The man who ignited a poker increase in Australia together with his 2005 World Series of Poker most important occasion victory got here agonizingly near including one other title to his resume on house soil. Joe Hachem made all of it the way in which all the way down to the ultimate two gamers within the 2026 Victorian Poker Championship $2,500 AUD most important occasion, solely to be denied the trophy by fellow Australian Hun Wei Lee.
Lee took house $245,000 USD because the champion, whereas Hachem settled for $147,000 because the runner-up.
This was the second huge win of the 12 months for Lee, having additionally emerged victorious in a $25,000 AUD excessive curler on the reborn Aussie Millions for $469,922 USD. Lee now boasts over $2.3 million in profession earnings. Like Hachem, he’s a WSOP bracelet winner. He took down the $1,050 pot-limit Omaha bounty occasion throughout the 2020 WSOP Online to safe that vaunted piece of {hardware}.
With this win, Hachem’s profession haul grew to only shy of $12.9 million. He secured $7.5 million from his win within the huge dance over 20 years in the past, and added one other $2.2 million with a win within the 2006 World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond most important occasion. The 60-year-old Melbourne native is the third-highest earner from down below. He trails solely Michael Addamo ($29.9 million) and Kahle Burns ($16.4 million).
From Hundreds Down To A Champion
This occasion drew 715 entries to Crown Melbourne, making for a prize pool value over $1.1 million USD. The prime 89 finishers made the cash, with notables like martin Finger (eighty fifth), Jarred Graham (forty fifth), and Joe’s brother Tony Hachem (14th) all working deep.
After 4 beginning flights and two extra days of mixed discipline motion, that sea of hopefuls was reduce to only 9 contenders.
Lee held the chip lead going into the ultimate desk. Hachem was nearer the underside of the leaderboard to start out, however survived to heads-up play. Lee was effectively out in entrance when their remaining battle started. Hachem was capable of battle his manner again, although, and even took the lead for some time. Lee quickly righted the ship, although, and had higher than a 2:1 benefit when the ultimate hand was dealt.
With blinds of 300,000-600,000 and a giant blind ante of 600,000, Hachem raised to 1,600,000 on the button with A♣5♦. Lee three-bet jammed from the massive blind holding J♦J♣. Hachem made the decision and shortly took the lead when the flop introduced A♥7♥3♣. The Q♦ flip meant he solely needed to fade a jack on the river to be able to maintain his hopes of a title alive. The J♥ on the top improved Lee to a profitable set, ending Hachem’s event in second place.
Lee secured 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year factors with this triumph. The end result vaulted him inside the highest 200 of the 2026 POY standings introduced by CoinPoker, bringing his whole to 2,124 factors throughout his two title runs.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Hun Wei Lee | $245,000 | 1368 |
| 2 | Joe Hachem | $147,000 | 1140 |
| 3 | Zac Miravet | $94,500 | 912 |
| 4 | Ben Richardson | $63,000 | 684 |
| 5 | Bobby Zhang | $50,750 | 570 |
| 6 | Nektarios Dimitrakis | $40,600 | 456 |
| 7 | Higor Seibel | $33,250 | 342 |
| 8 | Jurki Hilakari | $26,600 | 228 |
| 9 | Michael Tomeny | $21,350 | 114 |
Photo credit score: PokerInformation / Crown Poker.
