From 17 Big Blinds to Champion: Cooper Feltham Wins WPT® Prime Australia

Cooper Feltham arrived at the WPT® Prime Australia Championship final table sixth in chips, sitting on 17 big blinds.

A few hours later he was the champion.

The Australian topped a 1,036-entry field at The Star Sydney for A$187,793 (approximately US$133,579). Along with this comes the trophy, and a WPT® Prime Championship ticket to Las Vegas in December. He survided an all-in on the bubble of elimination, making one of the calls of the festival, and finishing it by completing a wheel on the river.

Here's the champion, the full final-table payouts, and all about the excellent comeback.

The A$1,500 buy-in Main Event ran September 17–22.

Four starting flights, drawing 1,036 entries to build a A$1,346,800 prize pool (about US$972,000), with the top 131 finishers paid. Feltham had bagged the overall chip lead out of the flights and went into the final day without ever being all-in at risk. At the final table, he drew a tough seat and found himself short with nine players left.

For the win he took A$187,793. It's worth mentioning with play heads-up, Feltham and Ling Liu struck a deal, locking up A$177,793 and A$161,127 respectively and leaving a further A$10,000. Additionally, the trophy and the Las Vegas ticket for whoever won.

Feltham came out on top, and his total came to A$187,793.

Feltham's road from short stack to champion was a ride.

On the felt, he got his chips in with pocket sixes against Louis Luo's ace-ten and rivered a set to stay alive. Then came the call of the tournament. He got a king-high hero call against Ling Liu, who held nine-high, after a long tank into his time bank.

It was a huge pot, and it turned his stack into a threat.

The turning point was a tournament-defining flip. Pocket jacks against Sasha Skalrud's ace-queen for a pot of roughly 17 million chips. It was a sizeable share of the chips in play, and Feltham won it to vault into the lead before the dinner break.

From there he cleared the path. He busted Kenta Ito, then Skalrud in fourth, then start-of-day chip leader Liu Yang in third when a small pair held against ace-king. That gave him a commanding heads-up lead of around 38 million to under four.

It should have been over, but Ling Liu had other ideas. She doubled with king-ten making a full house against ace-six, doubled again, picked off a Feltham bluff with an ace-high, and clawed all the way back to take the chip lead. This put her within reach of the milestone of becoming the first woman to win a WPT® Prime title.

With the stacks close, the two agreed their deal. Afterwards, Feltham found another gear. He called a triple-barrel bluff with only third pair, squeezed value with top pair, and on the final hand called Liu's shove of around 20 big blinds. Both players held an ace, and Liu was ahead with the better kicker. But the river completed a five-high straight, a wheel for Feltham, and the title was his.

Ling Liu leaves Sydney as the runner-up for A$161,127, but her run deserves its own line. Having been all but eliminated when the heads-up deficit hit 38 million to under four, she rebuilt from almost nothing to reclaim the chip lead. She stood, briefly, on the edge of making history. It took a rivered wheel to deny her. A truly impressive effort from Ling Liu.

The Prime title is only the first of two WPT® crowns on offer at The Star this fortnight. The festival's flagship, the A$5,000 WPT® Australia Championship, runs September 24–30 and ends on a livestreamed final table. Its winner will join the game's honour roll on the Mike Sexton WPT® Champions Cup.

For Feltham, the calendar now points to Las Vegas. His prize includes a A$1,500 ticket into the WPT® Prime Championship. By his own account, he's aiming high. Asked what he'd like to achieve next, he said he hopes to win "everything."

After a run like this, few at The Star would bet against him being up for it.