Artem Vezhenkov is the first player to add their name to the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup in 2025. The Russian player beat out a field of 750 entries in the World Poker Tour Cambodia Championship $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, earning his first WPT title and a career-best score of $390,650.
“I am very happy,” Vezhenkov told WPT reporters after coming out on top. “I was surprised because it was the best tournament of my whole life. The best main event, the best structure, it’s perfect.”
This victory pushed Vezhenkov’s lifetime earnings over $2 million. This was his fourth career six-figure score, with the prior three all coming in Triton Poker high roller tournaments.
A total of $2,400,750 in prize money was awarded in this event, more than $900,000 over the $1.5 million guarantee. The top 94 finishers cashed, with notables like four-time bracelet winner Michael Gathy (36th), WPT anchor Lynn Gilmartin (31st), Dylan Destefano (19th), 2024 WPT Prime Paris champion Hugues Girard (14th), and bracelet winner Aditya Agarwal (7th) all running deep.
The final table began with Ankit Ahuja out in front, while Vezhenkov and four-time bracelet winner Dominik Nitsche hot on his heels.
Daniel Charlton got the last of his critically short stack in with K-7 against the A-6 suited of Nitsche, with Vezhenkov also coming along. The flop came down A
A
A
to give Nitsche quads and he bet small. Vezhenkov folded and Charlton found out that he was already drawing dead. The turn and river were mere formalities, and Charlton headed to the rail with $82,000.
Nitsche’s run came to an end when his turned second nut flush was outrun by the rivered nut flush of Supakit Anukoolpitaknil. Nitsche was awarded $107,000 as the fifth-place finisher, growing his lifetime earnings to nearly $21 million.
Anukoolpitaknil ran A-7 into the A-J suited of Vezhenkov to finish fourth ($142,000). Ahuja held the lead when three-handed play began, but was ground down to the short stack and eventually knocked out in third place ($189,000). The 2023 Eureka Poker Tour Cyprus champion earned $189,000 for this podium finish. He now has $2,977,740 in career cashes to his name.
Vezhenkov held 23,875,000 to Ronald Haverkamp’s 13,525,000 when heads-up play began. He was able to extend that advantage even further ahead of the final hand. Vezhenkov limped in for 250,000 total with Q10 and Haverkamp checked with K6. The flop came down Q103
and Haverkamp check-called a min-bet of 250,000. The K saw another check from Haverkamp. Vezhenkov bet 1,300,000 and received another call. The 10 on the end drew a third check from Haverkamp. Vezhenkov bet enough to put his opponent at risk and Haverkamp went into the tank. He eventually made the call with kings and queens, only to be shown the winning full house of Vezhenkov. Haverkamp earned $255,000, the largest recorded score yet for the Dutch player.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Artem Vezhenkov | $390,650 | 1368 |
| 2 | Ronald Haverkamp | $255,000 | 1140 |
| 3 | Ankit Ahuja | $189,000 | 912 |
| 4 | Supakit Anukoolpitaknil | $142,000 | 684 |
| 5 | Dominik Nitsche | $107,000 | 570 |
| 6 | Daniel Charlton | $82,000 | 456 |
| 7 | Aditya Agarwal | $63,000 | 342 |
| 8 | Neng Zhao | $49,000 | 228 |
| 9 | Collin Ho | $38,500 | 114 |
Photos provided by WPT.