The World Poker Tour is finalizing its 2025 season with the 2025 WPT World Championship festival. Over the past couple of weeks, players have come out in droves to Wynn Las Vegas to put their impressions on the WPT for 2025, and this weekend they will crown champions across two of their entities. On Saturday, the WPT Prime Championship will be determined, while the WPT World Championship concludes its battles on Sunday.
WPT Prime Championship Patiently Waiting
The WPT Prime Championship has been waiting in the wings for the final table to be determined for the WPT World Championship. The Prime final table was determined last Saturday during the preliminary events of the WPT World Championship Festival. With unlimited $1,000 entries to the tournament, a $9.8 million prize pool was built, exceeding the $5 million guarantee that was placed on the event.
9,876 entries were ultimately received, and last Saturday, the final six were determined for the Prime Championship final table. Leading the way for the competition will be Qing Lu, who will unpack 126.6 million in chips when he comes back to the table this Saturday. The closest competitor to Liu is Fernando Martin Del Campo, who has a nice mountain of chips in 85.5 million markers. The rest of the pack will have their work cut out for them:
1. Qing Liu, 126.6 million
2. Fernando Martin Del Campo, 85.5 million
3. Aaron Johnson, 65.9 million
4. Tim Burden, 49.5 million
5. Uri Foox, 48.9 million
6. Safiya Umerova, 18.8 million
The minimum payday for these competitors is a quarter million dollars, but the $1,177,880 is what everyone is shooting for up top. Action will resume at Wynn Las Vegas at noon (Pacific Time).
Sunday Crowns the WPT World Champion
On Friday, the final six combatants were determined from sixteen runners who remained in the event (from 1865 entries). After a rather brisk seven hours of play, the final table was determined after Graeme Newman suffered a bit of a cooler while mixing it up with Soheb Porbandarwala.
Chad Lipton would bet out with a pocket pair of sixes, only to see Newman three-bet the action with a K♠ Q♠. That would have been an interesting clash, except for the fact that Porbandarwala got in the mix by four-betting with an A-Q off suit. Lipton, despite his desire for action, had to give credence to the bigger stacks and let his middle pair go, but Newman was ready to make a stand with a call.
After the board ran out, Lipton rued his decision. The nine-high board failed to connect with either Newman or Porbandarwala, with Porbandarwala’s Ace playing over Newman’s King to win the kicker battle. As Newman went to the rail in seventh place, Porbandarwala stacked up the chip lead and rested easy (??) in preparation for the final table on Sunday.
1. Soheb Porbandarwala, 81.325 million
2. Schuler Thornton, 36.5 million
3. Jeremy Brown, 21.675 million
4. Jeremy Becker, 18.2 million
5. Maxx Coleman, 15.25 million
6. Chad Lipton, 13.25 million
While Porbandarwala may look to have a significant lead, it only takes a couple of missteps for him to come back to the pack. Both Thornton and Coleman have had extremely strong runs to reach this point, and if either can get some ammunition, they could provide a battle for Porbandarwala. We will see on Sunday who emerges with the 2025 WPT World Championship title, including getting their name on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions’ Cup and earning a chance to defend their title in 2026.
(Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour)