Vincent Chauve wins the WPT Vietnam Main Event

After five days of intense poker action that drew 686 entries to Pro Poker Club for the WPT Vietnam – Main Event, Thailand’s Vincent Chauve emerged victorious! He entered the final day running fourth-in-chips, proceeded to rail five players to capture the WPT championship trophy and pocket VND 2,300,000,000 (~US$ 99,100), Chauve also slid into top rank in the WPT Asia Pacific Player of the Year race with 1500 points.

“I feel amazing. There was a lot of emotions today, I feel a bit tired but I feel amazing. Best of my life, very good! I felt very confident at the start of the final table, I was feeling like I’m gonna win. I felt every second was so good. Amazing. There’s a big chance I will go to New Zealand to defend the Player of the Year title.”

Chauve seized his first-ever major live tournament championship title and the largest live tournament score of his career.

Main Event – Final Day recap

The first three days of the Main Event saw 686 entries pony up the VND 25M buy-in to amass a record-breaking prize pool in Vietnam poker history of VND 15,105,034,000 (~US$651,454). Day 2 saw the money flow starting at 86th place, and today, the last 14 players hunted down the largest cut and the coveted title.

The final day began with an immediate double up for the two shortest stacks, Jeonggyu Cho and Clement Guilleminot. This was followed by Vincent Chauve shipping in two stacks, eliminating Nam Duong (14th) and Raiden Kan (13th). After the fall of the next three players, Alok Birewar (12th), Pham Quoc Anh (11th), and Norbert Koh (10th), the final table was set with 9 players taking their seats at center stage.

Entering the final table at the helm was Chauve, edging Jin Yong by a small margin. Both players took turns grabbing the chip lead. After Luong Anh Tuan fell to Cho in 9th place, Tuan Pro joined in, knocking out Long Lam in 8th place to overtake the two big stacks. Tuan Pro continued to dominate. He accumulated nearly a third of the chips in play by sending Guilleminot crashing in 7th place.

Helping downsize the field, Yong claimed his first and only victim of the day. He shipped all of Kwok Chun Yip’s chips to bring it to the final five players. It was during this round that Chauve began to crush the table. He won pot after pot that led to Thien Phu falling in 5th place. Chauve shoved on the river with , Thien called for his tournament life holding top pair on a board . This was Chauve’s third head of the day.

With over half of the chips in play at his disposal, Chauve never relinquished command. The big blind ante format began to eat up Yong’s chips until he shoved with only to lose to Cho’s . This sent Yong down to just one big blind, and though he managed to triple up, he still bumped the rail in 4th place to Cho.

The last three players immediately struck a deal that guaranteed Chauve VND 2,150,000,000, Cho VND 1, 850,000,000, and Tuan VND 1,825,000,000. The battle continued for the trophy, the POY points, and an additional VND 150 million to the eventual champion.

The final showdown was reached when Chauve snapped off Tuan’s bluff to send the lone Vietnamese contender out in 3rd place. This gave Chauve a 2:1 chip advantage at heads up.

Despite a valiant effort by Cho, exerting plenty of pressure on the leader, it was simply not to be. He was all in on a flop holding for an open-ended draw, Chauve had top pair, the dramatic turn gave Cho more hope with outs for a flush, but the river was not one of them. Cho’s impressive run from the bottom of the rung ended in runner-up while Chauve became the newest WPT Vietnam champion.

Interview

Final Day – Payouts

1st Vincent Chauve – Thailand – VND 2,300,000,000
2nd Jeonggyu Cho – Korea – VND 1, 850,000,000
3rd Tuan Pro – Vietnam – VND 1,825,000,000
4th Jin Yong – Malaysia – VND 919,900,000
5th Thien Phu – Vietnam – VND 703,140,000
6th Kwok Chun Yip – Hong Kong – VND 561,150,000
7th Clement Guilleminot – France – VND 464,780,000
8th Long Lam – Vietnam – VND 369,920,000
9th Luong Anh Tuan – Vietnam – VND 277,780.000
10th Norbert Koh – Singapore – VND 230,350,000
11th Pham Quoc Anh – Vietnam – VND 230,350,000
12th Alok Birewar – India – VND 230,350,000
13th Raiden Kan – Hong Kong – VND 184,280,000
14th Nam Duong – Vietnam – VND 184,280,000

You can read up on the Main Event action in the live updates.

WPT Vietnam Main Event Live Updates