Main Event Day 3 opens with 56 remaining, ITM eight spots away; Denis Pham bulldozes through High Rollers Single Day

Welcome to Day 3 of the APT Vietnam Hanoi Loyal 2022 – MAIN EVENT! The series headliner has been underway at the Grand Loyal Poker Club since June 9 with three starting days pulling in 390 entries and another 81 at Day 2 for a roaring 471 total entries. This created a guarantee crushing prize pool of VN₫ 9,137,400,000 (~US$ 394,159) with the top 48 places slated for a cut. At the end of Day 2, the money wasn’t reached with 56 players bagging up chips. They return today at 12 noon to hunt down the money which starts at a minimum VN₫ 38,950,000 (~US$ 1,680). Once that’s secured, they race for a Final 8 seat where VN₫ 1,929,250,000 (~US$ 83,220) awaits the champion along with the APT Main Event Trophy and APT Championship Ring. You can track the action via the Live Updates. 

Buy in: VN₫ 22,000,000 (~US$ 949) 
Guarantee: VN₫ 5,000,000,000 (~US$ 215,685)
Entries: 471
Prize pool: VN₫ 9,137,400,000 (~US$ 394,159)
ITM: 48 places (Payouts)

Leading today’s hunt is Vietnamese pro Ngoc Anh Cao with a towering 676,500 in chips, equivalent to 135 BB. His closest challenger is Thailand pro Phachara Wongwichit who recently won the High Rollers Single Day 1 event. Wongwichit enters with 540,000 which is 108 times the opening big blind. In third rank is India’s Ashish Munot with 522,500 (104 BB), and joining in the over 100 BB club is Huynh Ngoc Cuong with 507,000. 

Day 3 opening blinds: 2500-5000 BB Ante 5000
Game time: 12 noon
Chips in play: 11,765,000
Average stack: 202,800
Bagging time: Final 8

Here are the top 10 in chips. You can view the full list via this link — Chip Counts

Ngoc Anh Cao Vietnam 676,500 22 2
Phachara Wongwichti Thailand 540,000 23 8
Ashish Munot India 522,500 31 7
Huynh Ngoc Cuong Vietnam 507,000 21 8
Pham Tien Dung Vietnam 481,000 32 8
Nam Phong Vietnam 398,000 20 8
Nguyen Quang Minh Vietnam 345,000 21 6
Vaibhav Sharma India 341,500 32 4
Ankit Kumar Jajodia India 318,500 30 1


Denis Pham bulldozes through High Rollers Single Day

The third installment of the High Rollers Single Day drew the biggest crowd yet of 50 runners for a prize pool of VN₫ 1,455,000,000 (~US$ 72,764). Half an hour shy of the twelfth hour, Tran Duc Son surrendered to the dominating force of Denis Pham to end the game abruptly. Pham collected a well deserved payout of VN₫ 402,110,000 (~US$ 17,346).

Recapping the action at bubble time, Denis Pham and Dennis Ng were both backed by massive stacks at separate tables. Pham leaped ahead after delivering the bubble. On a raised pot preflop and the cards landing 3 7 6, Pham check-called a player’s jam and turned over 10 10 ahead of A Q. The turn 2 and river K ensured the bust and the final nine compressed to one table. 

From there, Masatumi Shimizu railed two players simultaneously with 4 4 set over Thananat Therdtakoonrat‘s A J top pair and Zarvan Tumboli‘s K K on a board A 3 8 4 5. The remaining players were moved to the feature table which streamed live on APT YouTube and Grand Loyal Poker Club facebook page. 

After Mongolian player Janag Battulga turned a pair to outdraw Ngo Khoa Anh into 7th place, the big stacks went full on head to head that led to Ng’s demise. On a board 6 3 9 K with Ng raising preflop then betting the flop and turn, Pham check-raised with A 9, Ng three-bet all in with 10 8 gut shot flush draw, Pham tank-called and proceeded to ship it when the river A didn’t help Ng. Down to five players, Pham was backed by over 56% of the total chips and added more by railing both Shimizu and Battalga. At heads up, Pham was ahead 100 BB to Tran’s 19 BB. After several hands, they opted to deal, giving Tran an extra VN₫ 40M for runner up and Pham his first ever APT win. 

Buy in: VN₫ 32,500,000 (~US$ 1,402)
Entries: 50
Prize pool: VN₫ 1,455,000,000 (~US$ 72,764)
ITM: 9 places

Payouts in Vietnamese Dong 

1st Denis Pham aka Pham Thanh Duy France 402,110,000*
2nd Tran Duc Son Vietnam 334,740,000*
3rd Janag Battulga Mongolia 204,900,000
4th Masatumi Shimizu Japan 148,000,000
5th Dang Hoang Viet Vietnam 110,680,000
6th Dennis Ng Hong Kong 85,420,000
7th Ngo Khoa Anh Vietnam 67,830,000
8th Zarvan Tumboli India 46,050,000
9th Thananat Therdtakoonrat Thailand 46,050,000