HomeIt was all smiles for Vietnam’s Nguyen Van Dung after he landed an enormous pot before the close of Day 2 to zoom all the way to the leader’s seat. We’ve got that story for you and a recap of the thrilling action at the APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Championships MAIN EVENT.
Nguyen Van Dung
The Main Event resumed with 203 players out of the 499 total entries back at Pro Poker Club for Day 2. With the official payouts up on the screens, everyone was now part of Vietnam history, playing in the largest-ever Main Event prize pool of VND 9,680,600,000 seen in the country.
Midway through the scheduled eight rounds, the most obvious leaders were Nguyen Van Dung and Nguyen Trung Hieu. As it neared the bubble round, Choong Kian Weng joined them up top, winning a pile of chips with his 7♦ 5♦ straight on a board of 4♥ 9♣ 6♦ K♠ 3♠.
At the seventh hour, the bubble round finally arrived and it quickly burst with Iori Yogo taking the fall. Yogo was one of the last two remaining APT champions in the field with Hisashi Ogi and Huu Dung Nguyen eliminated in the earlier rounds. Yogo shoved with J♣ J♠ and ran right into Frederic Bolliet’s K♣ K♠. Once the money flowed, it was a dropout fest with numerous short stacks letting loose.
Rise of the leaders
When we say it was a fest, it’s no exaggeration. 31 fell, all within the last hour prior to bagging time. Choong continued to dictate the action at his table, knocking out two players in separate occasions to amass a commanding stack. You can read up on those hands in the Live Updates.
Choong Kian Weng
Choong would have closed the day as the chip leader if not for the hand between Van Dung and Phan Dinh Nam. Recapping the heavy action between the two, with blinds at 2500-5000, Nam raised to 11.5k from utg seat and Van Dung called from two seats over. At the flop 9♠ 8♦ 5♠, Nam c-bet 15k and Van Dung called. On the 2♦ turn, another c-bet by Nam of 22.5k, Van Dung raised to 65k, Nam three-bet 140k, then Van Dung four-bet shoved. After tanking for quite some time, Nam called and opened A♠ K♣. Van Dung had J♣ J♦. With the river 2♣, Van Dung claimed all of Nam’s chips.
Van Dung ended Day 2 with 787,000 chips and Choong right at his tail with 755,000. There were a total 53 players remaining. You can view the chip counts and seat chart below:
| Name | Country | Chips | Table | Seat |
| Truong Mong Hoang | Vietnam | 142,000 | 1 | 1 |
| “Eric” Ting-Yi Tsai | Taiwan | 229,000 | 1 | 2 |
| Nguyen Hoanh Trang (DB) | Vietnam | 77,000 | 1 | 3 |
| Anh Nguyen (SB) | Vietnam | 178,000 | 1 | 4 |
| Ang Kai Boon (BB) | Singapore | 190,000 | 1 | 5 |
| Wong Choon Sung | Malaysia | 98,000 | 1 | 6 |
| Mark Wong Tze Yi | Singapore | 145,000 | 1 | 7 |
| Eugene Co | Philippines | 61,000 | 1 | 8 |
| Zhang Xin | China | 62,000 | 1 | 9 |
| Byung Wook Anh | Korea | 175,000 | 2 | 1 |
| Luong Anh Tuan | Vietnam | 105,000 | 2 | 2 |
| Hwigon Park | Korea | 234,000 | 2 | 3 |
| Lee Sang Jik | Korea | 423,000 | 2 | 4 |
| Lien Kang Feng (DB) | Taiwan | 200,000 | 2 | 5 |
| Cong Le (SB) | Vietnam | 248,000 | 2 | 6 |
| Tzu Onieh Co (BB) | Taiwan | 290,000 | 2 | 7 |
| Johannes Felix Hoeld | Germany | 525,000 | 2 | 8 |
| Kwang Jin Lee | Korea | 318,000 | 2 | 9 |
| Oeystein W.B Nordli | Norway | 499,000 | 3 | 1 |
| Nguyen Van Dung (DB) | Vietnam | 787,000 | 3 | 2 |
| Trung Van Pham (SB) | Vietnam | 89,000 | 3 | 3 |
| Long Lam (BB) | Vietnam | 51,000 | 3 | 4 |
| Dang Xuan Canh | Vietnam | 283,000 | 3 | 5 |
| Pham Trung Kien | Vietnam | 61,000 | 3 | 6 |
| Nguyen Trung Hieu | Vietnam | 516,000 | 3 | 7 |
| Vu Duc Trung | Vietnam | 246,000 | 3 | 8 |
| Jul Tran | Vietnam | 158,000 | 4 | 1 |
| Minh Le (DB) | Vietnam | 296,000 | 4 | 2 |
| Hai Chuot (SB) | Vietnam | 283,000 | 4 | 3 |
| Phong Lam (BB) | Vietnam | 191,000 | 4 | 4 |
| Mun Hyeonk Kang | Korea | 94,000 | 4 | 5 |
| Felix Hoang | Vietnam | 164,000 | 4 | 6 |
| Aysee Nguyen | Vietnam | 148,000 | 4 | 7 |
| Le Duc Anh | Vietnam | 52,000 | 4 | 8 |
| Nguyen Hoa Thinh | Vietnam | 140,000 | 4 | 9 |
| Pham Bao | Vietnam | 99,000 | 5 | 1 |
| Jek Eeon Everchal | Thailand | 63,000 | 5 | 2 |
| Son Putin | Vietnam | 299,000 | 5 | 3 |
| Devesh Thopar | India | 547,000 | 5 | 4 |
| Huy Game (DB) | Vietnam | 109,000 | 5 | 5 |
| Nguyen Dun Giao Linh (SB) | Vietnam | 109,000 | 5 | 6 |
| Tran DuC Phuong (BB) | Vietnam | 273,000 | 5 | 7 |
| Suen Kam Sang | Hong Kong | 59,000 | 5 | 8 |
| Benedit Koh | Singapore | 159,000 | 5 | 9 |
| Choone Kian Weng | Malaysia | 755,000 | 6 | 1 |
| Teoh Ming Hong | Malaysia | 253,000 | 6 | 2 |
| Tran Thank Van | Vietnam | 109,000 | 6 | 3 |
| Ang Boon Seng | Singapore | 97,000 | 6 | 4 |
| Hung Nguyen | Vietnam | 83,000 | 6 | 5 |
| Norbert Koh (DB) | Singapore | 234,000 | 6 | 6 |
| Alex Lee (SB) | Singapore | 461,000 | 6 | 7 |
| Xiao Yin He (BB) | China | 161,000 | 6 | 8 |
| Nguyen Thanh Nha | Vietnam | 270,000 | 6 | 9 |
The final 53 players will return for Day 3 on Tuesday, July 17. Cards in the air promptly at 1pm. They will race to a Final 8 seat and will be one step closer to the title and the VND 1,6365,720,000 first prize.
Action resumes at Level 19 blinds 3000-6000 ante 1000. Average stack is 239,005 with 12,455,500 total chips in play. You can keep track of the action and read up on previous hands in the Live Updates.
Day 1A results
Day 1B results
Day 1C results