HomeVietnam’s very own Dang Xuan Canh has done it! After a very intense and grueling heads up battle, Dang finally shut the door on Minh Le to capture the APT Championship Trophy, the APT Championship Ring, and the VND 1,636,720,000 first place prize money. This will no doubt be a very memorable victory for Dang who earned his first-ever international career title and his largest payout to-date.
Dang Xuan Canh, Main Event champion
For the past several days, the APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh Championships – Main Event – heated up the entire room of the Pro Poker Club. The initial three starting days drew in 499 total entries for a massive pot of VND 9,680,600,000 ($420,000 approx.), the largest-ever prize pool seen in Vietnam.
For our champion, Dang, he made his presence known from the get-go. He topped the counts at Day 1A then navigated his way to today’s Final 8 round running one spot below the leader Tzu Chieh Lo. We’ve uploaded the Final 8 race in APT Twitch and APT YouTube so feel free to check those out anytime. For our readers, we’ve provided a recap below.
Final 8 race
The Final 8 players wasted no time rocking the felt. In just the second hand of the day, Minh Le eliminated short-stacked Le Duc Anh with A-K over A-Q. Hai Chuot eliminated Tran Duc Phuong next with J-J over 8-8 to slide into the chip lead.
Hai Chuot (L) – Tran Duc Phuong (R)
Hai’s visit to the top didn’t last long though. He went head-to-head against big stacked Dang only to suffer a huge loss in chips. During the hand, Dang pushed with 9♥ 9♣ set on the turn board that completed to 8♦ Q♦ 9♠ 7♥ 10♠. Hai tank-called with A♦ Q♥ top pair.
With Hai plummeting to the shortest stack, he eventually fell to Tzu Chieh Lo in 6th place. As for Dang, the double up awarded him nearly forty percent of the chips in play.
Dang Xuan Canh
Next to fall was Lien Kang Feng with Lo also shipping in the chips. Lo’s A-Q improved to a full house to overtake Lien’s A-K on a board that ran Q-A-Q-8-K. Despite Lo getting a stack boost, his run was cut short by the leader Dang. Dang won with A♠ K♦ on a board of 3♠ 8♣ 6♥ 6♠ 2♠ with bets at every stage. There was no all in however Dang shaved off over 2M of Lo’s stack to amass well over fifty percent of the chips in play. Not long after, Dang took the rest of Lo’s chips for an all Vietnamese final three.
Three-handed, Vu Duc Trung all in
Falling in 3rd place was Vu Duc Trung. After losing a pot to Minh Le, he was unable to recover and Dang sent him packing. Heads up then kicked off with Dang up 2.5:1 against Minh.
Heads up Dang Xuan Canh vs Minh Le
Minh Le (L) – Dang Xuan Canh (R)
The heads up round seemed to have ran much longer than all the earlier eliminations combined. Minh put up an impressive bid for the title, managing to take the chip lead after winning a series of pots. One of those hands was while holding A♦ J♦ on a board that completed 4♦ 4♣ K♥ J♣ 9♦. Dang mucked.
Dang staged a comeback of his own with A-A earning him a big pot on a board of 8-3-Q-2-7. Minh showed his queen top pair. At this point, both players vied for the chip lead until that one big hand finally came down.
Recapping the action, Dang opened with a raise then called Minh’s three-bet. On the flop 6♠ 6♥ J♠, Minh checked, Dang bet, Minh raised, and Dang called. On the 4♦ turn, the shoves happened, Dang showed 6♣ 3♣ trips while Minh had K♦ K♣. The river 5♣ ended the hand and Dang claimed nearly all of the chips. Minh was eliminated on the next hand and Dang became the newest APT Main Event champion.
Congratulations to Dang Xuan Canh for his huge victory at the Main Event!
In addition to his victory awards, Dang also won the CoinPoker Last Man Standing promo. He received a Main Event seat to the upcoming APT Korea Championships in Incheon taking place next month.
Final 8 payouts
Prize pool: VND 9,680,600,000 – Buyin: VND 22,000,000 – ITM: 84 places
1st Dang Xuan Canh – Vietnam – VND 1,636,720,000
2nd Minh Le – Vietnam – VND 1,091,150,000
3rd Vu Duc Trung – Vietnam – VND 761,810,000
4th Tzu Chieh Lo – Taiwan – VND 554,530,000
5th Lien Kang Feng – Taiwan – VND 419,090,000
6th Hai Chuot – Vietnam – VND 327,560,000
7th Tran Duc Phuong – Vietnam – VND 263,820,000
8th Le Duc Anh – Vietnam – VND 218,230,000