The U Series of Poker Vietnam aimed high and after four entry flights, it amassed 851 entries for a crushing prize pool of VN₫ 16,509,400,000 (~US$ 702,000). This was US$ 100K richer than its inaugural run in Taiwan and larger than all other international festival Main Events held in Vietnam this year and of those touring the Asian region, with the exception of WPT Prime Cambodia.
Dates: April 20 to 24
Buy in: VN₫ 22,000,000 (~US$ 930)
Guarantee: VN₫ 10,000,000,000 (~US$ 425,350)
Entries: 851
Prize pool: VN₫ 16,509,400,000 (~US$ 702,680)
Day 2: 107 players
Day 1A: 22 advanced / 173 entries
Day 1B: 27 advanced / 213 entries
Day 1C: 39 advanced / 310 entries
Day 1D (Turbo): 19 advanced / 155 entries
The USOP’s flagship tournament resumes with 107 players returning to host venue Crown Poker Club on Sunday, April 23. Cards start flying at 11am with blinds increasing at a more gradual 60-minute pace. Everyone is guaranteed the minimum cash prize of VN₫ 33,000,000 (~US$ 1,400) however it’s the VN₫ 3,550,000,000 (~US$ 151,100) champion’s purse and 18K gold plated trophy that will be most coveted. Day 2 ends when the Final 9 is reached.
Leading in the pack is Day A frontrunner Huy Quang Nguyen, one of Vietnam’s most decorated high rollers. Nguyen was the only player that bagged seven digits. He will enter Day 2 with 1,013,000 (169 BB) in chips. You can view the chip counts via the link provided.
MAIN EVENT CHIP COUNTS
MAIN EVENT LIVE UPDATES
Top 10 entering Day 2
| Rank | Player | Flag | Stack | BB |
| 1 | Huy Quang Nguyen | Vietnam | 1,013,000 | 169 |
| 2 | Hasagi | Vietnam | 864,000 | 144 |
| 3 | David Erquiaga | Philippines | 777,000 | 130 |
| 4 | Benson | Singapore | 737,000 | 123 |
| 5 | Stephen Courtney | South Africa | 731,000 | 122 |
| 6 | Luat Khac Nguyen | Vietnam | 729,000 | 122 |
| 7 | Julian Salvesen | Norway | 719,000 | 120 |
| 8 | Anton Lu | Australia | 712,000 | 119 |
| 9 | Ly Tran Tien | Vietnam | 709,000 | 118 |
| 10 | Hau Ha Duong | Vietnam | 647,000 | 108 |
The biggest starting day turnout was Day 1C with 310 entries. Among the crowd was the first USOP live Main Event champion Edwin Dela Cruz however like many, he was unable to advance to the next stage. Also missing the mark were WSOP bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer, Singapore’s Norbert Koh, Vietnam’s Dao Minh Phu, Harry Duong, and Minh A Nguyen.
On the flip side, among those that persevered and secured their Day 2 spot were decorated Filipino David Erquiaga who topped Day 1C and Norway’s Julian Salvesen who topped Day 1D. Both players are in the top 10 lineup with stacks well over 100 big blinds.
Among the players that advanced during the last two flights were Ngoc Anh Cao whose pocket Aces cleaned out GACKT, Luat Khac Nguyen soaring on a cooler against Michael Kim Falcon, and Deepstack champion Lordrich Nguyen whose pocket Nines landed a gutshot straight on the river to survive pocket Jacks.
Wild action and fierce competition is a certainty in Day 2 so stick with us here at Somuchpoker as we bring you all the thrilling updates.
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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