Pansier, Nikesh Chawla, 2024 WPT Prime Paris champion Hugues Girard, as well as Portuguese top online grinder Rui Bouquet. Australia’s Graham Cowan recently won the Manila Megastack 21 Main Event for PHP 3.2 Million (~ USD 54,749) and claimed one of the last trophies of the series after defeating Jon Kyte in Event #60 $1k Re-Entry.

The Asia-Pacific region won’t have to wait long for the next stop of the World Poker Tour, as the WPT Prime Gold Coast Championship is less than a month away. Only the first half of the schedule for 2025 has been announced by the brand with WPT Prime Taiwan to follow in August, as announced during the stop in the Asia Poker Arena last year.