HomeOpening day of the APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Championships at the Pro Poker Club stormed in with 95 players hungry for action and 28 of them re-entering before the close of registration. That brought the total number of entries to 123 and at VND 11M each, the prize pool grew to a sizable VND 1,193,100,000. This was a fantastic start to the series with many locals and APT regulars in the mix vying for that coveted first title.
Scattered around the room were decorated APT featured event champions Huu Dung Nguyen, Huy Pham, Soo Jo Kim, and Hisashi Ogi. Also seen at the felt were notables Julien Tran, Yohwan Lim, Norbert Koh, Yoichi Uesugi, Kelvin Beattie, Michael Kim Falcon, Anthony Abram, Yoichi Fujiya, Jin Yong, Le Ngoc Khanh, Luen Kwok, John Paredes, and Artur Gaynanov.
After a total of 17 rounds played today, the field compressed to just 25 players with only a couple of notable players advancing. Closing the night with the largest stack bagged was Nghia Le with an enormous 400,000.
Nghia Le, chip leader
Le has a wide lead against the chasing pack led by second position Vin Tran with 322,500. Below are the top 5 leaders at bagging:
- Nghia Le – 400,000
- Vin Tran – 322,500
- Quang Phung – 256,500
- Viet Hung – 224,000
- Nguyen Trung Hieu – 211,000
One of most exciting hands of the day that had everyone at the table gasping, was a three-way all in with Tran Ngoc Dung winning the pot while booting one out. On a completed board of 8♣ 10♦ K♥ J♣ 3♦, and everyone all in on the turn, Dung had A♣ Q♣ straight, one player had Q-9 lower straight, and the ousted player with J-10 two pair. Dung went on to survive the day with 155,000.
When they return tomorrow, only 21 of them will reach the money which means four players will be walking away empty-handed. At some point in the day, the eventual winner will emerge and ship in a very hefty first prize worth VND 287,980,000.
Final day action gets underway at 1pm tomorrow – Thursday, July 12. Blinds open at Level 18 2500-5000 ante 500. Average stack is 147,600 with 3,690,000 chips in play.
View full link in Vietnamese: https://goo.gl/xCjCBW