Ailen Ji Wins Australian Poker Cup as WPT Australia Day 5 Crowns Three Champions

Three more trophies were awarded on an action-packed fifth day of the WPT Australia 2026 festival. The first major champion was crowned on Monday, September 14, with Ailen Ji taking down the AUD 1,150 Australian Poker Cup at The Star Sydney .

Ji’s victory headlined another busy day of action, with Simon Javor ending up victorious in the AUD 1,300 Aussie Monster Stack. Elsewhere, Ben Foot claimed the AUD 400 The Morning Grind, with all three champions earning a lot of points towards the player of the festival.

Ailen Ji Wins WPT Australia 2026 Australian Poker Cup

#1 Australian Poker Cup (1,150 AUD)

Total Prize USD

$317,520

Total Prize

441K AUD

Entries

441

ITM

56

#	Payout	Player	SPI
1	A$83,740 $60,293	AJ Ailen Ji Australia	1,882.19
2	A$53,000 $38,160	RC Ross Coveney Ireland	1,330.91
3	A$39,000 $28,080	DH David Hirst Australia	1,086.68
4	A$29,000 $20,880	FR Filip Radic Australia	941.09
5	A$22,400 $16,128	SP Sam Pantos Australia	841.74
6	A$17,000 $12,240	YA Yoad Agmon Australia	768.40
7	A$13,100 $9,432	GL Gongli Li Australia	711.40
8	A$10,200 $7,344	DT Daniel Tolomeo Australia	665.45
9	A$8,700 $6,264	MM Matthew Maks Australia	627.40

Check the 56 Payouts & Results ...

Ji overcame a 441-entry field and defeated Ireland’s Ross Coveney heads-up to collect the AUD 83,740 top prize, an AUD 1,500 WPT Prime Championship seat in Las Vegas, and the Australian Poker Cup trophy.

Ji began the nine-handed final table as one of the shorter stacks, with Coveney returning as the huge chip leader after dominating the latter stages of Day 2.

Ji steadily worked his way back into contention before producing arguably the defining hand of the tournament against Filip Radic.

In a blind-on-blind battle, Ji called bets on the flop and turn with just king-high before Radic put him all-in on the river. After using a time bank, Ji made the call and caught Radic bluffing with queen-high, earning a huge double-up and moving into the chip lead.

Speaking to Somuchpoker after his victory, Ji explained that the blind-on-blind dynamics played a major role in his decision.

“He was the chip leader in that hand. It was small blind against big blind, so I thought his range was very wide,” Ji said.

“My biggest concern was that my bluff-catcher might not be strong enough, especially if he had king-ten. Apart from that, I thought I couldn’t allow him to keep exploiting me like that. I believed he still had a lot of bluffs.”

Ji later eliminated Yoad Agmon in sixth before Coveney sent Radic to the rail in fourth.

David Hirst then exited in third after getting his stack in ahead with pocket jacks against Ji’s smaller pocket pair, only for Ji to turn a set and take the chip lead into heads-up.

Coveney fought back to draw level before Ji regained control. A major pot followed when Coveney flopped trips, but Ji completed a straight on the river and extracted value to establish an advantage of around 3:1.

The final hand arrived soon after. Coveney limp-jammed with pocket jacks and Ji snap-called holding ace-queen. Coveney remained ahead on the flop, but a queen on the turn paired Ji, with the river bringing no help for the Irishman.

Despite the victory, Ji was quick to give credit to his heads-up opponent.

“I think my opponent also played very well. Maybe I was just luckier,” Ji said. “I kept connecting with the board while he didn’t, and my hands were always slightly better than his.”

The victory earned Ji AUD 83,740, an AUD 1,500 WPT Prime Championship seat and the Australian Poker Cup trophy, while Coveney collected AUD 53,000 for second place and Hirst took home AUD 39,000 in third.

Ben Foot Wins WPT Australia Morning Grind

Another trophy was awarded on Monday as Foot took down the AUD 400 The Morning Grind.

Foot topped a 97-entry field to collect AUD 9,289 from the AUD 33,950 prize pool, with the top 14 players making the money.

He defeated Yifeng Zhang heads-up for the title, with Zhang collecting AUD 6,196, while Aaima Mushtaq finished third for AUD 4,212.

#7 The Morning Event (400 AUD)

Total Prize USD

$24,510

Total Prize

34K AUD

Entries

97

ITM

14

#	Payout	Player	SPI
1	A$9,289 $6,706	BF Ben Foot Australia	622.65
2	A$6,196 $4,473	YZ Yifeng Zhang Australia	440.28
3	A$4,212 $3,041	AM Aaima Mushtaq Australia	359.49
4	A$2,970 $2,144	CW Christopheros Winters Australia	311.32
5	A$2,174 $1,570	JS Jack Sweet Australia	278.46
6	A$1,654 $1,194	DN Dean Northey Australia	254.20
7	A$1,311 $947	YS Yida Shen Australia	235.34
8	A$1,084 $783	TL Thomas Lee Australia	220.14
9	A$936 $676	NL Nicholas Lee Australia	207.55

Check the 14 Payouts & Results ...

Simon Javor Wins WPT Australia Aussie Monster Stack

Javor became another WPT Australia 2026 champion after taking down the two-day event, of the AUD 1,300 Aussie Monster Stack for AUD 46,196 and a AUD 1,500 WPT Prime Championship seat.

The event attracted 180 entries, generating AUD 196,500 in cash prizes, with the top 24 players making the money.

Javor defeated Amin Riyazati heads-up for the title, with Riyazati collecting AUD 30,683 for second place. Fred Litchfield completed the podium in third for AUD 22,463, while Theodore Dharmasaputra finished fourth for AUD 16,624.

#6 Aussie Monster Stack (1,250 AUD)

Total Prize USD

$141,870

Total Prize

196.5K AUD

Entries

180

ITM

24

#	Payout	Player	SPI
1	A$46,196 $33,352	SJ Simon Javor Australia	1,239.30
2	A$30,683 $22,152	AR Amin Riyazati Australia	876.32
3	A$22,463 $16,218	FL Frederick Litchfield Australia	715.51
4	A$16,624 $12,002	TD Theodore Dharmasaputra Australia	619.65
5	A$12,433 $8,976	KK Kenkou Kudo Australia	554.23
6	A$9,397 $6,784	RS Robert Spano Australia	505.94
7	A$7,175 $5,180	MJ Mark Jennings Australia	468.41
8	A$5,533 $3,995	CY Chang Yoo Australia	438.16
9	A$4,309 $3,111	CP Ciaran Paxman Australia	413.10

Check the 24 Payouts & Results ...

WPT Australia 2026 Day 6 Schedule

WPT Australia 2026 continues on Tuesday, September 15, with another busy day at The Star Sydney.

The AUD 1,150 Sydney PLO Open returns for its final day at 12:30 p.m., while two more one-day trophy events get underway alongside Day 1 of the Ladies Australian Championship.

• 11:30 a.m. – Event #9 AUD 400 Outlaw Omaha – One Day Event
• 12:30 p.m. – Event #8 AUD 1,150 Sydney PLO Open – Final Day
• 2:30 p.m. – Event #10 AUD 680 Bonanza Bounty – One Day Event
• 5:30 p.m. – Event #11 AUD 500 Ladies Australian Championship – Day 1

All images are courtesy of The Star Sydney