WPC-SEAPT Kick Off Event draws 605 entries for VN₫ 4.6B (~US$ 198K) prize pool; Nguyen Duc Anh leads Final Day qualifiers

Following three flights over the course of two days, Event #1: WPC-SEAPT Kick Off recorded a jaw-dropping 605-entry field, easily surpassing its initial VN₫ 2.5B guarantee. The generated prize pool grew to a whopping VN₫ 4,694,800,000 (~US$ 198,428), dubbing the first event of the World Championship Poker games at Grand Loyal Poker Club an impressive success.

75 players led by Nguyen Duc Anh, return to the felt on Sunday, September 18th, as they set off to hunt down the VN₫ 888,300,000 (~US$ 37,544) top prize. Final Day begins at exactly 11:00 with live updates featured only here at Somuchpoker.

Day 1B and Day 1C Recap

The second flight for the Kick Off Event piled on pretty quickly with the tournament guarantee smashed by the fifth level of play. At the end of registration, a total of 265 entries were recorded, with 33 set to join Day 1A’s 16 survivors through the Final Day.

The turning point of today’s qualifier began after chip leader Nguyen Duc Anh captured Indian runner Ankit Wadhawan’s entire stack, two left to the money. Sitting on the big blind with , Nguyen jammed against Wadhawan who had less than 30BBs behind. Wadhawan made the call with only to find his pocket pair crushed against Nguyen’s better holdings. The board offered no help to Wadhawan and the 400K pot was shifted to Nguyen thus beginning his climb to the top.

It didn’t take long before Nguyen busted yet another opponent after flopping a set with against big blind Gaurav Sood’s overpair . On a roll, the runout further improved Nguyen to having Quads and eventually bag up a massive stack of 714,000 as the overall tournament chip leader by a significant margin.The bubble bust shortly after, delivered by fourth ranking Ha Van Thien with his holding up against on a ten high board to lock up Day 1B’s action.

The last flight on schedule, Day 1C attracted a field of 211 players for an additional 26 entrants qualifying through. After ten hours of play, the field trickled down to its final eliminations led by Vietnam’s Le Hoai Nam who maintained his advantage through the last four tables. Le’s stack continued its ascend as the local picked up a series of small pots towards the end and bagged up the second biggest stack heading into the Final Day. The last flight saw the action draw to a close after Korea’s Hwang Seong Il delivered an unavoidable cooler with against the big blind’s to seal the deal.

Among those who qualified are France’s Aladin Youri, India’s Ankit Wadhawan, and big stacked locals Hoang Hai Nam, Tuan Tien Hai, and Ta Son Tung. All three qualifiers now have wrapped up each flight to 12.5% of the field and a guaranteed payout of VN₫ 13 Million (~US$ 550) to start the Final Day festivities.

Buy in: VN₫ 8,800,000 (~US$ 372)
Guarantee: VN₫ 2,500,000,000 (~US$ 105,695)
Prize Pool: VN₫ 4,694,800,000 (~US$ 198,428)
Entries: 605
Qualifiers: 75 players

WPT-SEAPT Kick Off Event Final Day Qualifiers

Chips in play: 15,125,000

Average stack: 201,667

Full Payouts

WPC-SEAPT Schedule & Structures
Event Photos

Stay tuned to Somuchpoker for more on the ongoing World Poker Championship at Grand Loyal.

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