Hun Wei Lee Beats Joe Hachem for Victorian Poker Championship Title
Lee earned A$350,000 after a two-hour heads-up battle at Crown Melbourne
- The A$2,500 Main Event drew 715 entries and created an A$1.573 million prize pool.
- Lee started the final table as chip leader, while Hachem fought back to take the lead during the final-table action.
- The finalists exchanged the lead several times before Lee’s pocket jacks improved to a set on the river of the final hand.
- The victory was Lee’s second major Crown Melbourne title in six months, following his Aussie Millions $25,000 Challenge win in May.
Hun Wei Lee beat Joe Hachem heads-up to win the A$2,500 Victorian Poker Championship Main Event at Crown Melbourne, collecting A$350,000 from a 715-entry field. Hachem, the 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event champion, took A$210,000 for second place after a heads-up contest lasting more than two hours.
The tournament generated an A$1.573 million prize pool and paid 89 places. Lee began the nine-handed final table with the chip lead, briefly lost it, then rebuilt a substantial advantage after eliminating Nektarios Dimitrakis.
Hachem remained a serious obstacle. He doubled through Lee early at the final table, taking the lead when his A♥8♣ made top pair against Lee’s 6♠6♣. The two finalists then traded the lead several times once play became heads-up.
The closing hand gave the match a dramatic finish. Hachem held A♣5♦ against Lee’s J♣J♦; Hachem moved ahead on the flop, but the J♥ on the river gave Lee a set and the championship.
Lee said beating Hachem made the victory especially meaningful because Hachem was the reason he began playing poker. “To be able to play him heads up is really an honor,” Lee said. “And to beat him is just icing on the cake, it’s a dream come true, really.”
It was Lee’s second major Crown Melbourne title in six months. In May, he won the $25,000 Challenge at the 2026 Aussie Millions Poker Championship. He also owns a WSOP bracelet from the 2020 WSOP Online $1,050 pot-limit Omaha bounty event.
Hachem had already won the Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event earlier in this Victorian Poker Championship series. Lee’s Main Event result earned him 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points, taking his 2026 total to 2,124 across his two title runs and placing him inside the top 200 of that race.
