WPT Prime Vietnam: Amit Kaushik and Duc Minh Phan earn a billion at the 8 Max Main Event Warm Up

India’s Amit Kaushik was awarded his first ever World Poker Tour (WPT) trophy at the Prime Vietnam festival’s 8 Max Main Event Warm Up. At heads up, Kaushik and Duc Minh Phan struck an ICM deal that guaranteed Kaushik VN₫ 1,006,000,000 (~US$ 42,845) and the trophy. Phan didn’t too bad either, walking away with a payout of VN₫ 1,212,000,000 (~US$ 51,620). 

“I entered the final table as second in chips so I had to play very carefully. I just waited for the short stacks to bust out. When it was down to 4 players I was comfortably second in chips, even then I didn’t have to do much, the chip leader was doing everything for me. When he eliminated Ashish third, we were very deep, and tired, so he asked for a deal and I got the trophy.”

Going deep didn’t come easy though. Kaushik entered the final day with just 14 big blinds and was ranked 54th out of 60 players.

“By three tables, I really had grind it out to and pick my spots very carefully. I waited for hands. Luckily I was able to build a good stack for the final table.”

You can relive the final table battle via the Crown Poker Club YouTube channel. For action prior to the final table, check out the SMP Live Updates.

8 Max Main Event Warm Up rundown

The 8 Max Main Event Warm Up was a hot item on the schedule pulling in 471 entries over two entry days. This more than tripled the VN₫ 2BN guarantee for a prize pool of VN₫ 6,853,050,000 (~US$ 291,870). With each flight playing down to ITM of 12.5%, a combined 60 players advanced to the final day. Leading in the pack was Australia’s Hanna Azimai who went on to finish in 9th place.

Other players running well were second in chips Linh Ngo Duong aka Duong Phe who finished in 6th place and Trung Duc Vu who entered the day running 8th rank and finished 5th. The most impressive were undoubtedly Duc Minh Phan and Amit Kaushik.

Phan held the chip lead for a majority of the final day and maintained rank throughout. Among the numerous players under his belt were Dhaval Mudgal on the bubble to the final table and Ashish Munot in 3rd place. Despite Phan’s massive lead at heads up, he relinquished the title to Kaushik while earning the larger ICM payout.

For Kaushik, he climbed the furthest, going from near bottom of 54th rank (out of 60 returnees) at the start of the final day to heads up. He eliminated Anh Tuan Nguyen in 11th place to earn second rank entering the final table. This was Kaushik’s career best WPT performance and second highest live tournament score.

Dates: May 22-24, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 16,500,000 (~US$ 700)
Guarantee: VN₫ 2,000,000,000 (~US$ 85,320)
Entries: 471
Prize pool: VN₫ 6,853,050,000 (~US$ 291,870)
ITM: 60 players

Place	Player	Flag	Payout in VN₫
1	Amit Kaushik	India	1,006,000,000
2	Minh Duc Phan	Vietnam	1,212,000,000
3	Ashish Munot	India	650,000,000
4	Anatolii Gorbushin	Russia	483,000,000
5	Trung Duc Vu	Vietnam	363,000,000
6	Linh Ngo Duong	Vietnam	276,000,000
7	Hung Wei Yeh	Taiwan	212,000,000
8	Siddharth Jolly	India	165,050,000
9	Hanna Azimai	Australia	129,000,000
10	Dhaval Mudgal	India	129,000,000
11	Anh Tuan Nguyen	Vietnam	103,000,000
12	Trung Van Nguyen	Vietnam	103,000,000
13	Luc Tomassi	France	84,000,000
14	Huy Quang Dinh	Vietnam	84,000,000
15	Huy Quang Nguyen	Vietnam	69,500,000
16	Kanchan Sharma	Vietnam	69,500,000
17	Thanh Tien Nguyen	Vietnam	58,500,000
18	Huu Dung Nguyen	Vietnam	58,500,000
19	Thanh Tien Dinh	Vietnam	58,500,000
20	Bien Mai	Vietnam	58,500,000
21	William Bolton	Australia	49,500,000
22	Khanh Xuan Dao	Vietnam	49,500,000
23	Romit Advani	India	49,500,000
24	Kien Trung Pham	Vietnam	49,500,000
25	Thuy Trung Duong	Vietnam	43,000,000
26	Amit Tejura	Vietnam	43,000,000
27	Harsh Bubna	Vietnam	43,000,000
28	Dylan Foster	Vietnam	43,000,000
29	Raju Jaruplavath	Vietnam	43,000,000
30	Roman Kolotiuk	Russia	43,000,000
31	Jun Hao Wu	Singapore	43,000,000
32	Jasven Saigal	India	43,000,000
33	Sang Yoon Kim	Korea	38,000,000
34	Emil Ukalaev	Russia	38,000,000
35	Yu Sheng Lin	Taiwan	38,000,000
36	Shunsuke Tsujii	Japan	38,000,000
37	Dat Van Ngo	Vietnam	38,000,000
38	Cuong Hung Phan	Vietnam	38,000,000
39	Julien Rouxel	Vietnam	38,000,000
40	Konstantin Generalov	Russia	38,000,000
41	Kohei Nakai	Japan	34,000,000
42	Sebastian Mueller	Germany	34,000,000
43	Hieu Duc Nguyen	Vietnam	34,000,000
44	Anh Khoa Ngo	Vietnam	34,000,000
45	Son Thai Hoang	Vietnam	34,000,000
46	Tran Hai Dang Le	Vietnam	34,000,000
47	Laksh Pal Singh	India	34,000,000
48	Lich Van Vu	Vietnam	34,000,000
49	Thanh Tu Le	Australia	31,000,000
50	Nam Dinh Phan	Vietnam	31,000,000
51	Shung Er Sua	Malaysia	31,000,000
52	Khoi Nguyen	Vietnam	31,000,000
53	Tu Phuong Nguyen	Vietnam	31,000,000
54	Tuan Bao To	Vietnam	31,000,000
55	Dung Anh Tran	Vietnam	29,500,000
56	Viet Van Nguyen	Vietnam	29,500,000
57	Michael Wilklow	Vietnam	29,500,000
58	Eric Wasylenko	Canada	29,500,000
59	Li Wen Xuan	Singapore	29,500,000
60	Mohit Bohra	India	29,500,000