Vietnam is undeniably the hotbed for poker these days with the Asia Poker League drawing in a monstrous 864 entries to the Main Event. The 11-day festival has been running since May 25 at the Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh City and will conclude on June 4. The past four days was dedicated to the four starting flights of the featured tournament with 210 players advancing into Day 2.
We’ve got at all the facts and figures for you below including who’s who lighting up the felt.
Breakdown of the record 864 entries + prize pool
With 864 entries to the Main Event, and everyone paying up the VND 11,000,000 buy-in (roughly around US$482), the prize pool grew to an enormous VND 8,380,800,000 (US$367,500). This easily surpassed expectations on both ends; one, the number of entries broke the previous record (664) set by the APT back in January, and two, it dusted the VND 5M advertised guarantee. Here’s how the days broke down:
Day 1A – 164 entries – 38 advanced
DAy 1B – 130 entries – 33 advanced
Day 1C – 230 entries – 55 advanced
Day 1D – 340 entries – 84 advanced
There were a total of 864 entries with 210 advancing into Day 2, Thursday, May 31.
Day 2 will be another thunderous moment with nearly half the field needing to fall before the money kicks in. Only 108 players are due a share of the pie which means over a hundred will go broke. Although they are still a few days from the final table, what everyone will be eyeing is the juicy top prize of VND 1,476,360,000 (~US$64,700). Runner-up money is also quite lucrative at VND 1,034,530,000 (`US$45,300).
Chip leaders
As they enter Day 2, not one player fully dominates the charts however the top three chip leaders all hail from the host country. On the command seat is Tommy Luong who closed Day 1C with 300,000; Le Ngoc Khanh is in second position with 288,800. He led at the end of Day 1B. The third highest rank is Louis Nguyen with 273,200 running up his chips in Day 1C.
Other leaders were Nguyen Minh Anh from Vietnam with 215,200, he closed out Day 1A in the lead, and for Day 1D, the largest entry day, it was China’s Wang Lei in charge with 261,300.
Notable players in the action
Taking a look at the list of players into Day 2, other than the chip leaders, there were several names that popped out. Among them were double WSOP bracelet winner Mel Judah – clearly one of the most highly revered players from Australia, Philippines Florencio Campomanes – who reached the final table at the APT Vietnam event, Soojo Kim – one of Korea’s high ranking pros, Yohan Lim, Indian players Sumit Sapra, Dhaval Mudgal, and Varun Gupta, plus a long list of Vietnamese contenders that include Harry Duong, Huy Pham, Julian Tran, and Huu Dung Nguyen.
Somuchpoker will update you on the next stage of the Main Event. There are three more days until a champion is crowned so stay with us to bring you all those exciting updates.
Article by Tricia David
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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