UK's Ryan Plant Wins First Elite Trophy At USOP Hai Phong Superstar Challenge

Tricia DavidSenior Journalist & Live Event Specialist

Updated: 2026.10.16

Earlier today, U Series of Poker unveiled its newest hardware, the Elite Champions Trophy and just moments ago, the first one was captured by UK's Ryan Plant at the USOP Hai Phong Superstar Challenge. Along with the trophy Plant won VN₫ 2,180,000,000 (~US$ 88,600), the biggest live tournament score for his poker career. In a brief chat with the newly minted Plant, he shared,

“This is my biggest score in live poker. I won the Mini High Roller last USOP Danang but the trophy is better this time. We made a joke with our friend that that’s what we want to play for, it’s like the nicest trophy."

With everyone at the table highly decorated, Plant felt his toughest competition were his friend Max Buschmann and Abhinav Iyer.

"Abhi is pretty good. We had similar stacks, then with my Ace-Kings versus pocket Kings, I got a lucky ace on the turn."

At three-handed, with Plant and Iyer near even in chips, they engaged in a preflop war that ended with Plant calling Iyer's five-bet shove. Plant had {ac}{ks}, Iyer with {kc}{kd}, the board ran {jc}10♦10♠{ah}7♣. After the count,Iyer still had 1 bb left.

On the next hand, Nguyen Van Binh was all in for his last 6 bb with {as}5♥, Iyer joined in with {qc}7♠, Plant called with 8♦8♣. The board was 5♠4♦10♥3♠4♠ for a double knockout victory.

The Superstar Challenge was a two-day affair running from September 13 to 14, 2024 at the Dream Dragon Resort. Day 2 saw the return of the final 9 players out of the 68-entry field. Here are the numbers and how they placed.

Buy in: VN₫ 120,000,000 (~US$ 4,800)
Guarantee: VN₫ 3,000,000,000 (~US$ 121,930)
Entries: 68 (47 unique)
Prize pool: VN₫ 7,159,040,000 (~US$ 290,960)
ITM: 10 places

Place	Player	Flag	Payout in VN₫
1	Ryan Plant	UK	2,180,000,000
2	Nguyen Van Binh	Vietnam	1,454,000,000
3	Abhinav Iyer	India	965,000,000
4	Max Buschmann	Germany	670,000,000
5	Yuanxi Chen	Singapore	480,000,000
6	Do Xuan Huan	Vietnam	360,000,000
7	Tao Wei Chang	Taiwan	295,000,000
8	Huu Dung Nguyen	Vietnam	265,000,000
9	Xudong Yang	China	250,000,000
10	Minh A Nguyen	Vietnam	240,000,000

Watch the race to victory via the livestream.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZo4vS3qmDA

Links:

USOP Hai Phong – News
USOP Hai Phong – Daily Updates
USOP Hai Phong – Schedule / Player Guide
USOP Hai Phong – Photos
USOP Hai Phong – Festival Results

About the Editor

Tricia DavidSenior Journalist & Live Event Specialist

Tricia David is Somuchpoker's Senior Journalist and Live Event Specialist, covering major poker festivals and tours across the Asia Pacific region. She has been reporting on the region's poker scene for more than a decade, starting with the Asian Poker Tour in 2010 and the Philippine Poker Tour in 2012, and has been a core contributor at Somuchpoker since 2014.