What happened
Cooper Feltham arrived at the final table of the WPT Prime Australia Championship at The Star Sydney with 17 big blinds, the shortest stack of the nine players left in a 1,036-entry field worth a AUD 1,346,800 prize pool. His first real test came early: he called an all-in with pocket sixes against Louis Luo's ace-ten from the small blind, and the river paired his sixes into a set to keep him alive.
Feltham kept building from there, and by the time heads-up play started against Ling Liu he held a chip lead of roughly 38 million to 4 million. Liu would not fold quietly, stringing together doubles until the two got it in preflop, Liu's ace-seven ahead of Feltham's ace-deuce. The board ran four of diamonds, jack of diamonds, four of hearts, three of spades, five of spades, completing a wheel, ace through five, for Feltham and ending the comeback one card short.
Feltham collected AUD 187,793. Liu took AUD 161,127 for second, and Liu Yang finished third for AUD 99,000.
Why it matters
Feltham had more than a million dollars in career tournament earnings before this one, built in smaller pieces over years on the Australian circuit. A wheel is the least impressive hand in poker until it is the one a title rides on, and Liu's climb from 4 million back into contention made sure this one had to hold up under real pressure, not a courtesy call.
