HomeThe APT Kickoff Vietnam 2018 resumed its record-breaking 664-entry Main Event with what started as 187 players for Day 3 closed with the Final 27. To reach this, players battled at the felt for over nine hours with tons of action at every glance. One of the most exciting moments was the bubble round with the whole room erupting as soon as it burst. Bagging up largest stack at the end of the night was Germany’s Adrian Esslen with 2,765,000.
Main Event Day 3 Chip Leader, Adrian Esslen
Main Event Day 3 got underway with all the qualifiers back at the Pro Poker Club. The official prize pool was up in nearly all of the screens for players to know exactly what they were gunning for. Out of the VND 9,661,200,000 pot, the ultimate champion would claim the largest share of VND 1,313,920,000 in cold hard cash. But since the money was still ways away, the first order of the day was to reach that round.
Bubble bursts on a crazy hand
As soon as the cards were in the air there was no slowing down the elimination train. Players quickly dropped. Some tumbled, some grinded out, some were card-dead, and some were spanked to the rail. For the unfortunate bubble player Adrian Yeap, he was knocked out brutally by Okruzhnoy Alexander.
During hand-for-hand with 112 players remaining, Okruzhnoy shoved his massive stack from the button in an attempt to steal the blinds. To his surprise, he was called by Yeap on the big blind. Alexander sheepishly turned over 6♠ 4♣ while Yeap held a very strong K♠ K♦. When the flop ran 7♠ J♠ 7♥, Yeap stayed very much ahead. But with the 8♦ turn and 5♣ river, Alexander completed a shocking backdoor straight to knock out Yeap. Luckily, Yeap qualified for bubble protection so he won’t be leaving empty-handed.
Rise of the leaders
Out of the 27 players into the Final Day, those in the top five all amassed stacks of over 2M. For the day’s ending chip leader Adrian Esslen, he was tabled at one of the most action-packed felts of the tournament, Table 17, where he scooped up a good portion of his enormous stack. While there were many won pots along the way, Esslen delivered a double bust to drive his stack all the way to the high chair. You can read all about that crazy hand right here.
Prior to Esslen’s rise, it was Dong Anh Dung who dominated Table 17. He entered Day 3 with the second largest stack and maintained it in the early rounds until he landed two enormous pots back-to-back. On the first, he booted out Samad Razavi and Eugene Co simultaneously with his K♦ 4♦ full house then in a crazy battle of the big stacks, Dung was practically gifted all of Van Ngoc Binh’s chips with his set of fives. Click on the highlighted to read up on the action. It is definitely worth a read.
Past champions in the running
Out of all the APT Main Event champions that participated, many of them were unable to cross the Day 3 stage. Only two remained, SJ Kim and Harry Duong. Between the two, Kim bagged up the largest of 1,490,000. As for Duong, he swung up and down all day and settled at 545K.
Action continues tomorrow Saturday, January 27 at 130pm. They will race to the finish line. We will provide you with live updates so can follow all the action. You can view the chip counts in our Facebook page.
Top 5 players
1 – Adrian Esslen – Germany – 2,765,000
2 – Dmitry Illin – Russia – 2,265,000
3 – Siyoung Lee – Korea – 2,195,000
4 – Dong Anh Dung – Vietnam – 2,185,000
5 – Sebastien Noiret – France – 2,085,000
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