WPT Prime Vietnam: Avneesh Munjal dominates the Vietnamese at WPT Opener; Trung Gia Nguyen, Duy Anh Nguyen win trophies

Th World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Vietnam festival concluded its third day of games at the Crown Poker Club in Hanoi with another three players crowned as champions. Making waves at the WPT Opener final table was India’s Avneesh Munjal who dominated the all-Vietnamese competition, eliminating an astounding seven opponents.

At other side events, locals Trung Gia Nguyen and Duy Anh Nguyen also walked away victorious however no champion yet at the Mystery Bounty. The first of three flights completed with 17 reaching the money round. Here are those stories and results.

FESTIVAL RESULTS

India’s Avneesh Munjal dominates to seize maiden live title at the WPT Opener

Making it look easy, India’s Avneesh Munjal kicked off his WPT Prime Vietnam run with a victory at the WPT Opener. Munjal’s rise to the top began by bagging the chip lead at the end of Day 1C to earn him the third largest stack into Day 2. By the time the final table was reached, Munjal moved up one notch to second rank and was the only non-Vietnamese in the round. Impressively, he proceeded to eliminate seven out of his eight opponents to capture his maiden live title and a career live payout of VN₫ 770,000,000 (~US$ 32,280).

“This is what I’ve been preparing for. The online tournaments that I keep practicing, so it feels great. It was all about patience especially at heads up. I was leading 6:1 and then he was almost near stack at one point but I just stayed patient.”

You can read up on the highlights below or relive the action via the recorded livestream.

Briefly summarizing his final table heater, Munjal eliminated Ngoc Anh Cao (9th) with outdrawing with two Queens on the board. Next on the chopping block was Quang Van Pham (8th) whose pocket Tens ran into Munjal’s pocket Jacks. After a series of shoves that led to Duy Tien Pham eliminating Phuong Ngoc Nguyen (7th), Pham also couldn’t get by Munjal, falling in 6th place with unable to improve against .

Before delivering his fourth knockout, Phuong Van Nguyen was the first to double up off Munjal with pocket Aces tough to crack. Munjal made up the lost chips by sending Bao Thai Vu (5th) to his knees with pocket Queens dominating pocket Jacks. It didn’t take long for short stacked Phuong to join the railbirds as Munjal claimed his fifth final table bust.

Down to three, Ta Nhat Vu survived two all in showdowns against Munjal but not so fortunate for Tuan Anh Nguyen whose did not improve against the leader’s .

Heads up kicked off with Munjal ahead 99 bb to Vu’s 26 bb. Vu proved a tough adversary, winning pot after pot without a showdown to grind to par and at one point take the lead. Munjal recovered and wit just 5 big blinds apart, the final hand landed. Munjal’s won the flip against Vu’s on a board .

Date: May 16-18, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 8,800,000 (~US$ 375)
Guarantee: VN₫ 2,000,000,000 (~US$ 85,280)
Entries: 510
Prize pool: VN₫ 3,957,600,000 (~US$ 168,750)
ITM: 65 players

Final table payouts

Place	Player	Flag	Payouts in VN₫
1	Avneesh Munjal	India	770,000,000
2	Ta Nhat Vu	Vietnam	540,000,000
3	Tuan Anh Nguyen	Vietnam	345,000,000
4	Van Phuong Nguyen	Vietnam	240,000,000
5	Thai Bao Vu	Vietnam	185,000,000
6	Duy Tien Pham	Vietnam	154,700,000
7	Phuong Ngoc Nguyen	Vietnam	128,000,000
8	Quang Van Pham	Vietnam	102,500,000
9	Ngoc Anh Cao	Vietnam	77,000,000

FULL PAYOUTS IN FESTIVAL RESULTS
LIVE UPDATES – WPT OPENER

Trung Gia Nguyen wins the Megastack NLH

The Megastack NLH was a popular one with 131 entries for a prize pool of VN₫ 508,280,000 (~US$ 21,670). Six and half hours in, the bubble burst on a short stack forced to go all in on the big blind and Dan Chu The cleaning up. Dan went on to reach heads up against Trung Gia Nguyen however he could not break down his opponent’s massive stack to fall in 2nd place. The final hand was a short-lived celebration by Dan who was all in with against Nguyen’s and the flop awarding him a small pair . However the turn and river was top pair for Nguyen to ship it and earn the VN₫ 143,500,000 top prize.

Date: May 18, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 4,400,000 (~US$ 188)
Entries: 131 (105 unique, 26 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 508,280,000 (~US$ 21,670)
ITM: 17 places

Place	Player	Flag	Payouts in VN₫
1	Trung Gia Nguyen	Vietnam	143,500,000
2	Dan Chu The	Vietnam	90,900,000
3	Joachim Malik	Germany	53,900,000
4	Song Tang Wen	Vietnam	33,000,000
5	Wai Sum Ng	Hong Kong	25,200,000
6	Thang Ming Tran	Vietnam	21,300,000
7	Thang Quang Do	Vietnam	18,500,000
8	Quan Huan Shi	New Zealand	16,300,000
9	Dhaval Mudgal	India	14,380,000
10	Kyle Bao Diep	USA	12,700,000
11	Kevin Lee	New Zealand	12,700,000
12	Supanat Changkid	Thailand	12,700,000
13	Raj Gokul	India	11,200,000
14	Hung Xuang Hoang	Vietnam	11,200,000
15	Surachai Phoemphun	Thailand	11,200,000
16	Linh Khanh Ta	Vietnam	9,800,000
17	Pawanat Inthvyos	Thailand	9,800,000

Duy Anh Nguyen flips for the 15/15/15 PLO trophy

The 15/15/15 PLO event was the last event on offer for the day. After a lengthy heads up, big stacked Duy Anh Nguyen agreed on a deal then flipped for the trophy. He won it with .

Date: May 18, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 3,300,000 (~US$ 140)
Entries: 44 (28 unique, 16 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 128,040,000 (~US$ 5,460)
ITM: 6 places

*Heads up deal, flipped for the trophy

Place	Player	Flag	Payouts in VN₫
1	Duy Anh Nguyen	Vietnam	42,000,000*
2	Van Ky Lam	Vietnam	37,400,000*
3	Armon Van Wijk	Australia	17,900,000
4	Siddartha Jolly	India	12,800,000
5	Hung Thanh Tran	Vietnam	10,300,000
6	Siyool Lee	Korea	7,740,000

Mystery Bounty – Day 1A results

Swell turnout at Day 1A of the Mystery Bounty with 132 entering for a shot at the VN₫ 3,000,000,000 (~US$ 127,920) guaranteed prize pool. This was the first of three flights scheduled. To reach the end of day, it took 27 hands before the bubble burst. Quang Trung Nguyen pushed on the button with and small blind short stack risked it with . The board came for a straight to Nguyen. He bagged up the second largest stack with UK’s Stephen Nathan as chip leader.

Buy in: VN₫ 11,000,000 (~US$ 470)
Guarantee: VN₫ 3,000,000,000 (~US$ 127,920)
Day 1A: 132 entries / 17 survivors (ITM)

Day 1B: Friday, May 19, 2023 at 11am
Day 1C: Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 11am

End of Day 1A – 17 survivors

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack
1	Stephen Nathan	UK	388,000
2	NguyễN Trung Quân	Vietnam	276,500
3	Ngô Văn ĐạT	Vietnam	241,000
4	Ngô TrầN Minh NhậT	Vietnam	198,000
5	NguyễN Thanh Hùng	Vietnam	192,000
6	HuỳNh NgọC CườNg	Vietnam	180,000
7	Daniel Francis	New Zealand	179,000
8	NguyễN NgọC ĐạI	Vietnam	165,000
9	NguyễN Văn ViệT	Vietnam	145,000
10	QuốC Hưng	Vietnam	137,000
11	Hanna Azimai	Australia	107,000
12	Cornan Zsolt	Romania	106,500
13	Evgeii Nekrasov	Russia	98,500
14	Armon Van Wijk	Australia	87,000
15	Alok Birewar	India	62,000
16	Aleksei Varashev	Russia	50,000
17	NguyễN TiếN Thành	Vietnam	26,500