The inaugural WPT Vietnam – the third leg of the Asia Swing, opened its doors today with two events heating up the felt at host venue Pro Poker Club.
Welcome Event
The Welcome Event was first on the floor with 112 players, of which 25 re-entered, for a total of 137 entries. This brought about a very healthy starting prize pool of VND 930,230,000 (~US$39,800) with each buy-in at VND 7,700,000 (~US$333).
Among those attending today’s opener were players seen at previous legs: Pete Chen (WPT Asia Player of the Year), Victor Chong, Kunal Patni, Paul Hockin, and Dhaval Mudgal, though none of them reached the money of 18 places. Instead, the envy of the night was Vietnam’s Dung Pro who topped the final 9 players at bagging with a massive 528K. To give you an idea of the enormity of his stack, that’s 35x the starting stack.
As for the chasing pack, Dung’s closest competitor was Hong Kong pro Alan King Lun Lau with 262K. That’s just under half of the leader’s stack.
Here are the Final 9 players and their chip counts:
Dung Pro – Vietnam – 528K
Alan King Lun Lau – 262K
Julien Tran – Vietnam – 258K
Nicholas Dixon – Australia – 221K
Sumit Sapra – India – 215K
Nguyen Dang Toan – Vietnam – 214K
Nguy Xuan Hong – Vietnam – 149K
Huy Cosbet – Vietnam – 126K
Nguyen Ngoc Thien An – Vietnam – 82K
The Welcome Event resumes on Thursday, September 27 with the final 9 players racing to the VND 260,000,000 first prize. Action begins at 130pm. Today also saw the the money flow. Here are the payouts below:
10th: Kjeu Ove Dyb – VND22.790.000
11th: Nguyễn Trung Tín – VND22.790.000
12th: Soo Han Ryo – VND22.790.000
13th: Ng Pui Cheung – VND19.770.000
14th: Đào Ngọc Nam – VND19.770.000
15th: Phạm Trung Kiên – VND19.770.000
16th: Richard Mari – VND16.980.000
17th: Phan Trí Cường – VND16.980.000
18th: Nguyễn Đức Hộp – VND16.980.000
Charity Event
The Charity Event was the second event of the festival with 37 players joining in of which 16 re-entered for a total of 53 entries. Each of their buy-ins generously contributed 20% to the Association Montlucon Saigon, a charitable organization for the benefit of orphaned children in Hochiminh City. Upon speaking to the organization representative, Albane Rodien, and organization translator Tram Do, the organization has been in operation since 1992 in Hoch Minh City.
The association received a check of VND 26,500,000 from Pro Poker Club Manager, Anh Nguyen.
Winning the event was Trần Kim Đông who struck a deal at heads up with Do Huy Cuong that ended the match instantly.
Below are the final payouts:
1st: Trần Kim Đông – VND39.220.000
2nd: Đỗ Huy Cường – VND23.320.000
3rd: Bùi Hữu Tài – VND14.310.000
4th: Nguyễn Tiến Thanh – VND10.070.000
5th: Nguyễn Hồng Điệp – VND7.950.000
6th: Koh Norbert – VND6.360.000
7th: Hồ Đắc Minh Hạnh – VND4.770.000
WPT Vietnam continues tomorrow with the WPT Ho Chi Minh Cup sizzling the room. There are two flights offered for this event, one at 1pm local time and another 5pm local time. Only one entry is allowed per flight. Buy-in for this event is VND 5,500,000 (~US$238).
With the first day in the books, we are that much closer to the start of the MAIN EVENT – VND 8 Billion Guaranteed. Action kicks off on Friday, September 28. There are three starting days lined up. Buy-in is VND 22,000,000.
See the schedule below for the details.
Article by Tricia David
