Alex Thompson Wins WPT Australia Championship

Alex Thompson turned a final-table chip lead into a controlled title run at The Star Sydney, winning the WPT Australia Championship for AUD $465,900. The $5,000 buy-in event drew 527 entries, and Thompson closed it out by defeating Filip Radic heads-up to claim his first World Poker Tour title.

The defining feature of Thompson's win was not a late surge or a dramatic comeback. He began the six-handed final table in front and stayed there through every stage, maintaining the lead until the final hand.

Thompson Controls the Final Table From the Front

The six-handed final table featured Thompson, Filip Radic, Pranav Bhatt, Jack Sweet, Tingjia Huang, and Ryan Henry. Thompson entered with the largest stack and converted that position into a wire-to-wire finish, avoiding the kind of momentum swings that often reshape a final table.

Ryan Henry was the first of the final six to exit, taking sixth place for $89,000. Tingjia Huang followed in fifth for $119,000, while Jack Sweet finished fourth for $159,000. Those eliminations left Thompson, Radic, and Bhatt to contest the top three places.

Bhatt's run ended in third place for $214,000, setting up a heads-up match between Thompson and Radic. By that point, Thompson had already preserved the advantage he brought into the final table, and the final phase gave Radic little room to reverse the trend.

A Short Heads-Up Match Ends the Championship

Thompson began heads-up play with a 6:1 chip lead over Radic. The match lasted approximately five minutes, making the closing stage of the tournament brief compared with the full final-table run that preceded it.

On the final hand, Thompson moved all in with Jx10x. Radic called with 6x5x but failed to pair, ending the tournament in second place for $290,000. The result completed Thompson's uninterrupted path from final-table chip leader to champion.

While a large chip lead never removes variance from heads-up poker, Thompson's advantage left Radic with limited leverage. The final hand confirmed a result that had been building throughout six-handed play: Thompson remained the player everyone else was chasing from the first final-table hand to the last.

Final Table Payouts

Thompson's AUD $465,900 first-place prize was the largest payout from the final table. Radic earned $290,000 for second place, while Bhatt collected $214,000 for third.

The remaining final-table payouts were $159,000 for Sweet in fourth, $119,000 for Huang in fifth, and $89,000 for Henry in sixth. Together, the distribution underlines the value of Thompson's start-to-finish control in a 527-entry championship field.

A First WPT Title and a Major Early Result

The victory gives Thompson his first World Poker Tour title. The result was also identified as his first major tournament cash, making the win a notable early benchmark rather than another entry in a long record of major live results.

For Radic, the event ended with a runner-up finish and a $290,000 payout after reaching the final duel. For Thompson, the WPT Australia Championship ended with the title, the top prize, and a final table in which his chip position never dropped from first.