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The crown jewel of the 2026 Victorian Poker Championship is one step closer to crowning a winner at Crown Melbourne and two tournament days remain to play down to a winner in the flagship AUD 2,500 Victorian Poker Champs Main Event. Out of a field of 715 entries, only 43 players remain and they have all locked up a portion of the AUD 1,573,000 prize pool already.
Leading the way is a well-known name from the Australian poker community even though he originally hails from Brazil. Higor Seibel bagged up nearly 100 big blinds for Day 3 and claimed 2,250,000 to his name to narrowly beat Bobby Zhang (2,232,000) for the top spot with Jyrki Hilakari (1,933,000) taking the final spot on the overnight podium. Among the big stacks is also Australian PLO specialist Hun Wei "Andy" Lee with 1,449,000.
Top Ten Chip Counts After Day 2
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Higor Seibel | Brazil | 2,250,000 | 94 |
| 2 | Bobby Zhang | Australia | 2,232,000 | 93 |
| 3 | Jyrki Hilakari | Australia | 1,933,000 | 81 |
| 4 | Naz Sibaei | Australia | 1,890,000 | 79 |
| 5 | Wadih Barbara | Australia | 1,760,000 | 73 |
| 6 | Michael Tomeny | United States | 1,753,000 | 73 |
| 7 | Thomas Pearce | Australia | 1,643,000 | 68 |
| 8 | Martin Pound | Australia | 1,610,000 | 67 |
| 9 | Zac Miravet | Australia | 1,531,000 | 64 |
| 10 | Hun Wei Lee | Australia | 1,449,000 | 60 |
When it comes to poker players from Australia, perhaps none is better known Down Under than the 2005 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem who had a very fruitful day at the tables and bagged up a healthy 964,000 in chips. He will be joined on Day 3 by his son Anthony Hachem, who claimed an even larger tally of 1,131,000.
Other notables with decent stacks include Dylan Foster (1,273,000), Jeison Berdugo (1,100,000), Mario Doria (792,000), the 2017 Aussie Millions champion Shurane Vijayaram (691,000), and Ben Richardson (438,000). Berdugo was responsible for bursting the money bubble when his ace-ten flopped two pair and Wei Han turned an inferior two pair with the nut flush draw to brick the river, ensuring a min-cash of AUD 4,500 to all remaining 89 players still in contention by then.
Notables to bow out before the money without anything to show for included Sam Higgs, Amin Riyazati, Sean Ragozzini, Luke Martinelli, Celina Lin and Randy Lew, Billy "The Croco" Argyros, and Dennis Huntly to name all but a few notables.
The rise of Zhang on the leaderboard certainly received a major boost when he won a massive three-way all-in to knock out Jiapeng Yang and Jai Painter. The latter had limped by accident and flopped a set in multi-way action only for Zhang in the small blind show the goods with the flopped nut straight.
On the same table, Paris Sitzoukis was flipped to the rail before the money by Vajra Castles whereas Chris Kokkinos saw a roller coaster runout with nines end when Hachem's pocket tens turned the superior full house.
Just before the money bubble, Foster and Idris Hassan played the biggest pot of the tournament until then in which Foster's jacks flopped a set to crack pocket aces. Hassan went from one of the chip leaders to fumes and scraped into the money. Dean Blatt was not as fortunate and ran with queens into aces to miss a cash price by two spots thereafter.
Once the bubble had burst, the action certainly didn't slow down. Hilakari jammed with ace-queen suited and William Lim was poised for a double with ace-king only to get punished by the broadway straight on the flop. Adrian Di Girolamo saw his pocket aces cracked by the pocket queens of Michael Tomeny when four spades appeared on the board.
American expat and local poker room co-owner Joshua Abady staged a major comeback that was sparked by him cracking pocket kings, but Lady Luck had the last laugh when she returned the beat to Abady in the last level of the night. In the last half an hour, the frantic action reduced the field to the final five tables with the big stacks getting richer.
All remaining 43 players have locked up a cash price of AUD 6,000 and they will aim to bag up chips one more time to reach the live-streamed final table. Day 3 is set to continue at 12.30 p.m. local time with level 21, which features blinds of 12,000-24,000 and a big blind ante of 24,000. The levels will remain 60 minutes long and it is expected to wrap up once the final table has been reached.
Remaining Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350,000 | 10-11 | $23,000 |
| 2 | $210,000 | 12-13 | $17,500 |
| 3 | $135,000 | 14-15 | $14,000 |
| 4 | $90,000 | 16-17 | $11,500 |
| 5 | $72,500 | 18-20 | $10,000 |
| 6 | $58,000 | 21-23 | $9,000 |
| 7 | $47,500 | 24-26 | $8,000 |
| 8 | $38,000 | 27-35 | $7,000 |
| 9 | $30,500 | 36-43 | $6,000 |
Stay tuned right here on PokerNews for continued coverage of the 2026 Victorian Poker Championship until the end of the festival on Wednesday, October 27.
