APL Ho Chi Minh City: Final wrap and last winners Le Ngoc Khanh, Eunho Kwon, Duy Ho

After 11 days of continuous poker action, Asia Poker League wrapped up the APL Ho Chi Minh City Road Series Vol.3  literally with the lights out as heavy rain pounded the roof of Pro Poker Club. The festival ran from November 15 to 25 with over 2000 entries and VND 21 Billion (US$898K) in prizes. 17 trophies were claimed. Capturing the most sought after title was Quang Nguyen, the newest APL Main Event champion.

This year has seen the APL branch out and bring their brand of poker to destinations outside of China. While they’ve had one visit to the Philippines, this was their second in Vietnam. Players from Korea, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, Australia, and France were among the attendees, plus of course a solid showing of Vietnamese players. Festival highlights are posted below including the last side event winners.

Spectacular 2018 run for Quang Nguyen   

2018 has seen the rise of many Asian players and under the Vietnam flag, Quang Nguyen is a prime example. He overcame a field of 587 entries at the Main Event to claim his first-ever major career title. This earned him VND 1,618,750,000 (~US$69,300) which is now his largest live tournament payout. Prior to this victory, Quang had three deep Main Event runs in the year: 48th at the APT Philippines event in March, 20th at the first APL Vietnam, and 2nd at APT Vietnam just last month.

Other winner highlights

The world-renowned DeepStack Open was an event of multiple firsts. It debuted in Southeast Asia as the first event of the APL HCMC series. Hong Kong’s Hwang Sang Yeon championed the event winning his first live tournament title. He pocketed VND 361,340,000 (US$15,500).

High Rollers

The High Rollers event was a marathon to the title. Out of the 141 total entries, 69 returned to the races for the final day. It took nearly 17 hours for a champion to emerge with the final 8 alone running for 6 six hours. In the end, the last three players struck an ICM deal then battled for the trophy. Korea’s Eunho Kwon prevailed and earned VND 699,250,000 (~US$30,000).

This event extended the highest buy-in of the series of VND 33,000,000. The prize pool grew to VND 4,103,100,000 (US$175,600) with 18 players paid. Many notable players fell before the money including the entering chip leader, Sam Ng. The bubble burst when Dinh Xuan Dinh railed Qi Ziansheng with straight over on a board .

Payouts
1st Eunho Kwon – VND 699,250,000 (deal)
2nd Tanaka Masatoshi – VND 749,250,000 (deal)
3rd Sumit Sapra – VND 849,230,000 (deal)
4th Phong Vu Hai – VND  258,500,000
5th Linh Tran – VND 201,050,000
6th Tzai Wei Phua – VND 168,230,000
7th Nguyen Chi Thinh – VND 145,660,000
8th Nguyen Hoa Thinh – VND 129,450,000
9th Tran Thanh Vinh – VND 114,680,000
10th Dinh Xuan Dinh – VND 100,530,000
11th Kwok Ting Shum – VND 100,530,000
12th Calvin Tan – VND 100,530,000
13th Nguyen Bao Trung – VND 87,190,000
14th Julien Rouxel – VND 87,190,000
15th Nguyen Hoang Anh – VND 87,190,000
16th Nguyen Van Dong – VND 74,880,000
17th Vu Manh Phong – VND 74,880,000
18th William Ysmael – VND 74,880,000

Super Deepstack

The Super Deepstack event was one of the last to complete. The two-day tournament drew 142 entries. With each one coughing up the VND 11M buy-in, it generated a VND 1,377,400 prize pool with 18 places paid.

Due to a typhoon outside, the lights went out before a winner was declared leading the players to finish the game under cellphone flashlights. Emerging out of the dark in victory was Vietnam’s own Le Ngoc Khanh. He pocketed the VND 384,980,000 first prize.

Payouts
1st Le Ngoc Khanh – VND 384,980,000
2nd (missing data)
3rd Nguyen Duc Hai – VND 143,940,000
4th (missing data)
5th Do Hoang Long – VND 67,490,000
6th Ying Chang Chen – VND 56,470,000
7th Nghiem Thong Loi – VND48,900,000
8th Hwang Young Kim – VND 43,460,000
9th Nguyen Tien Thanh – VND 38,500,000
10th Oyvind Ellingsen – VND 33,750,000
11th Antoine Pham – VND 33,750,000
12th Aigars Plicvs – VND 33,750,000
13th Azusa Maeda – VND 29,270,000
14th Nguyen Thanh Tung – VND 29,270,000
15th Ang Boon Seng – VND 29,270,000
16th Nguyen Quoc Cuong – VND 25,140,000
17th En Ching Wu – VND 25,140,000
18th Yong Mun Keong – VND 25,140,000

Six Max Turbo – BB Ante

The lone short-handed event, the Six Max Turbo capped off the series with 44 entries in for their last attempt at a gold. USA’s Duy Ho championed the event adding VND 67,460,000 to his 4th place Main Event winnings.

Payouts
Prize pool: VND 341,440,000 – Buyin: VND 8.8M 

1st Duy Ho – VND 67,460,000 (deal)
2nd Tzu Chieh Lo – VND 112,000,000 (deal)
3rd Hung Sheng Lin -VND 80,000
4th Jerome Bradpiece – VND 34,730,000
5th Phan Hoang Tu – VND 27,320,000
6th Junhy Young Ki – VND  20,490,000

Up next for APL?

Announcements haven’t been made for 2019 but rest assured APL organizers have told Somuchpoker that multiple events are in the works. Tournament director, Dexter Mercado, expressed, “I’d like to thank everyone that supported our event. We hope to see you in the next one!”

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More: APL HCM Series Vol.3 Full Coverage

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Article by Tricia David