Cooper Feltham has turned a 17-big-blind final-table stack into the biggest live tournament win of his career, taking down the WPT Prime Australia Championship at The Star Sydney for A$187,793.
The Australian did it the hard way. Feltham began the nine-handed final table sixth in chips, survived an early all-in with pocket sixes, then accounted for every elimination from sixth place onward before beating Ling Liu heads-up. The pair agreed a deal after Liu had fought back from a huge deficit, leaving A$10,000, the trophy and a WPT Prime Championship seat in Las Vegas to play for.
Feltham Turns 17 Big Blinds Into a WPT Prime Title
Feltham had already shown he could build a stack during the opening flights, finishing Day 1d with 1,153,000 to lead the survivors into Day 2. By the time nine players remained, though, that advantage had disappeared. He returned with 1.7 million while Liu Yang led with 11.2 million and Kenta Ito held 9.4 million.
That left Feltham with roughly 17 big blinds and little room for a sleepy start. His tournament was soon on the line when Louis Luo shoved from the button and Feltham called from the small blind with pocket sixes against ace-ten. A six on the river gave him the set he needed and, more importantly, enough chips to start playing rather than merely surviving.
The next phase became Feltham’s final table. Jinyu Wang ran ace-ten into his pocket kings to finish sixth, before a long five-hour stretch without an elimination tested everybody’s patience. Feltham used that period to climb, including a sharp river call with king-high that picked off a nine-high bluff.
He then won the biggest race of the final table with pocket jacks against Sasha Skalrud’s ace-queen. Kenta Ito departed fifth for A$56,500, Skalrud followed in fourth for A$74,000, and start-of-day leader Yang eventually ran ace-king into Feltham’s pocket pair to finish third for A$99,000.
Ling Liu Erases a Huge Heads-Up Deficit
Feltham went into heads-up with roughly a ten-to-one chip advantage, which sounds comfortable until the short stack starts winning every pot that matters. Liu doubled twice, caught Feltham bluffing and dragged the match back towards level before the players stopped to make a deal.
The agreement locked up A$177,793 for Feltham and A$161,127 for Liu. Another A$10,000 remained for the winner alongside the trophy and the WPT Prime Championship seat at Wynn Las Vegas in December, so there was still rather more than bragging rights on the table.
Liu briefly completed the comeback by taking the chip lead, but Feltham steadied himself. He called down a triple-barrel bluff with third pair, rebuilt his advantage and eventually faced one final preflop all-in. Liu held ace-seven against Feltham’s ace-deuce and remained ahead on a four-jack-four flop, but a three on the turn gave Feltham a wheel draw and a five on the river completed the straight.
It was a particularly cruel final card for Liu after such a strong recovery, but her A$161,127 runner-up result remains a major score. Feltham, meanwhile, converted a final table that began with him looking upwards at five larger stacks into his first WPT Prime Championship title.
Sydney Keeps WPT Prime Above Four Figures
The result also gives the World Poker Tour a useful number from its move to Sydney. The Star Sydney’s official results list 1,038 entries and a A$1,346,900 prize pool for the A$1,500 event, with 131 players paid. Live tournament reports had tracked 1,036 entries before the venue posted its final results, so Poker Type is using the casino’s completed results as the final figure.
That makes this another four-figure WPT Prime Australia field despite the festival moving from the Gold Coast and increasing the buy-in. Poker Type covered the start of the 21-day Sydney festival, which uses two headline championships rather than asking one Main Event to carry the whole schedule.
Australian poker has had a busy 2026 beyond WPT as well. Sydney recently hosted the first International Irish Open outside Ireland, won by Jarrod Thatcher, while the wider WPT Prime calendar has continued to lean on large regional championship fields, including the WPT Prime Lodge Championship in Texas.
WPT Australia Championship Is Next
Feltham’s Sydney job is done, but the festival’s biggest buy-in headline event is still ahead. The A$5,000 WPT Australia Championship begins on September 24, with three starting flights before Day 2 on September 27 and a livestreamed final table scheduled for September 30.
Feltham also has December circled now. His package includes a seat in the WPT Prime Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, giving him a chance to turn one breakthrough result into something considerably larger before the year is out. After starting this final table with 17 big blinds and ending it with every chip, he will hardly be short of evidence that a bad seat on the leaderboard is not the same thing as a bad position in the tournament.
