Alexander Puchalski Emerges Victoriously in the WPT Prime Cambodia Main Event

Alexander Puchalski may currently be almost 13,000 kilometers from his Ontario home, but the Canadian isn’t lonely because he has plenty of Benjamins to keep him company. Why? Because Puchalski won the WPT Prime Cambodia Main Event for a career-best score worth $233,680. Puchalski’s six-figure prize includes a $10,400 seat in the 2025 edition of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.

WPT Prime Cambodia attracted 1,483 players to the tables, with 186 of those starters seeing a return on their investments. Well-known grinders such as Lars Kamphues, David Kozma, Joe Serock, Monika Zukowicz, Yiannis Liperis, Adam Friedman, James Rann, and Daisuke Ogita cashed in the Main Event.

2025 WPT Prime Cambodia Final Table Results

Australia’s Tom Maguire was the first casualty of the eight-handed official final table. Maguire had already cashed in five WPT Cambodia side events, including taking down a brace of titles, before navigating to the WPT Prime finale. Maguire’s last action in this event was to three-bet shove for approximately 20 big blinds from the big blind with ace-seven of spades after Yita Choong opened from the cutoff. Choong snap-called with red pocket aces, which held.

Manuel Carvalho was the next player making their way to the cashier’s desk. The Portuguese player finished second in the $5,30 NLHE Super High Roller Warm Up for $76,546 a couple of days before WPT Prime Cambodia. He added another $37,500 to his winnings tally with a seventh-place finish. A short-stacked Carvalho open-shoved from the small blind with king-five, Choong called with queen-nine in the big blind, and the latter turned a nine to send Carvalho to the rail.

Carvalho busted on the 26th hand of the final table, and it took until the 83rd hand for another player to be stacked. Down to five big blinds, Yuan Yu moved all-in from the small blind with queen-four, and Puchalski quickly called with the dominating queen-jack. Neither player paired any of their cards, Puchalski winning the pot with his jack-kicker.

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Choong’s latest deep run in an Asia-based event ended in a fifth-place finish worth $63,000. Again, a battle of the blinds claimed another tournament life. Choong committed his last nine big blinds from the small blind with ten-six of diamonds, and Khorshad Sagor put him at risk after calling with pocket nines. The board ran ace-high, and the dangerous Choong, a player with $2.5 million in earnings, was done and dusted.

Yannick Jobin‘s ill-timed four-bet shove resulted in him busting in fourth place for a career-high score of $82,700. Jobin opened from under the gun with pocket tens, Sagor three-bet from the button and instantly called when Jobin four-bet his stack all in. Sagor flipped over the same red pocket aces that had earlier eliminated Maguire. The end result was the same; the aces held and the player count reduced by one.

Hungary’s Patrik Demus received the first six-figure prize of his live poker tournament career shortly after falling in third. Demus, who cashed in the 2024 WSOP Paradise Main Event, pushed his last seven big blinds over the line from the small blind while holding jack-deuce, and Sagor called with jack-six of clubs. A king-high paired flop gave Demus some additional outs to a chop, but bricks on the turn and river resigned him to third place.

Sagor went into the heads-up clash with Puchalski holding a substantial 82 big blind to 37 big blind advantage. However, Puchalski was vastly more experienced regarding recorded live scores, and he used that experience to claw his way back into contention.

Puchalski had flipped the stacks around within 13 hands of heads-up play, and the ball was firmly in his court. Sagor refused to go down without a fight, and the lead exchanged hands several times.

The ever-increasing blind began biting into both players’ stacks, and it was anyone’s guess who would win. On the 234th hand of the final table, and the 82nd of heads-up, it was all over. Sagor looked down at queen-eight and decided it was strong enough to gamble for his last nine big blinds. Puchalski performed some quick math before calling with ace-deuce of clubs. An ace on the flop left Sagor drawing thin, with the turn leaving the Bangladesh native drawing dead. Puchalski won the pot, the WPT Prime trophy, and a career-high $233,680 prize.

Next up for WPT Prime

Although the WPT Cambodia festival continues until February 24, the WPT staff are busy packing everything away in preparation for WPT Prime Cyprus, which runs from March 6-17 at the Chamada Prestige Hotel & Casino.

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Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.