Xiaosheng Zheng is the WPT Cambodia Championship Winner for $244,500
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Xiaosheng Zheng earned his largest career score and his first World Poker Tour (WPT) title by winning the WPT Cambodia Championship for $244,500 on Monday.
The Chinese poker player now with over $2.2 million in The Hendon Mob cashes outlasted a field of 425 entries in the $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament at the NagaWorld Integrated Resort in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. He closed out the tournament with pocket aces against Micheal O'Neill.
Pang Kok Yong also made headlines during the Championship event. Although he didn't win, the sixth place finish for $63,000 was especially impressive considering he took third place out of 1,095 entrants in the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Cambodia Championship for $76,000 just a few days earlier.
Finishing it Off with Aces
The final table on Day 5 began with Chengcai Pan holding the chip lead at 68 big blinds. Yong was only a couple of big blinds off the lead, while Zheng had an average stack. Julien Sitbon, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and the most accomplished tournament player at the final table, was the short stack.
Zheng would take an early chip lead at the final table with top pair against Yong's missed straight draw. Yong attempted a big bluff on the river, but it was unsuccessful and left him with one of the smallest stacks. Shortly after, he lost a race against Kunal Patni and was eliminated in sixth place for $63,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Xiaosheng Zheng | $244,500 |
| 2 | Micheal O'Neill | $249,700 |
| 3 | Kunal Patni | $145,000 |
| 4 | Chengcai Pan | $110,000 |
| 5 | Julien Sitbon | $83,000 |
| 6 | Pang Kok Yong | $63,000 |
Sitbon, holding pocket queens, took a bad beat against O'Neill's pocket nines, and was eliminated in fifth place for $83,000. Pan busted with the same pocket queens in fourth place for $110,000, but it wasn't near as cruel given it was a race against Zheng's Big Slick.
The hand moved Zheng back into the chip lead, but only by a tiny margin over O'Neill. Patni wasn't short-stacked despite having the smallest stack, and there was over 200 big blinds in play when the three-handed match began.
O'Neill would start to take over the contest and quickly built nearly a 2:1 advantage over both opponents. Zheng, however, came right back and regained the chip lead before long.
Patni then raced for his entire stack against O'Neill, and he lost, which sent Patni home in third place for $145,000. When heads-up play started, O'Neill led, but only by a small amount. The competitors agreed to an ICM chop, which gave Zheng $244,500 and O'Neill $249,700. They agreed to continue playing the tournament out for the trophy and the $10,400 seat in the 2026 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.
Despite only having a season-ending tournament ticket at-stake, the heads-up match was a lengthy grind. O'Neill quickly busted out to nearly a 3:1 chip lead that didn't last long. The two would trade jabs for quite some time before, on the 106th hand of heads-up play, O'Neill was all in for his tournament life with A♦J♣ and ran into A♠A♣. The board ran out 7♣6♠3♠J♦2♦ and that was all she wrote for the WPT Cambodia Championship.
The WPT will now head back to the United States for the $5,000 buy-in WPT Venetian Las Vegas Spring Championship on Feb. 19.
*Images courtesy of the World Poker Tour.
