Artem Vezhenkov Clinches WPT Cambodia Championship For Career High $390,650

That’s a wrap for the crown jewel of the WPT Cambodia 2025 festival at the five star NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh, as Russia’s Artem Vezhenkov has been crowned champion at the 2025 WPT Cambodia $3,500 Championship Event to clinch the title and the top prize of $390,650, which includes an entry worth $10,400 into the season-ending WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. In addition, Vezhenkov’s triumph will be forever etched in history with his name on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup.

I’m very happy. It’s my first main event on the WPT, and the structure is perfect. 90-minute levels after Day 1. It’s perfect. We had more than 50 blinds all the time, maybe even more than 60. The competition is great because you have time to read your opponents at the table. I like deep stacks, and it’s very good. The staff and dealers are the best. 

How does it feel knowing your name will be inscribed on the Mike Sexton Trophy?

It feels great. I will come back to see it! I came here before for the APPT. I didn’t have any ITM finishes at the time. I played all of the high roller tournaments with a small field and had to re-enter many times, but I didn’t cash. But after that, I came back again, everything went well, and I won the Super High Roller. Now, I’ve won the WPT Main Event too.

Artem Vezhenkov Clinches WPT Cambodia Championship 2025

The WPT Cambodia Championship recorded 750 entries across two flights, each one costing $3,500. This generated a prize pool of $2,400,750 with 84 spots paid. The top ten in the results featured nine different countries. Champion Artem Vezhenkov had already cashed for nearly $1.6 million in his career but that only tells one side of the story.

#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 ...

In the virtual arena, Vezhenkov is known under his moniker of “veeea” on PokerStars with several millions in cashes and widely feared as one of the all-time end bosses when it comes to tournament poker. The live poker resume may appear modest in comparison but he has already participated in the Triton Super High Roller Series. For Vezhenkov, it is the fourth victory in a live poker tournament but the largest score to date.

Vezhenkov becomes the latest WPT Champion’s Club member, denying 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.

The Money Bubble Bursts on Day 2

Only five levels of 90 minutes each were scheduled with all 242 Day 1 survivors returning to their seats, aiming to make it to the top 94 spots and secure a portion of the seven-figure prize pool. Among the first to bust was WPT Global ambassador Xuan Liu, and many further notables would follow such as reigning WPT Player of the Year Yunkyu Song, recent WPT Prime 2025 Cambodia champion Alexander Puchalski, Shiina Okamoto, Travis Endersby, and Mike Takayama.

The always jovial Steven “Cuz” Buckner was ousted in a three-way all-in when his ace-king suited flopped top pair, top kicker and a gutshot broadway draw. Khurshid Zaynutdinov held pocket queens for top set while Toan Chan Truong looked them up with pocket tens for bottom set. The case ten on the river brought quads, and it was not the only sucker punch of this kind on the day.

Eventual bubble was then South Africa’s Marc Joseph, who raised big on a queen-ten high flop with ace-queen but was out-drawn by the ace-jack suited of Xin Yuan who turned a flush. This unfolded in the last level of the day, and the field also lost defending champion Konstantin Held in 87^th place before the end of play. Notable casualties in the money late on Day 2 were Javier Gomez, 2024 WPT World Championship runner-up Rob Sherwood, Yita Choong and Brian Green.

Daniel Charlton Dominates Day 3; Three Tables Remain

Daniel Charlton started Day 3 atop the leaderboard and was one of seven players with a seven-figure stack. Nitsche and Vezhenkov were also among them and maintained their prime position for the entire day, while the field was whittled down all the way to the final three tables during five 90-minute levels. WPT Champion’s Club member Masato Yokosawa was among the early casualties, as were Kunal Patni, Daniel Neilson, Thomas Boivin, and Amit Kaushik.

Four females were still in contention which included WPT anchor Lynn Gilmartin, who already boasts several deep runs in WPT Events on her resume. She bowed out in 31^st place for $17,300 and her fellow compatriots Yukako Hiroi from Japan as well as Vietnam’s Thi Bao An Nguyen and Ngoc Ha Nguyen would follow soon after prior to the three table redraw.

The elimination of Hiroi in 28^th place cemented the status of Charlton as the chip leader by some margin and it was a clash between two of the top stacks at that point. Just a few hands prior, Hiroi had caught Charlton bluffing with queen-nine suited to nearly pull even but the Brit then hit quads sixes on the turn with eight-six. With three sixes on the board and an ace on the river, Hiroi couldn’t lay down pocket tens and headed to the payout desk.

Road to the Final Six on Day 4

For the penultimate tournament day, only 23 hopefuls remained and they had already locked up $20,600 for their efforts. John Perry and Adrien Berger were among those to miss out on a pay jump with Berger falling to Nitsche, having his pocket kings cracked by seven-five. Next to bow out was Dylan DeStefano, who failed to hold up with ace-king against the queen-ten suited of Vezhenkov preflop. Vezhenkov also knocked out Kevin Ewald with a flopped set of fives to bring the field down to the final two tables.

The Russian made it three knockouts in a row when he sent the Player of the Festival contender Amin Riyazati to the payout desk, turning two pair with king-jack suited versus ace-king suited. It was then back on Charlton to reduce the field and he took care of Peteris Enders as well as Hugues Girard, the latter having queens cracked by ace-deuce. Ahuja then seized control of his table despite the presence of Charlton.

Apoorva Goel, Yoon Kang and the last Japanese flag-bearer Sho Homma were among Ahuja’s victims which led to the poker pro from New Delhi entering the nine-handed final table with the most chips. Collin Ho from Singapore fell in just the third hand thereafter when his dominated ace-queen came up short against Neng Zhao‘s ace-king. Despite that, Zhao hit the rail next after he four-bet jammed ace-eight suited into the ace-king suited of Vezhenkov. The final casualty on Day 4 was Aditya Agarwal – after a quiet final stage, he couldn’t improve with nines against the kings of Nitsche.

Champion Crowned on Final Day

Only six players returned and the first player to bust was former chip leader Charlton from the UK. He had been crushing the previous two days with a big stack but lost most of his chips to Supakit Anukoolpitaknil and Ahuja within the first two dozen hands. Nitsche then finished the job with flopped quads to eliminate Charlton in sixth place. What followed was a roller coaster as  Vezhenkov became the short stack only to skyrocket back into the lead within two hands.

Rollercoaster Final Table

One of these hands saw Nitsche go from first to last on the leaderboard and soon after, it was all over for the only previous WPT Main Event winner still in contention. The roller coaster ride on the final table didn’t end there, as Ahuja was first caught bluffing by Ronald Haverkamp to surrender the lead only to show the goods with a flopped set of queens in the very next hand. That showdown left Thai player Anukoolpitaknil as the far shortest stack and he couldn’t recover from it anymore, but recorded his far biggest score on the live poker circuit.

Three-handed play was incredibly deep and all three contenders held the top spot at some point before the momentum slowly but surely shifted towards Vezhenkov. He won two bigger 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 Haverkamp.

They traded chips in the first two dozen hands before Vezhenkov applied a lot of pressure to establish a commanding lead. Down to fewer than 20 big blinds, it was all over in hand #202 on the final day. Haverkamp turned top pair with king-six while Vezhenkov had flopped two pair and rivered a full house with queen-ten to seal the victory after fewer than nine hours on the final day.

I had a very good run in heads-up play. I had good hands most of the time, and it was a bad run for my opponent. He played very well, but luck was on my side.

When asked about his life and what he would do with his winnings, the newly minted Vezhenkov shared,

I’ll go back to Thailand and I’m going to play in Triton Jeju. I’m thinking about buying a house in Ko Phangan, Thailand because I sold my house in Russia, and now I don’t have one. I have a dog, and my girlfriend has a dog too. We live on an island with a dog paradise. It’s a beautiful place with amazing nature. I walk on the beach with my dog and my girlfriend. It’s a good life. I think there are about 20,000 people there, something like that. I have a coaching project, and I work with my students, but I don’t play much online now because the time difference and the schedule in Thailand make it very uncomfortable.