After six days of thrilling poker action, that saw a final table run for six hours, the newest WPT Vietnam Main Event champion emerged. Lifting the prestigious title was New Zealand’s Hamish Crawshaw who crushed the competition sending every player to his knees. Crawshaw was awarded the WPT Champions Trophy, 1500 points towards the Season XVIII Asia- Pacific leaderboard, and the enviable VN₫ 3,782,723,000 (~US$ 163,000) first prize.
Crawshaw was one of the most decorated players of the finalists with a long list of deep runs earned mostly in Australia. Making the trip to Asia turned out to be very successful, earning his first major victory. Crawshaw expressed,
“I am pretty happy. It is good to finish the series like this and celebrate afterwards.”
The WPT Vietnam Main Event was the richest tournament the World Poker Tour has ever staged in the country. It ran from September 6 to 11 at host venue Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh City. The buy-in of VN₫ 55 million (~US$ 2,400) was also unheard of in Vietnam but bringing everyone in was the VN₫ 15 billion guarantee (~US$ 645,000).
Over the course of the tournament, players from around the globe descended for a tally of 373 entries. The prize pool then soared to VN₫ 18,090,500,000 (~US$ 780,000) of which only the top 47 places earned a piece. Today saw the biggest cuts awarded.
Returning to action today were the final six players each one representing a different flag. Leading them in was Vietnam’s own Huynh Tan Dung who amassed a very big stack in Day 3. For New Zealand’s Hamish Crawshaw, he entered third in chips and within half an hour he moved up to second rank after railing Philippine’s David Erquiaga (6th) when his 
got lucky on the river 
{10h) to defeat 
. Immediately following that hand, Crawshaw knocked out India’s Aditya Agarwal (5th) to take the lead.
Crawshaw booted China’s Chen Da Jia (4th) next to amass over half of the chips in play. For Chen, he was still all smiles despite the loss. It was his deepest Main Event run and largest career payday. 21 hands later, Hand #72 arrived and with it came the fall of Australia’s Michael Seymour (3rd). Like everyone before him, Seymour also met Crawshaw’s mighty axe.
Heads up: Hamish Crawshaw vs Huynh Tan Dung
After just three hours of play, heads up was reached. Crawshaw had the advantage with 9.2m to Huynh Tan Dung’s 5.7m however in just 20 minutes, Huynh reclaimed the lead, a position he lost early in the day. Another 20 minutes later, leadership switched with Crawshaw winning a big pot off Huynh’s failed bluff. With blinds at 75K-125K ante 125K, Huynh limped in and Crawshaw checked. At the flop {2s
, Crawshaw bet 125k, Huynh called. On the turn 
, Crawshaw checked, Huynh bet 500k. Crawshaw called. Then on the river 
, Crawshaw check-called a 1m bet. Huynh showed 
bluff, Crawshaw with 
.
That crucial hand was the game-changer. Despite further Huynh’s attacks, Crawshaw never relinquished his lead. On the Heads Up Hand #86, the winning hand was dealt. It was all in preflop: Crawshaw 
, Huynh 
, the board ran 
.
Final 6 payouts
1st Hamish Crawshaw (New Zealand) – VN₫ 3,782,723,000 (~US$ 163,000)
2nd Huynh Tan Dung (Vietnam) – VN₫ 2,648,278,000
3rd Michael Seymour (Australia – VN₫ 1,702,497,000
4th Chen Da Jia (China) – VN₫ 1,118,174,000
5thAditya Agarwal (India) – VN₫ 861,108,000
6th David Erquiaga (Philippines) – VN₫ 712,404,000
Interview
That concludes our coverage on the WPT Vietnam Main Event. To read up on all the action just head to our live posts and daily recaps.
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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