APL Vietnam: Main Event Day 1A ends with Nguyen Thi Hien Hoa way ahead; Jack En-Ching Wu crushes the Kickoff

Asia Poker League Vietnam concluded the first of four starting days of the Main Event with 64 entries (55 uniques, 9 re-entries) buzzing up the tables at Pro Poker Club. After the scheduled fourteen 40-minute rounds, the field trimmed down significantly to just 14 players. Amassing the largest  stack was Nguyen Thi Hien Hoa with 290,000. No player came close to her stack. Hoa now sets the bar very high for the next starting heat.

One of the biggest pots to help Hoa on her way to the top was a double bust delivered at Level 11. She railed Pegasus and Kevin Ho-Dinh simultaneously. It was a three-way all in at the flop . Hoa with two pair over Ho-Dinh’s top pair and Pegasus’s draw. Both Ho-Dinh and Pegasus missed the turn and river .  

You can read up on the action and other hands witnessed throughout the day via our Live Updates post. 

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APL Vietnam 2019 Main Event : Live Updates

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We also have the results of the Kickoff and PLO below.

Main Event Day 1A Chip Counts

Nguyen Thi Hien Hoa – Vietnam – 290,000
Huynh Vinh Quang –  USA – 179,500
Melvin Tay Yao Looh – Singapore – 168,000
Nguyen Dang Phuc – Vietnam – 159,000
Do Quang Thang – Vietnam – 138,500
Nguyen Dinh Tien – Vietnam – 136,500
Nhan The Loan – Vietnam – 135,000
Nguyen Thanh Quyen – Vietnam – 131,500
Nguyen Nam Duong – Vietnam – 130,000
Phen Anh Khiem – Vietnam – 121,500
Yohn Paredes – Peru – 115,500
Kwang Jin Lee – Korea – 97,500
Nguyen Binh Minh – Vietnam – 62,000
Tran Hong Hai Vietnam – 58,500

The 14 Day 1A survivors take a few days break before returning to the races for Day 2 on Thursday, May 16. They await the results of the next starting days, Day 1B, Day 1C, and Day 1D.

Day 1B is up next taking place on Monday, May 13. The Main Event comes with an VND 8 Billion (~US$345,000) guarantee. It runs a total of seven days.

Schedule and details below:

Buy-in: VND 16,500,000 (~US$720)
Dates: May 12 to May 18
Day 1A-Day 1D: May 12 to May 15 @1pm
Day 2: Thursday, May 16
Day 3: Friday, May 17
Final 9: Saturday, May 18

Starting stack: 30,000 (300x opening big blind)
Blinds duration: increases every 40 minutes
Registration: closes at the start of Level 10 (approx. 8pm)

Jack En Ching Wu crushes the Kickoff

The Kickoff event resumed today with Day 2 seeing 54 advancing players out of the 359 total entries back on the felt for the race to the title. By the time it was down to the last two tables, Taiwanese pro Jack En-Ching Wu had amassed a very big stack which he brought with him to the final table. In the end, his commanding stack was too tough for his opponents to crack. He defeated Malaysia’s Ken Ming Thoo to capture the VND 522,350,000 (~US$ 22,500) first prize.

For a brief recap of the final hands starting at three-handed, Wu had well over 50 percent of the chips in play and was up against Ken Ming Thoo and Plivcs Aigars. Short stacked Thoo managed to double up through Aigars with pocket queens over pocket nines. Now on the short end, Aigars doubled up through Wu with pocket nines over pocket sevens. The boosts for both players were short-lived with Wu sending them both to the rail.

Falling in third place was Aigars with burned by Wu’s flush with the board running . Thoo followed immediately after with unable to hold against . The final board was .

Final 9 payouts

1st Jack En-Ching Wu – Taiwan – VND 522,5350,000
2nd Ken Ming Thoo – Malaysia – VND 292,510,000
3rd Plivcs Aigars – Lithuania – VND 177,390,000
4th Lim Chok Heng – Singapore – VND 135,810,000
5th Nguyen Chi Thinh – Vietnam – VND 114,920,000
6th Nguyen Huu Tuan – Vietnam – VND 94,020,000
7th Nguyen Vu Trung – Vietnam – VND 71,040,000
8th Le Quang Tuyen – Vietnam – VND 48,060,000
9th Nguyen Thanh Hung – Vietnam – VND 31,340,000

The Kickoff event ran a total of four days. Buy-in was VND 6,600,000 for a prize pool of VND 2,089,380,000 (~US$ 90,000). 54 players got paid. Among them were Feng Zhao (11th), Minh Le (13th), Sumit Sapra (19th), and Soo Jo Kim (20th).

Woon Yoke Wei wins the PLO event

The lone Pot Limit Omaha event attracted a small field of 33 entries (27 uniques, 6 re-entries). With each buy-in at VND 6,600,000 it created a pot of VND 192,060,000 (~US$ 8,200). Five players earned a cut with Malaysia’s Woon Yoke Wei claiming the largest of VND 78,740,000 (~US$ 3,300) for his victory.

Payouts

1st Woon Yoke Wei – Malaysia – VND 78,740,000
2nd Lew Yin How – Malaysia – VND 48,020,000
3rd Denis Pham – Vietnam – VND 28,810,000
4th Thanh Hai Ton – Vietnam – VND 21,130,000
5th Kentaro Hayashi – Japan – VND 15,360,000

Somuchpoker will be onsite to bring you full coverage of APL Vietnam including Live Updates of the ongoing Main Event.

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More: APL Vietnam Full Coverage

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Day 1A in video

APL Vietnam: Main Event Day 1A ends with Nguyen Thi Hien Hoa way ahead; Jack En-Ching Wu crushes the Kickoff: https://t.co/LZiik4Slr3 pic.twitter.com/sQkvSXqA6r

— Somuchpoker (@Somuchpoker) May 12, 2019

Article by Tricia David