World Poker Championship Main Event draws 651 entries for over ₫14.2 Billion prize pool; Grant Gardner bags overall lead; 82 advance to Day 2

 

Full house at the Grand Loyal Poker Club on Thursday, January 12 as players converged for the final two flights of the World Poker Championship MAIN EVENT. Kicking it off was Day 1C which was the most popular with a thunderous 233 signing up. Only 29 reached the money round led by Vietnam’s Nguyen Xuan Thang who bagged 725,000 (181 BB) to give him the momentary chip lead entering Day 2.

In contrast, the final flight, Day 1D (Turbo), drew the smallest starting field of 111 entries, however by bagging time, UK’s Grant Gardner sat on a massive 783,000 (196 BB) stack to earn the overall top spot into the next round. Coming Day 2, twelve other players join Gardner and Thang with stacks of 100 BB and up. 

The bustling day also saw the return of Korean pro Soo Jo Kim to the Asian live circuit. For the past three years, Kim has spent his live poker career battling it out on home turf and in Las Vegas. He bagged up the third overall largest stack of 136 BB. Also making the cut with a big stack was the newest Super Star Challenge winner Gab Yong Kim with 115 BB.

Players with 100 BB and up:

Rank	Player	Flag	Stack	BB
1	Grant Gardner	UK	783,000	196
2	Thang Xuan Nguyen	Vietnam	725,000	181
3	Soo Jo Kim	Korea	543,000	136
4	Jun Min Park	Korea	532,000	133
5	Luckyman9999	Vietnam	494,000	124
6	Moon Hoo Seo	Korea	488,000	122
7	Thanh Huy Le	Vietnam	485,000	121
8	Jae Hyung Park	Korea	474,000	119
9	Gab Yong Kim	Korea	461,000	115
10	Hoi Wai Tam	Hong Kong	458,000	115
11	Francis Garson	France	457,000	114
12	Yo Hwan Lim	Korea	416,000	104
13	Je Young Park	Korea	409,000	102
14	Thijs Hilberts	Netherlands	398,000	100

Other notables through to the next round were  Francis Garson (57 BB), Thijs Hilberts (50 BB), William Ysmael (45 BB), Trung Van Nguyen (28 BB), Trung Duc Vu (25 BB), Teddy Pham (24 BB), Akshay Nasa (18 BB), Nam Hyung Kim (14 BB), Terry Nguyen (12 BB), and WSOP bracelet winner Aaron Siyang Phua (11 BB).

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 2 CHIP COUNTS

Main Event review

From January 10 to 12, the WPC Main Event commenced with four starters to try to qualify into the next round. The first two days drew a combined 307 entries. By Day 1C, the ₫10B guarantee was shattered, and after the evening’s Day 1D (Turbo), a combined 344 was added to the mix to bring the total count to 651 entries. With each entry ponying up the ₫25,000,000 buy in, the prize pool settled at a handsome ₫14,244,000,000 (~$607,600). 

CLICK HERE FOR DAY 2 CHIP COUNTS

Dates: January 10 to 14
Buy in: ₫25,000,000 (~$1,060)
Guarantee: ₫10,000,000,000 (~$425,080)

Starting Day	Entries	Survivors
Day 1A	139	17
Day 1B	168	22
Day 1C	233	29
Day 1D (turbo)	111	14

Total entries: 651
Prize pool: ₫14,244,000,000 (~$607,600)
Day 2 qualifiers / ITM: 82 players

Of the 651 entries, 82 survived. They return to the felt on Friday, January 13 and will race for a final table seat. Cards start flying at 12pm. Each one is guaranteed ₫36,000,000 (~$1,535) but what they will be hunting is the juicy winner’s purse of ₫2,710,000,000 (~$115,600). For those in the running, make sure to take note of the list below: 

• 30-seconds action clock in play starting Day 2
• Day 2 onwards blinds increase every 60 minutes
• Day 2 blinds rollback to 2,000-4,000-4,000 BB Ante
• Day 2 plays down to the final 9 players
• Redraw at final 24 players and final 9 players
• Final table is on Saturday, January 14

Payouts

Place	Payout in VN₫
1st	2,710,000,000
2nd	1,880,000,000
3rd	1,140,000,000
4th	860,000,000
5th	680,000,000
6th	540,000,000
7th	425,000,000
8th	335,000,000
9th	267,000,000
11th – 12th	210,000,000
13th – 14th	170,000,000
15th – 16th	140,000,000
17th – 20th	116,000,000
21st – 24th	97,000,000
25th – 32nd	82,000,000
33rd – 40th	70,000,000
41st – 48th	61,000,000
49th – 56th	54,000,000
57th – 64th	48,000,000
65th – 72nd	43,000,000
73rd – 80th	39,000,000
81st – 82nd	36,000,000