Choong Kian Weng steals the lead at Main Event Day 1B; Liu Liao wins the No Limit Hold’em 1


Under : APT Event, APT Vietnam Championships, Featured, News

Saturday 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.

Day 1A results

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


Related Articles