Alan Pham Comes From Behind To Win 2025 WPT Australia Championship

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Melbourne’s Alan Pham on winning the 2025 WPT Australia Championship Event:

“It was an incredible experience. I don’t think I’ve enjoyed playing poker as much as I did during those five days and especially the last few days. It was so fun playing for such large amounts of money and on a big stage such as WPT Main. I had lots of support throughout the tournament and people cheering me and I’m very happy to come out on top.”

#19 CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT (5,500 AUD)
CHAMPIONSHIP EVENT
Total Prize USD
$1,966,536
Total Prize
A$2,984,000
Entries
600
ITM
75
#PayoutPlayer
1A$558,211
$367,876
AP
Alan Pham
Australia [AUS]Australia
2A$371,693
$244,956
JB
3A$273,928
$180,526
JT
4A$203,971
$134,422
LM
Luo Ming Liu
Australia [AUS]Australia
5A$153,458
$101,133
CK
Corey Kempson
Australia [AUS]Australia
6A$116,656
$76,879
JC
Jiaxu Chen
Australia [AUS]Australia
7A$89,601
$59,049
SJ
Seve Jarvin
Australia [AUS]Australia
8A$69,536
$45,826
YZ
Yifeng Zhang
Australia [AUS]Australia
9A$54,527
$35,935
ZZ
Zheming Zhu
Australia [AUS]Australia
Check the 75 Payouts & Results ...

Alan Pham Wins 2025 WPT Australia Championship Event

The 2025 WPT Australia Championship at The Star Sydney ran from September 18 to October 1 with the Championship Event as the main highlight running on the final week. This was the first time the Main Tour was being held in the iconic city.

2025 WPT Australia Championship
2025 WPT Australia Championship – Photo by WPT / The Star Sydney

In stunning fashion, Alan Pham completed an incredible comeback against runaway chip leader Jordan Bautista to capture the title, a career-high payout of AU$ 558,211 (~US$ $364,958), plus a seat worth US$10,400 to the season-ending WPT World Championship in Las Vegas.

Along with the championship, Pham is now inducted into the WPT Champions Club and will see his name etched on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup for all eternity. 

From Shortest to Second In Chips

2025 WPT Australia Championship
2025 WPT Australia Championship – Photo by WPT / The Star Sydney

However, Pham’s road to victory was no walk in the park. Entering Day 4 with just 11 big blinds and 19 players left, he was the shortest stack. Survival appeared to be the only goal. In a post-win interview with the champ, he shared,

Heading into Day 4 I didn’t have much hope honestly, but I got very lucky and was able to spin my stack. The WPT structure for this main was great, which allowed me more opportunities to build my stack.

By the end of that day, the official WPT Final Table of 6 players was formed. Pham had climbed to second in chips and was in the best position to challenge Bautista’s towering stack (235 bb vs 124 bb) as everyone else seemed short in comparison.

Final Table

2025 WPT Australia Championship Final Table
2025 WPT Australia Championship Final Table – Photo by WPT / The Star

Bautista remained the dominant force, applying pressure and eliminating opponents. Pham adjusted his game to avoid unnecessary confrontations and conserve ammunition for the key moments.

I was trying to keep pots small against him and take more passive lines and pot control in hands against him. I defended less hands in the big blind against him but in hindsight I should have defended more hands against him with such a big stack also. He did lots of work knocking people out so I was kind of just staying out of his way and letting him do his thing.

The strategy worked. While Bautista bulldozed others, even delivering a crushing defeat to Corey Kempson when he rivered two pair, Pham quietly maneuvered into heads up with enough chips to stage a legitimate fight for the title. He entered with 54 bb versus Bautista’s 247 bb.

Heads-Up

Alan Pham at 2025 WPT Australia Championship
Alan Pham at 2025 WPT Australia Championship – Photo by WPT / The Star Sydney

When heads up was underway,  Bautista continued the aggression and grinded Pham down to around 30 bigs yet still very playable despite Bautista’s commanding 268 bb.

At the start of the match I was just feeling him out and playing my game. I know from other days and playing with him he is very aggressive and not afraid to put it in with nothing. Quite a few of the hands just involved Jordan going all in and me calling with the nuts. Besides that I was able to extract value when I had good hands the majority of the time, and when I had a bluff I was able to get him to fold. Very good recipe to win heads up.

It took three double ups for Pham to take the lead with the third one posted below:

Alan Pham continues to chip up over the next few hands before finding himself on the button once more and limps. Jordan Bautista checks to see the 442 flop. Bautista leads then calls Pham’s raise. On the turn 3  Pham fires again and Bautista check-raises. Pham contemplates then makes the big call. On the river Q, Bautista shoves, Pham snap-calls, Bautista shows K2 bottom pair, Pham flips over Q4 full house to take the lead for the first time.

Alan Pham – 20,200,000 (134 bb)
Jordan Bautista – 9,800,000 (65 bb)

Jordan Bautista at 2025 WPT Australia Championship
Jordan Bautista at 2025 WPT Australia Championship – Photo by WPT / The Star Sydney

For Bautista, despite the drop in chips, he remained aggressive but ultimately was unable to shave down Pham’s towers until the final hand was dealt. Pham called a preflop raise with 74 then landed both at the flop 479. Bautista shoved with AK. It was all over on the turn J. On winning, Pham expressed,

It‘s pretty cool there is quite a lot of prestige and glory in winning this tournament especially in my home country. So yeah it’s pretty cool. 

Links:

2025 WPT Australia – Festival Results
2025 WPT Australia – Photos

*Photos by World Poker Tour and The Star Sydney

Tricia David
Tricia David is a seasoned poker journalist and writer for Somuchpoker, with over a decade of experience covering the Asian poker scene. She began her career with the Asian Poker Tour (APT) in 2010 then in 2012, she became the lead writer for the Philippine Poker Tour, delivering news and live updates. Since 2014, Tricia has been a core contributor at Somuchpoker, providing in-depth coverage, features, and live updates from major poker events across the Asian region.