World Poker Tour launched its biggest event of Season XVIII Asia-Pacific with Day 1A of WPT Vietnam Main Event VN₫ 15 Billion (~US$ 644,000) guaranteed taking center stage at Pro Poker Club. This is the most ambitious prize pool put forward by the brand in the country.
After nine rounds of play, 93 was the count (80 uniques, 13 re-entries) at VN₫ 55,000,000 (~US$ 2,400) each with only 41 surviving. Amassing the largest stack was Christopher Mateo who closed the heat with 272,000.
Mateo is one of the Philippines hottest running players this year. Included in his list of achievements was a title at the APT Philippines 2019 Main Event back in April. His strong finish today may well bring him another in the days ahead.
From our live reports, one of Mateo’s biggest pots was the elimination of Xiao Yu Cheng. Cheng called Mateo’s five-bet shove. Mateo had 
, Cheng 
, Mateo completed a straight on a board 
. Just before bagging up, Mateo claimed another weighty pot to secure the chip lead.
Another player in the same range as Mateo was Austria’s Martin Stausholm who bagged up 234,400. Stausholm’s rise began on a set over set that sent Benjamin Gonzva to the exit. Gonzva held 
, Stausholm 
and a board 
. Later, he claimed another large one off Nguyen Duc Hop who folded the second nuts.
Among the day’s qualifiers were Vincent Chauve (114,400) – Season XVII WPT APAC Player of the Year and WPT Vietnam champion -, Yuwen Pan (167,300) who sat on the throne for a large part of the day, Jeonggyu Cho (93,500), Minh Le (77,800), Vincent Li (65,900), Vincent Huang (58,100), Vu Duc Trung (43,700), Kunal Patni (34m700), Iori Yogo (28,000), and Lim Yohwan (21,700).
You can read up on the Day 1A action via our live updates.
Up next: Main Event Day 1B
With Main Event Day 1A tucked away, two more starting days remain. Day 1B kicks off at 1pm local time on Saturday, September 7th. Once again, the event guarantees an enormous VN₫ 15 Billion (~US$ 644,000). This is the largest guarantee ever offered by the WPT in Vietnam. Buy-in is VN₫ 55,000,000 (~US$ 2,400).
Additiionally, for the first time, players will experience a structure reserved only for the main tour. Blinds go up every sixty (60) minutes. One re-entry allowed per day. Each starting day bags up at the end of Level 9. Players can register up until the start of Level 11 on Day 2.
Event #4: High Roller 1 – Nguyen Thanh Binh
The largest buy-in tournament of the festival was the two-day High Roller 1 with 47 entries (37 uniques, 10 re-entries) coughing up the VN₫ 107,000,000 (~US$ 4,600) for a prize pool worth VN₫ 4,559,000,000 (~US$ 196,000). Returning to the race today were the final 11 players, six of them guaranteed to profit. At the top of the pack was EPT Barcelona 2014 Main Event champion Andre Lettau on his first WPT Vietnam appearance. Lettau had a solid lead against his opponents. His closest challenger was WSOP bracelet winner Mike Takayama.
As the day wore on and three players already out of the running, Takayama’s 
was outdrawn by Nguyen Thanh Binh’s 
when a queen fell on the turn to send him out without any pay. This led to the bubble round with seven (7) remaining.
Early bubble action witnessed the rise of short stacked Ly Tran Tien. He picked up multiple pots including a double up with 
set against Vincent Huang’s top pair. However it was Binh who had an even bigger jump, straight into the leader’s chair after winning a pot on a board that spread 
. His river bet wasn’t called yet he still showed his quads. The bubble was delivered at the fall of the lone Korean player whose was cracked by Tien’s 
straight on a board of 
. The shoves were at the flop.
Once the money flowed, it was still a grind to the finish. Shortest stacked Nguyen Quang Minh (6th) cashed first followed by WSOP decorated pro Alex Lindop (5th). Lettau couldn’t gain any traction with his stack and had to settle for 4th. Huang (3rd) met his end at the hands of Binh to bring about the heads up round.
Heads up action began with Binh ahead more than 4:1 against Tien. The players battled in turbo speed with every hand seeing raised pots. Tien commandeered the lead after winning two big pots plus a double up with 
on a board of 
with the shoves seen at the flop. Binh held 
.
Several hands later, the lead switched again. Binh played his 
aggressively betting on every street on a board of . He completed a straight on the river to defeat Tien’s 
. The final hand soon arrived with Binh holding , Tien with 
, both missed the board.
A well deserved victory for Binh who pocketed his largest live score of VN₫ 1,778,010,000 (~US$ 76,500) and his first live title.
Payouts
1st Nguyen Thanh Binh (Vietnam) – VN₫ 1,778,010,000
2nd Ly Tran Tien (Vietnam) – VN₫ 1,048,570,000
3rd Vincent Huang (New Zealand) – VN₫ 638,260,000
4th Andre Lettau (Germany) – VN₫ 455,900,000
5th Alex Lindop (UK) – VN₫ 364,720,000
6th Nguyen Quang Minh (Vietnam) – VN₫ 273,540,000
Completed Event
Event #3: Bounty Event – Neil Raine – VN₫ 179,321,000 (~US$ 7,500)
Buy-in: VN₫ 8,800,000 (~US$ 380)
Entries: 169 (137 uniques, 32 re-entries)
Prize pool: VN₫ 888,940,000 (~US$ 38,300)
ITM: 22 places
Final 9 payouts
1st Neil Raine (UK) – VN₫ 179,321,000 (deal made)
2nd Magnus Karlsson (Sweden) – VN₫ 170,344,000 (deal made)
3rd Ronak Vyas (India) – VN₫ 129,728,000 (deal made)
4th Shin Sekine (Japan) – VN₫ 52,650,000
5th Vaibhav Sharma (India) – VN₫42,802,000
6th Kjell Ove Dyb (Norway) – VN₫ 35,469,000
7th Aigars Plivcs (Latvia) – VN₫ 30,668,000
8th Nguyen Duc Hop (Vietnam) – VN₫ 26,837,000
9th Jin Yong Bae (Korea) – VN₫ 23,361,000
Ongoing Events
Event #6: Short Deck
Buy-in: VN₫ 8,800,000 (~US$ 380)
Entries: 23 (18 uniques, 5 re-entries)
Prize pool: VN₫ 178,480,000 (~US$ 7,700)
ITM: 4 places
Remaining: 3 players
1st prize: VN₫ 86,240,000 (~US$ 3,700)
Event #7: Deepstack Turbo
Buy-in: VN₫ 7,700,000 (~US$ 330)
Entries: 103 (85 uniques, 18 re-entries)
Prize pool: VN₫ 699,370,000 (~US$ 30,000)
ITM: 13 places
Remaining: 3 players
1st prize: VN₫ 213,307,000 (~US$ 9,000)
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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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