The APT Kickoff 2019 Vietnam concluded its twelve-day season opener last night with Lim Yohwan “Boxer” ex-gamer Starcraft pro coming from behind to win the Championships Event. Other players also claiming trophies were locals Cao Ngoc Anh and Tai Duc Huynh. Earning top honors was Michael Kim Falcon as APT Player of the Series winner. We’ve got those results for you below.
Lim Yohwan “Boxer” wins his second APT Championships Event title
The Championships Event was the second highlight tournament of the APT festival. Due to its high buy-in of VND 38,500,000 (~USD1,660), the field was much tighter and more potent. 248 runners ponied up for a prize pool of VND 8,419,600,000. Heavy hitters and decorated pros rubbed elbows for four days and the final 8 players was established in Day 3 with only one APT major title-holder in the lineup, Lim Yohwan “Boxer”.
The final 8 race took over ten hours to complete. Yohwan entered with the penultimate short stack and after a couple of near eliminations averted, he held on to reach heads up against Bulgaria’s Slaven Popov. It was actually Popov who railed Vietnam’s Le Ngoc Khanh in 3rd place to give Yohwan the foot in. For Khanh, his bust out was a brutal one. The local pro had it all in with 
against Popov’s 
. It wasn’t a winning flip that sent Khanh packing, instead it was a board of 
straight.
At heads up, Popov had a 2:1 advantage but was unable to nail it shut. Yohwan caught up and both players battled to stay ahead. In the aftermath, it was Yohwan who persevered to capture his second APT Championships Event title. He became the second player to ever do so following the footsteps of Iori Yogo. Yohwan pocketed VND 2,040,542,000 (~USD88,000), which is now his largest live score to-date. He now has over USD 400K in live earnings.
Final 8 payouts
Prize pool: VND 8,419,600,000 – Entries: 248 – ITM: 25
1st Lim Yohwan “Boxer” – Korea – VND 2,040,542,0000
2nd Slaven Popov – Bulgaria – VND 1,360361,000
3rd Le Ngoc Khanh – Vietnam – VND 945,7,03,000
4th Dragon Chinh – Vietnam – VND 683,063,000
5th Eunho Kwon – Korea – VND 510,823,000
6th Ryusuke Kasawaki – Japan – VND 394,249,000
7th Huidong Gu – Macau – VND 313,071,000
8th Stephen Schumacher – USA – VND 255,072,000
Among the notables in the money outside of the final 8 were: Erik Billgren (9th), Linh Tran (11th), Kunal Patni (16th), Yoichi Uesugi (21st), and Eugene Co (24th).
Tai Duc Huynh wins two events
Several Vietnamese players made it to the winner’s stage but only Tai Duc Huynh won two events. Huynh topped a field of 76 entries at the NLH Single Day #4 Shot clock event for VND 163,402,000 by defeating Japanese pro Tetsuya Tsuchikawa at heads up. Huynh was also the last man standing at the No Limit Hold’em event that drew 97 entries. He pocketed a bigger return of VND 194,881,000. This is impressive performance for Huynh who only had one prior live cash in his portfolio.
Cao Ngoc Anh wins the Monster Stack 2
One of the last events to complete was the two-day Monster Stack 2 event. It drew 141 entries for a prize pool of VND 1,367,700,000 (~USD 59,000). Well known Vietnamese player Cao Ngoc Anh claimed the victory. He defeated India’s Dhaval Mudgal at heads up to take home VND 325,066,000, which is roughly around USD 14,000.
Michael Kim Falcon wins APT Player of the Series
After all the events wrapped up, earning the highest honors was APT regular Michael Kim Falcon for accruing the most points throughout the series. He was awarded the APT Player of the Series title. Falcon won the festival opener – Monster Stack 1, then proceeded to cash in four more events.
1st – Monster Stack
5th – High Rollers Single Day
3rd – Short Deck Single Day
5th – WeLoveSport.com Deep Stack Turbo
5th – High Rollers
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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