USOP Hai Phong Final Wrap: Xinxing Tang awarded as Player of the Series; Juyeol Lee, William Jia, and Baiyu Ni hail as top performers; China bags most trophy wins

Another grand success landed at this season’s U Series of Poker festivities with its Hai Phong debut, having played through 65 trophy events across thirteen days at Dream Dragon Resort, Hai Phong, Vietnam. Action-packed each day, the festival closed with Xinxing Tang hailed as Player of the Series following three wins and seven deep finishes. Main Event winner Juyeol Lee however, stands as the biggest earner, having claimed the largest payout on the list. Other top performers include William Jia with the most final table cashes, and Baiyu Ni with three trophy victories. Overall, Chinese runners fared well, with the five starred flag raised proudly over 20 events in total. Scroll down below for all the festival highlights.

USOP Hai Phong – Festival Results

Festival Review

Date/s: September 11-23, 2024
Venue:  Dream Dragon Resort, Hai Phong, Vietnam
Trophy Events: 65
Entries: 9,142
Countries: 45+
Record Events: Kick Off – 1,324 entries, VN₫ 9,956,480,000 (~US$ 404,650) prize pool; Mini Main Event – 1,120 entries
USOP Hai Phong Main Event winner: Juyeol Lee – VN₫ 6,320,000,000 (~US$ 257,590)
Biggest earner: Juyeol Lee – VN₫ 7,360,000,000 (~US$ 299,120)
Most final table cashes: William Jia (3)
Multiple wins: Xinxing Tang (3), Baiyu Ni (3), Tao Wei Chang (2), Zhichen Yu (2), Johnni Nielsen (2), Le Thanh Long Ton (2), Jianfeng Sun (2)
Trophy wins: China (20), Viet Nam (19), Taiwan (3), Australia (2), Germany (2), Hong Kong (2), India (2), Malaysia (2), Sweden (2), Hungary (1), Ireland (1), Japan (1), Korea (1), Macau (1), Netherlands (1), Romania (1), Russia (1), South Africa (1), United Kingdom (1), France (1)

USOP Hai Phong Main Event

Reigning under the spotlight, the USOP Hai Phong Main Event drew in a total of 1,507 (1,067 unique) entries across four flights, and saw South Korea’s Juyeol Lee close out the win for a career best cash of VN₫ 6,320,000,000 (~US$ 257,590). Lee defeated Australia’s Julian Warhurst in heads up play and took down the most extravagant trophy on display following a bulldozing run across the final round. The decorated runner stands as the festival’s biggest earner, topping his Main Event victory with a runner up finish in the High Roller: Megastack Event to bring his total series cashes to VN₫ 7,360,000,000 (~US$ 299,120) in winnings.

Date/s: September 19 – 23, 2024
Buy-in: VN₫ 30,000,000 (~USD 1,200)
Guarantee: VN₫ 15,000,000,000 (~US$ 609,500)
Prize pool: VN₫ 38,247,660,000 (~US$ 1,554,470)
Entries: 1,507 (1,067 unique)
ITM: 188 places

Day 1A: 341 entries / 43 qualified
Day 1B: 378 entries / 47 qualified
Day 1C: 522 entries / 65 qualified
Day 1D (Turbo): 266 entries / 33 qualified
Day 2: 188 players / 18 qualified

Backtrack on all the Final Day action via SMP Live Updates
Relive the Featured Table play – USOP Livestream

Final Table Payouts

1st Juyeol Lee – VN₫ 6,320,000,000 (~US$ 257,590)
2nd Julian Warhurst – VN₫ 4,450,000,000 (~US$ 181,370)
3rd Tran Huy Phong – VN₫ 2,900,000,000 (~US$ 118,200)
4th Xin Tang – VN₫ 2,150,000,000 (~US$ 87,630)
5th Tony Miles – VN₫ 1,600,000,000 (~US$ 65,210)
6th Leo Kamiya – VN₫ 1,309,000,000 (~US$ 53,350)
7th Jianfeng Sun – VN₫ 1,060,760,000 (~US$ 43,230)
8th Tran Van Phuc – VN₫ 840,000,000 (~US$ 34,230)
9th Cao Tran Ngoc – VN₫ 632,000,000 (~US$ 25,760)

South Korea’s Juyeol Lee wins USOP Hai Phong Main Event for VN₫ 6.3 Billion (~US$ 257K)

Record Events

On the front end of the lineup, the multi-day Madness Kick Off attracted a record breaking field of 1,324 entries across four flights, easily surpassing its boosted VN₫ 5,000,000,000 (~US$ 203,210) guarantee to nearly double in value. Sweden’s Johnni Nielsen shined over the final games and successfully banked the lion’s share of the VN₫ 9,956,480,000 (~US$ 404,650) prize pool.

Halfway through the festival, another USOP record was broken with its Mini Main Event showing having drawn a total of 1,120 entries following three heats. While the final numbers surpasses USOP Da Nang Part 1’s 1,112 count, the latter’s pot still stands as the record prize pool for its slightly higher buy-in. 

Xinxing Tang wins Player of the Series race

Amongst the top performers in the USOP Hai Phong series, China’s Xinxing Tang takes in all the glory, having been awarded as this season’s Player of the Series. Tang cashed in a total of ten events with at least seven deep finishes and three trophy victories. An incredible feat, Tang led the race all throughout and left USOP Da Nang Player of the Series Tao Wei Chang to settle for a runner up finish.

“Thank you USOP for presenting this award to me. This series has been really well-planned. I’m so fortunate and honored to be able to win this ring, and thank you USOP, as well as other media partners who gave me so much support and also reporting me on winning the Player of the Series award.”, commented Tang following the awarding.

“I think USOP on a global scale, or at least in China, is very well-known, so that’s why you see so many Chinese nationals coming to support USOP, and we have done quite well as a whole. As for my experience in this series, it has been splendid too, the structures are really good. I sincerely hope USOP can become bigger and better and move to a larger scale globally. As an analogy, i think WSOP is like Olympic Games and USOP is Asian Games.”, he added.

“After the first day, I won a trophy and also final tabled another High Roller event, then Kris introduced to me this POTS award. I looked at my ranking and I think I have been at the top of the POTS rank since Day 1. Then I thought to myself, maybe I have a good chance to fight for this beautiful ring. So I stayed and planned strategically, picking carefully what events to play, see who is chasing me closely, and yeah i think I carried out my plan pretty well so that’s why i managed to win this ring.”

“If time permits, I will definitely come back because my experience here at USOP has been great. I also hope to come back and continue to fight for future POTS.”

Xinxing Tang’s cashes at USOP Hai Phong:

• 109th place – Event #1: Madness Kick Off
• 1st place – Event #5: 7-Handed Hyper Turbo
• 4th place – Event #8: Mini High Roller
• 93rd place – Event #11: Championship
• 1st place – Event #21: Win the Button – Hyper Turbo 
• 12th place – Event #22: Sunday Superstack
• 5th place – Event #32: Run It Twice
• 5th place – Event #36: NLH Turbo
• 2nd place – Event #53: 6-Handed Hyper Turbo
• 1st place – Event #62: All in or Fold 

Most Final Table Cashes

Australia’s William Jia booked a highly profitable run at the Hai Phong games with three final table cashes under his belt. Out of the three, Jia finally secured a win at the Super High Roller event after besting the 137 entry field. In addition to the list, Jia also bagged a runner up finish at the High Roller: Championship, having cut a heads up ICM deal with Bogdan Munteanu. All in all, Jia ended his Hai Phong experience with an impressive total of VN₫ 4,030,314,000 (~US$ 163,800) in series cashes.

William Jia (3)

• 1st place – Event #39: Super High Roller 
• 5th place – Event #6: High Roller Charity Event
• 5th place – Event #29: High Roller 6 Max

Multiple Series Wins

Player of the Series Xinxing Tang ties with fellow countryman Baiyu Ni, having secured three trophy victories each across the 65 event lineup. Crushing the small fields, the two take with them three of the coveted USOP golden hardware in addition to their top payouts.

Xinxing Tang (3)

• Event #5: 7-Handed Hyper Turbo – VN₫ 42,300,000
• Event #21: Win the Button – Hyper Turbo – VN₫ 33,800,000
• Event #62: All in or Fold – VN₫ 49,668,000

Baiyu Ni (3)

• Event #16: Hyper Turbo – VN₫ 68,004,000
• Event #33: 8-Handed Hyper Turbo – VN₫ 67,680,000
• Event #43: 10/10/10 NLH – VN₫ 59,500,000

Trophies by Flag

While the USOP Hai Phong field attracted a large share of local runners, it was players hailing from nearby China who took most of the winners’ glory. 20 out the 65 trophy events saw the red and yellow five starred flag appear beside the minted champions, with Vietnam missing the count by just one.

China