HomeSaturday at the APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Championships heated up with 118 players flocking the felt of Main Event Day 1B at the Pro Poker Club. At the close of registration, 29 re-entered to bring the day’s total entries to 147.
Main Event Day 1B
Among the 60 remaining players, bagging the largest stack was Malaysia’s Choong Kian Weng with 172,000 in chips. Choong is a decorated APT Main Event champion having won it at APT Macau back in June 2017.
Choong Kian Weng
We were lucky enough to catch the hand that sent Choong zooming to the top. During the last called hands of the day, he was in a three-way showdown holding Q♦ Q♣ up against players with K♥ 10♣ and A♥ K♣. The board ran 9♣ 7♥ 2♠ 9♠ Q♥ giving him a full house to deliver a double knockout.
Just before Choong chipped up, racking up a nice big stack was Vietnam’s Huynh Tan Dung aka Pegasus, champion of the CoinPoker High Roller 1 event. Pegasus had the lead almost bagged with 171,700 until Choong stole it in the final moments.
Huynh Tan Dung
Also at the felt and surviving was New Zealand’s Paul Hong. Hong secured his Main Event seat at APT Korea Seoul by winning the CoinPoker Last Man Standing promo. Hong bagged up 93,100.
Paul Hong
You can view the chip counts of the Day 1B survivors below:
| Rank | Name | Country | Chips |
| 1 | Choong Kian Weng | Malaysia | 172,000 |
| 2 | Pegasus | Vietnam | 171,700 |
| 3 | Minh Le | Vietnam | 127,800 |
| 4 | Kelvin Beattie | Japan | 126,400 |
| 5 | Tan Wah Meng Roi | Singapore | 124,400 |
| 6 | Alex Lee | Singapore | 123,900 |
| 7 | Nguyen Duc Minh Tuan | Vietnam | 119,100 |
| 8 | Hwigon Park | Korea | 108,800 |
| 9 | Shi Hui Liu | China | 108,400 |
| 10 | Eugene Co | Philippines | 100,800 |
| 11 | Ang Kai Loon | Singapore | 93,600 |
| 12 | Paul Hong | New Zealand | 93,100 |
| 13 | Sumit Sapra | India | 93,000 |
| 14 | Nguyen Hoanh Trang | Vietnam | 82,900 |
| 15 | Florencio Campomanes | Philippines | 82,600 |
| 16 | Vu Dui Trung | Vietnam | 79,800 |
| 17 | Teoh Ming Hong | Malaysia | 76,400 |
| 18 | Mr Dang | Vietnam | 75,800 |
| 19 | Anh Nguyen | Vietnam | 72,000 |
| 20 | Mouline Carly | France | 70,100 |
| 21 | Tran Thanh Van | Vietnam | 69,000 |
| 22 | Tae Hoon Han | New Zealand | 68,300 |
| 23 | Hung Nguyen Viet | Vietnam | 65,000 |
| 24 | Luong Anh Tuan | Vietnam | 63,900 |
| 25 | Le Hoai Nam | Vietnam | 63,400 |
| 26 | Ronald Wong Choon Hong | Malaysia | 61,900 |
| 27 | Oeystein W.B. Nordli | Norway | 57,800 |
| 28 | Benedict Koh | Singapore | 55,700 |
| 29 | Wong Choon Sung | Malaysia | 54,800 |
| 30 | Truong Kea | United States | 51,000 |
| 31 | Dinh Xuan Dinh | Vietnam | 49,800 |
| 32 | Sun Tan | Malaysia | 48,200 |
| 33 | Mun Hyeok Kang | Korea | 47,700 |
| 34 | Nguyen Ngoc Nghia | Vietnam | 46,700 |
| 35 | Ravi Priya | India | 45,000 |
| 36 | Huy Coshet | Vietnam | 42,800 |
| 37 | Duong Nguyen | Vietnam | 41,400 |
| 38 | Lien Kang Feng | Taiwan | 39,800 |
| 39 | La Anh Tuan | Vietnam | 39,400 |
| 40 | Ong Seng Hoe | Singapore | 39,000 |
| 41 | Macaron Tran | Vietnam | 38,900 |
| 42 | Henry Xu | New Zealand | 38,200 |
| 43 | Shin Jaewook | Korea | 38,000 |
| 44 | Tomato | Vietnam | 38,000 |
| 45 | Tommy Kim Dong Hyun | Korea | 33,300 |
| 46 | Tran Manh Wong | Vietnam | 33,300 |
| 47 | Nghiem Minh Toan | Vietnam | 32,400 |
| 48 | Nicholas Dixon | Australia | 31,400 |
| 49 | Chang Huan Bin | Malaysia | 31,100 |
| 50 | Chan Tsun Meng | Hong Kong | 30,600 |
| 51 | Jai | Singapore | 28,600 |
| 52 | Nguyen Thank Trung | Vietnam | 28,300 |
| 53 | Ahmed Ibrahimi | Morocco | 28,000 |
| 54 | Lew Yin How | Singapore | 19,500 |
| 55 | Hieu ngo | Vietnam | 15,900 |
| 56 | Tan Lang See | Malaysia | 14,500 |
| 57 | Nicholas Chan Lek Hoe | Singapore | 14,000 |
| 58 | Ryan Revai | Canada | 13,000 |
| 59 | Tu Xuan Tuy | Vietnam | 12,000 |
| 60 | Nguyen Tien Cong | Vietnam | 8,600 |
| Day 1B = 147 Entries | |||
| 60 Qualified to Day 2 | |||
Combined with Day 1A, the Main Event now has a total of 247 entries with 97 players advancing to Day 2. For those that missed the mark today and for those still making their way to the venue, there is one last starting day taking place on Sunday, July 15. It is very likely that the VND 6 Billion guarantee will be surpassed so don’t miss your chance on being a part of it. Cards in the air at 1pm.
Liu Liao wins the No Limit Hold’em 1
Another trophy was snatched up making that four side event champions so far. The latest winner was China’s Liu Liao who dominated the final 8 action of the No Limit Hold’em 1 event to capture the title and the VND 181,770,000 first prize.
Lin Liao, No Limit Hold’em 1 winner
Running alongside the first starting day of the main, the No Limit Hold’em still dragged in a sizable field of 131 entries. This created a healthy prize pool worth VND 762,420,000 with 23 players earning a cut. The event ran its scheduled two days with the final 8 players featured on the RFID table earlier today. You can watch the final table race at APT Twitch or APT YouTube. For readers, we’ve got the recap for you below.
Final 8 of the No Limit Hold’em 1
Liao kicked off the action with a quick double up through Tran Sen Thach with pocket jacks over pocket tens. This sent Liao straight to the leader’s seat where he stationed himself for a majority of the tournament. Giving Liao a challenge for the title was Giao Li Chao who railed half of the players at the felt starting with Hu Jin Long (8th).
Next out was Wong Chain Sung (7th), eliminated by Liao with a lucky two pair on the river. Liao had Q♠ 8♥, Wong with Q♥ 9♥, and the board 6♦ Q♣ 7♦ K♦ 8♦. Giao claimed the next one, Lam Kun Long (6th). Both players were all in on the turn of J♥ A♠ Q♠ 6♥ 7♦; Giao had a dominating Q♣ Q♥ set and Long with A♦ 6♦ two pair.
For a brief moment, Jack En Ching Wu staged a run for the chip lead. He doubled up through Liao to slide into second rank and bring Liao down to third position, but his rise didn’t last, eventually falling to Giao (5th). Tran (4th) also joined the rail birds having never fully recovered after doubling up Liao during the first hands of the final table. His last remaining chips also went to Liao.
To reach heads up, it was Giao again. He eliminated Le Quang Tuyen with A♣ 3♦ trips over A♥ 8♥ on a board of 4♠ 3♣ 4♥ 3♠ 10♠.
Heads up: Giao (R) – Liao (L)
Heads up began with Liao up in chips but with Giao running well, he quickly racked up to bring it nearly even. The final hand arrived with both players all in on a turn board A♠ A♣ 2♣ 9♣ with heavy betting leading up to it. Liao A♦ 10♣, Giao A♥ 6♠, both had trips. The river 3♦ completed the board and Liao won with a higher spread.
Final 8 payouts
Prize pool: VND 762,420,000 – Buyin: VND 6,600,000 – ITM: 23 places
1st Liu Liao – China – VND 181,770,00
2nd Giao Li Chao – China – VND 121,180,000
3rd Le Quang Tuyen – Vietnam – VND 84,600,000
4th Tran Son Thach – Vietnam – VND 61,580,000
5th En Ching Wu – Taiwan – VND 46,540,000
6th Lam Kim Long – Vietnam – VND 36,380,000
7th Wong Choon Sung – Malaysia – VND 29,300,000
8th Hu Jin Long – China – VND 24,240,000