button in SafariSamuel Cheng Takes Overall Lead as Prize Pool Nears Seven Figures in 2026 Victorian Champs Main Event
The third and penultimate starting flight for the flagship tournament of the 2026 Victorian Poker Championship has wrapped up in the new poker room of Crown Melbourne and has seen the strongest turnout so far. Thanks to a tremendous 188 entries, the overall field size for the AUD 2,500 Victorian Champs crown jewel of the festival has increased the overall tally to 405 entries and boosted the prize pool to AUD 891,000 so far.
However, with the weekend coming up in Australia, an even bigger field can be expected for the fourth and final starting day on Saturday, October 24 in Melbourne. Not only the largest turnout was reached today but a new overall chip leader was crowned, too, as Samuel Cheng soared all the way to 420,500 - well ahead of his nearest followers Chin Chan and Yixian Wang (384,500).
Farhad Mohajerani recovered from an early exit on the first bullet and re-entered successfully to turn his starting stack of 60,000 into very promising 373,000, just ahead of Mario Doria with 365,000.
Top 10 Chip Counts for Day 1c
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds Day 2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samuel Cheng | Australia | 420,500 | 120 |
| 2 | Chin Chan | Australia | 384,500 | 96 |
| 3 | Yixian Wang | Australia | 384,500 | 96 |
| 4 | Farhad Mohajerani | Australia | 373,000 | 93 |
| 5 | Mario Doria | Australia | 365,000 | 91 |
| 6 | Hongbo Ju | Australia | 354,000 | 88 |
| 7 | Jai Painter | Australia | 316,000 | 79 |
| 8 | George Lagkadiotis | Australia | 301,000 | 75 |
| 9 | Michael Zhang (AUS) | Australia | 298,000 | 74 |
| 10 | Nektarios Dimitrakis | Australia | 281,500 | 70 |
Among the well-known Aussie players outside of today's flight are the likes of Michael Egan (207,000), Tam Truong (199,500), Patrick Barba (175,500), Yoon Kang (135,000), and Sean Ragozzini (118,000). Local royalty could also be found at the tables albeit late on, as 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem entered and ran up a small profit to 63,500. His son Anthony Hachem more than doubled his stack during the same period to a healthy 145,000.
Cheng appeared near the top of the leaderboard in the third level of the day when Rachel Caloran jammed at the wrong time with pocket queens and ran into the flopped set of kings by Cheng, who consistently chipped up from there on. He was also responsible for the elimination of Celina Lin after turning a set of sixes in level ten.
Running pocket kings into pocket aces was a very common theme in the first two starting days as well and the same scenario unfolded several times today. Charalampos Petsos was on the wrong end of the preflop cooler against Yixiao Wang and the same also happened prior to WSOP bracelet winner Heidi May as well.
Shem Goltz was among those to profit with the rockets when Kieran Tapley looked him up at the wrong time, but he was unable to bag up chips on Day 1c. More standard was the elimination of Phat Nguyen when his straight draw came up short against top set.
Ultimately, more than half of the field departed throughout the 12 levels of 40 minutes each and the same can also expected from the final starting day tomorrow. Floor staff is expecting another big turnout to not only reach but easily surpass AUD 1 million in prize money and the late registration remains open beyond that for the first level on Day 2 on Sunday, October 25, 2026, as well.
Expected to jump back into the action then are Luke Martinelli, Paris Sitzoukis, Jim Andreadis, Gary Benson, Cooper Feltham, and Chad Awerbuch to name all but a few of the notable casualties today. They will likely joined by all of the finalists in the AUD 10,000 High Roller except for those who already bagged up chips in the previous two flights.
Stay tuned for continued coverage of the exclusive PokerNews live updates from the 2026 Victorian Champs Main Event at Crown Melbourne until a winner has been crowned on October 28.