How Thompson reached the final hand
The A$5,000 WPT Australia Championship at The Star Sydney drew 527 entries and paid 66 players. Thompson began the six-handed final day with 8,615,000 chips, ahead of Radic on 6,610,000. He eventually won A$450,900; Radic earned A$290,000 as runner-up. Those are event results, not a claim that every decision at the final table was optimal.
The run was not a straight line. Jack Sweet doubled through Thompson when king-ten beat pocket nines, briefly interrupting the chip leader's momentum. Thompson then rebuilt. In a major five-handed pot, he made a queen-high straight against Tingjia Huang and got paid on the river. After eliminating Huang and later Pranav Bhatt, he took roughly 22 million chips into heads-up play against Radic's four million. Radic found some resistance, but by the final confrontation was down to a reported 3,000,000-chip shove.
Final hand: J♣ T♦ versus 6♦ 5♦
REPORTED HAND / VISUAL REPLAY
J-T holds against 6-5
Community cards
- 01PreflopRadic moved all-in on the button; Thompson called with J-T.
- 02FlopQ-3-4 gave Radic an open-ended straight draw.
- 03TurnThe second four missed Radic's draw.
- 04RiverThe ace missed again; Thompson's jack kicker played.
Radic's suited six-five was behind Thompson's jack-ten before the flop, yet Q♣ 3♥ 4♦ gave him an open-ended draw: a deuce or seven would complete a straight. The 4♥ turn and A♠ river missed. Because the board paired fours, Thompson won with a pair of fours and the better private kicker, rather than with an unimproved “jack-high” five-card hand.
The preflop decision is the study spot
A button shove with a suited connector can be a reasonable heads-up tool at some short effective stacks. It may win the blinds immediately and, when called, often retains live-card and straight-or-flush potential. But suitedness does not make every shove profitable: the exact blind, ante, effective stack, and Thompson's calling range determine whether 6♦ 5♦ is a good candidate here. The published recap does not supply a complete preflop pot calculation.
Thompson's J♣ T♦ is a much stronger hand than its lack of an ace might suggest in heads-up play. Two broadway cards perform well against many wide shoving ranges, and Thompson could cover Radic. Still, we should not label the call mathematically forced without reconstructing the price and Radic's likely range. The visible result tells us that Thompson was ahead in this matchup, not how all possible shoves would fare.
The flop is also a useful reminder about all-in equity. A hand can be behind at showdown yet develop eight apparent straight-completing ranks on the flop; whether every such card is clean depends on the opponent's cards and possible redraws. Here neither straight card arrived. Treat the runout as a result, not as a verdict on the preflop aggression.
A practical replay
Replay the hand with the river hidden. Write down Radic's effective stack in big blinds, the unopened pot, and Thompson's price to call. Build two button shoving ranges—one tight and one wide—and compare J-T against each. Only then turn over 6-5 and the board. This keeps a dramatic title-winning hand from becoming a misleading one-hand chart.