Globally renowned World Poker Tour (WPT) concluded an immensely successful Prime series in Hanoi, Vietnam with multiple records broken over the course of two weeks and the brand new Prime Championship Trophy revealed. In total, it paid out over VN₫ 91.57 Billion (~$3.9 Million) across 38 trophy events.
WPT Prime Vietnam ran from May 16 to 29, 2023 at the Crown Poker Club, wrapping up with Duy Thuc Nguyen clinching the record breaking Main Event and Huynh Ngoc Cuong winning the WPT Player of the Festival. Click on the links below for all the festival information and results. We also have a recap on the final side events of the series.
Up next for the brand in the Asian region is WPT Korea which takes place from July 13 to 24, followed by WPT Prime Taiwan from August 8 to 21. More on those events at the bottom of the page.
Links:
LIVE UPDATES
LIVESTREAMS
FESTIVAL RESULTS
WPT PRIME VIETNAM PLAYER GUIDE
Festival review
| Prize pool | VN₫ 91,570,619,000 | US$ 3,900,000 |
| Trophy Events | 38 | |
| Entries | 5,537 | |
| Uniques | 563 | |
| Satellite Entries | 1,288 | |
| Record-breakers for Vietnam | Main Event entries | 1,151 |
| Main Event prize pool |
VN₫ 25,343,869,000
|
|
| Largest field | Main Event | 1,151 entries |
| Single largest winner | Duy Thuc Nguyen |
VN₫ 4,137,000,000
|
| Main Event champion |
Duy Thuc Nguyen
|
|
| Multiple wins | Huynh Ngoc Cuong | Mystery Bounty |
|
High Roller Warm Up
|
||
| Thanh Hung Tran |
Hyper Turbo NLH
|
|
| Turbo NLH | ||
| Player of the Festival | Huynh Ngoc Cuong | 1,200 points |
| Trophy by Flag | Vietnam | 20 |
| China | 6 | |
| India | 5 | |
| Australia | 3 | |
| England | 1 | |
| USA | 1 | |
| Taiwan | 1 | |
| Russia | 1 |
WPT Prime Championship Trophy revealed
During Main Event Day 1A, WPT Live Events Specialist Danny McDonagh, WPT Global Event Manager Hillary St. Clair, WPT Host Ashleigh Lawrence, and Crown Poker Club owner Tobias Bui officially welcomed in the games and revealed the brand new WPT Prime Championship trophy. The festival’s Main Event winner would be the first to bring home a smaller replica.
“We are one year into Prime so for our one year anniversary we are very excited to showcase our brand new WPT Prime Championship trophy. Thank you to all our players, without you we wouldn’t have a World Poker Tour.”
HUYNH NGOC CUONG wins Player of the Festival
Vietnam’s Huynh Ngoc Cuong aka Winter Sea delivered an impressive performance winning two of the biggest festival events. His winning streak began by overcoming the 614 entry field of the Mystery Bounty event to earn his first ever victory at the venue.
Four days later, Huynh followed it up with another takedown at the High Roller Warm Up event, outlasting a tough field of 168 competitors. With these two achievements, Huynh accumulated 1200 points and secured the WPT Player of the Festival title. He received a special trophy and a $5,000 WPT Passport to any WPT Main Tour in 2023.
Record-breaking Main Event and Champion Duy Thuc Nguyen
The World Poker Tour aimed high for its Vietnam series, raising the stakes to a VN₫ 12 Billion Main Event guarantee. After three heated starting days, it delivered a record-breaking 1,151 entries, the largest Main Even turnout seen in the country. And with a sweet spot buy in of VN₫ 25,000,000 (~US$ 1,065), the prize pool also shattered past Vietnam numbers for a new record of VN₫ 25,343,869,00 – equivalent to US$ 1,079,6110, the first ever seven figure prize pool in the country for a non high roller series.
With a pot that massive, it paid out over a billion dong to the top five places. The largest was claimed by the champion, Duy Thuc Nguyen, earning a career high VN₫ 4,173,000,000 (~US$ 177,764) payout. Nguyen walked away the single richest event earner. Despite falling in 2nd place, runner up Chak Lam Tsang also raked in a hefty prize of VN₫ 2,785,000,000 (~US$ 118,637).
Multi Winners: Huynh Ngoc Cuong and Thanh Tran Hung
The achievement of winning an event is an incredible accomplishment for any player, and at the festival, two players surpassed this challenge by capturing two trophies. WPT Player of the Festival champion Huynh Ngoc Cuong topped the Mystery Bounty and High Roller Warm Up, and Thanh Hung Tran won the Hyper Turbo NLH and Turbo NLH. In cash, Huynh earned a combined VN₫ 2,854,000,000 (~US$ 121,575) and Tran earned a combined VN₫ 141,550,000 (~US$ 6,030).
VIETNAM claims over half of the trophies
Host country Vietnam dominated the charts by winning more than half of the 38 events. The country claimed 20 trophies, and with Huynh’s outstanding performance that earned him the Player of the Festival award, it brought Vietnam’s total trophy count to 21. China was second-best with six trophies.
Final side event winners
TIAN HAO ZHENG turns around to bring home the 66M High Roller victory
Book-ending the festival was the two-day 66M High Roller event which as expected was very popular that the VN₫ 4 Billion guarantee was also crushed. With 141 entries, the prize pool soared to over VN₫ 8.2 Billion with the top 18 places paid. The final table streamed live, relive the race to victory via the WPT YouTube channel.
Highly decorated Chinese pro Tian Hao Zheng outlasted some of the Asian circuit’s biggest names to capture his first ever WPT title. According to his friends, Zheng was on his way back to the hotel when he was told registration was still open for the event. He rushed back and was one of the last to sign up. That decision turned into a VN₫ 2,063,000,000 (~US$ 87,840) payday.
At three-handed, Zheng was backed by a massive chip advantage. Vietnam’s Chu Thinh Thanh earned two double ups off him however Florent Remi wasn’t so lucky, falling in 3rd place. At heads up, Zheng dwarfed Chu with 109 bb versus 6 bb. Chu battled hard but ultimately could not break down Zheng’s fortress. The final hand was Chu 
, Zheng 
, the board 
.
Date: May 28-29, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 66,000,000 (~US$ 2,800)
Guarantee: VN₫ 4,000,000,000 (~US$ 170,395)
Entries: 141 (103 unique, 38 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 8,206,200,000 (~US$ 349,570)
ITM: 18 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payouts in VN₫
|
| 1 | Tian Hao Zheng | China | 2,063,000,000 |
| 2 | Chu Thai Thinh | Vietnam | 1,376,000,000 |
| 3 | Florent Remi | Malta | 961,000,000 |
| 4 | Ngo Khoa Anh | Vietnam | 691,000,000 |
| 5 | Hung Wei Yeh | Taiwan | 511,000,000 |
| 6 | Duc Minh Pham | Vietnam | 389,000,000 |
| 7 | Huy Quang Nguyen | Vietnam | 305,000,000 |
| 8 | Yucheng Xiao | China | 247,200,000 |
| 9 | Yuhang Chen | China | 207,000,000 |
For the full results head to the FESTIVAL RESULTS
ABHEEK NAGPAL wins career first live title at the Classic Freezeout
India’s Abheek Nagpal was the last player standing at the Crown Poker Club Superstack Classic Freezeout. Nagpal was one of 103 players vying for the coveted title that lasted for two days. Nagpal defeated Paul Kiem at heads up to turn his VN₫ 11 Million buy in into a VN₫ 304,600,000 (~US$ 12,970) payday.
Date: May 28-29, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 11,000,000 (~US$ 470)
Guarantee: VN₫ 500,000,000 (~US$ 21,300)
Players: 103Prize pool: VN₫ 999,100,000 (~US$ 42,560)
ITM: 13 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payouts in VN₫
|
| 1 | Abheek Nagpal | India | 304,600,000 |
| 2 | Paul Kiem | USA | 187,000,000 |
| 3 | Stephen Nathan | UK | 115,000,000 |
| 4 | Peush Singhvi | India | 75,000,000 |
| 5 | Eric Wasylenko | Canada | 58,500,000 |
| 6 | Dhaval Mudgal | India | 46,500,000 |
| 7 | Man Lok Chan | Macao | 40,000,000 |
| 8 | Brandon Eisen | USA | 34,500,000 |
| 9 | Lam Hoai Vu | Vietnam | 30,500,000 |
For the full results head to the FESTIVAL RESULTS
THANG MINH TRAN wins the WPT Superstack Closer Turbo
A very special win at the WPT Superstack Closer for Thang Minh Tran who confessed that his previous victory was four years ago. He shared that it was a tough field and was so happy he persevered.
The event drew a large field of 174 entries for a prize pool of VN₫ 1,350,240,000 (~US$ 57,520). This just edged over the VN₫ 1 Billion guarantee. Tran bulldozed through the final table, knocking out an astounding six players to seize the win. His final hand was 
full house over Van Quang Pham‘s 
on a board 
.
Date: May 29,2023
Buy in: VN₫ 8,800,000 (~US$ 375)
Guarantee: VN₫ 1,000,000,000 (~~US$ 42,600)
Entries: 174 (136 unique, 38 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 1,350,240,000 (~US$ 57,520)
ITM: 22 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payouts in VN₫
|
| 1 | Thang Minh Tran | Vietnam | 354,000,000 |
| 2 | Van Quang Pham | Vietnam | 235,000,000 |
| 3 | Lam Hoai Vu | Vietnam | 138,000,000 |
| 4 | Avneesh Munjal | India | 84,000,000 |
| 5 | Phong Tuan Do | Vietnam | 65,000,000 |
| 6 | Haiyang Yang | China | 54,000,000 |
| 7 | Trung Manh Nguyen | Vietnam | 46,740,000 |
| 8 | Sho Tanihara | Japan | 41,000,000 |
| 9 | Keng Yong Tan | Singapore | 35,000,000 |
HAIYANG YANG wins the Megastack NLH
Date: May 28-29,2023
Buy in: VN₫ 5,500,000 (~US$ 235)
Entries: 72 (60 unique, 12 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 349,200,000 (~US$ 14,875)
ITM: 9 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payouts in VN₫
|
| 1 | Haiyang Yang | China | 122,220,000 |
| 2 | Yu Shimomachi | Japan | 69,840,000 |
| 3 | Ngoc Nguyen | Vietnam | 42,777,000 |
| 4 | Junyeob Sung | Korea | 30,555,000 |
| 5 | Yongtae Kim | Korea | 23,571,000 |
| 6 | Shoh Ichinoseki | Japan | 18,333,000 |
| 7 | Hung Manh Tran | Vietnam | 15,714,000 |
| 8 | Sumire Hori | Japan | 13,968,000 |
| 9 | Minh Tri Mai | Vietnam | 12,222,000 |
Evegeniy Nekrasov wins a trophy at the Superstack Closer Turbo
Date: May 29, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 16,500,000 (~US$ 700)
Entries: 8 (7 unique, 1 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 116,400,00 (~US$ 4,960)
ITM: 2 places
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payouts in VN₫
|
| 1 | Evgenii Nekrasov | Russia | 77,600,000 |
| 2 | Ngoc Phuong Nguyen | Vietnam | 38,800,000 |
HOANG QUOC NAM takes the win at the 10/10/10 NLH
Date: May 29, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 3,300,000 (~US$ 140)
Entries: 39 (29 unique, 10 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 113,490,000 (~US$ 4,835)
ITM: 5 places
*Heads up deal
| Place | Player | Flag |
Payouts in VN₫
|
| 1 | Hoang Quoc Nam | Vietnam | 37,500,000 |
| 2 | Van The Vu | Vietnam | 37,500,000 |
| 3 | Giang Tuan Dam | Vietnam | 17,000,000 |
| 4 | Jon Hak Lim | Korea | 12,490,000 |
| 5 | Ngoc Nhu Nguyen | Vietnam | 9,000,000 |
Up next for WPT in Asia – WPT Jeju
This summer, the World Poker Tour will make a stop in Jeju Island, Korea. The event takes place from July 17 to 24 at the Jeju Shinhwa World The schedule includes a ₩3,400,000 (~$2,550 US) Main Event, and a ₩17,000,000 (~$127,350 US) Alpha8 for One Drop event. From the press release,
“Hosting the World Poker Tour gives u another opportunity to showcase our five-star amenities and amazing city,” said Jenny Lim, Landing Entertainment Korea at Jeju Shinhwa World Chief Marketing Officer. “We invite poker players from around the world to join us this summer for an amazing two weeks.”
The following month, the brand returns to Taipei City, Taiwan for another edition of the Prime series in Asia. WPT Taiwan takes place from August 8 to 21 at the newly opened CTP Asia Poker Arena. While the full schedule has yet to be revealed, the Main Event is slated for August 17 to 21 with buy in of NT$ 33,000 (~US$ 1,080).
For more information regarding on World Poker Tour events, visit WPT.com
All photos by WPT.
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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