Opening day results: Monster Stack draws 131; Hong Nguyen wins High Rollers #1

APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh 2019 opened the series today at Pro Poker Club with two events to conquer. The Monster Stack 1 kicked off the festivities. It drew a 131 strong field with only 32 remaining at bagging time. The High Rollers #1 managed to fill up one table of 10 entrants. The event wrapped up with Canada’s Hong Kong Nguyen claiming the first trophy of the series and VND 279,000,000 (~USD 12,000). 

Monster Stack review

A brief review on Monster Stack 1, after the scheduled 16 rounds of play, the field trimmed down to 32 players. Notables surviving the day were: Dhanesh Chainani, Huu Tuan Nguyen, Richard Marquez, Stephen Schumacher, Le Long Stephane, and Andreas Rauh. Korean player Eunho Kwon bagged the chip lead. 

Monster Stack numbers:

Buy-in: VND 11,000,000 (~USD 475)
Entries: 131 (110 uniques + 21 re-entries)
Prize pool: VND 1,270,700,000 (~USD 54,500)
ITM: 22 places
1st place: VND 308,120,000 (~USD 13,000)

Final Day details: 

Total chips in play: 3,930,000
Average stack: 122,800
Opening blinds: 2000 – 4000 ante 4000 (Level 17)
Starting time: 1pm 

Hong Kong Nguyen wins the High Rollers #1

Today’s High Rollers was the first of seven in the event schedule. 10 players ponied up the VND 54,000,000 (~USD 2,300) buy-in for a prize pool of VND 485,000,000 (~USD 20,800). At three-handed, an ICM deal was struck for half the pot. This guaranteed each of the players:

Hong Kong Nguyen – VND 109,000,000
Soo Jo Kim – VND 81,000,000
Huu Dung Nguyen – VND 55,000,000

The remaining half of VND 240,000,000 and the trophy were set aside to be played out and paid out accordingly:

1st VND 170,000,000 
2nd VND 70,000,000 

When action resumed, Hong Kong Nguyen maintained his big stack and proceeded to rail his challengers. Huu Dung Nguyen fell first with A Q missing the board 9 J 7 2 9 to Hong’s J 9 that improved to a full house.  Not long after, Soo Jo Kim followed. Hong shoved with A J, Kim risked with K 8, the board ran 4 Q 10 K J for a victory straight to Hong. Congratulations to Hong for capturing his first APT title!

With Hong and Kim earning points towards the APT Player of the Series race, the leaderboard is now open. 

Payouts
1st Hong Kong Nguyen – Canada – VND 279,000,000
2nd Soo Jo Kim – Korea – VND 151,000,000
3rd Huu Dung Nguyen – Vietnam – VND 55,000,000

Up next: MAIN EVENT – VND 8 Billion guaranteed 

Day 1A of the Main Event  VND 8 Billion guaranteed gets underway tomorrow – Thursday, July 4 – at 1pm sharp. This is the first of three starting days offered. Buy-in is VND 22,000,000 (~USD 950). Be sure to sign up and put your chips into play by the first deal to be eligible for the Bubble Protection. Main Event runs from July 4 to 9.

Complete MAIN EVENT details

Dafabet Head Hunter

If players prefer to play the side event, we have an exciting one for you, the Dafabet Head Hunter. Buy-in is VND 9,900,000 (~USD 425). For every player you knockout, you receive a VND 2,000,000 bounty reward. This is a two-day event. Cards in the air at 3pm. 

Full APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh 2019 schedule