WPT Ho Chi Minh Cup draws 207; Nguyen Dang Toan wins the Welcome Event
WPT Ho Chi Minh Cup
WPT Asia Swing continued with the second day of the inaugural WPT Vietnam bringing out more players to Pro Poker Club. A total of 207 turned up for the WPT Ho Chi Minh Cup. The opening flight pulled in the busier crowd with 114 players while the later flight drew in 93. Both flights were freezeouts however players eliminated in Flight 1 were able to enter Flight 2. The event wrapped up with 28 total survivors. We’ve got a brief review of the results and the chip counts below.
Flight 1 recap
Flight 1 closed with 16 players remaining. Among them were Shyh Chyn Lim, Soo Jo Kim, and Dhaval Mudgal however bagging up the chip lead was Vietnam’s Huy Coshet with 225,000. Huy jumped in late to the event having first started his day at the Welcome WPT Vietnam final table where he finished in 7th place.
Flight 2 recap
The late afternoon heat, Flight 2, wrapped up with 12 players still warm in their seats. USA’s Nicholas Gorman enjoyed a late game double up with A-K over K-Q to catapult him to the forefront. Gorman bagged up a mountain of chips worth 284,000 and will enter the final day as the overall chip leader. Other players making it through in this flight were Zarvan Tumboli and Nghia Le. Among the flight’s casualties was double WSOP bracelet winner John Phan.
The WPT Ho Chi Minh Cup resumes at 130pm on Friday, September 28. The money begins at 26 places which means two runners will exit empty-handed. The total prize pool for this event is approx. VND1,000,395,000 with first place looking to pocket around VND247,000,000.
Chip counts and seat draw
| Name | Country | Table | Seat | Chips | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | NICK GORMAN | USA | 4 | 2 | 284,000 |
| 2 | HUY COSHET | VIETNAM | 3 | 4 | 225,000 |
| 3 | AYMAN ELSAID | RUSSIAN | 2 | 4 | 212,000 |
| 4 | SHYH CHYN LIM | MALAYSIA | 2 | 7 | 205,500 |
| 5 | GEORGE SANDFORD | UK | 2 | 8 | 191,000 |
| 6 | RUBIN LABROO | INDIA | 2 | 3 | 173,000 |
| 7 | RICHARD MARI | UK | 1 | 2 | 170,000 |
| 8 | CHUA SHANHUI ” BENNY” | SINGAPORE | 1 | 5 | 160,000 |
| 9 | DHAVAL MUDGAL | INDIA | 3 | 5 | 130,000 |
| 10 | NGHIA LE | VIETNAM | 3 | 1 | 117,000 |
| 11 | ABHINAV IYER | INDIA | 4 | 1 | 115,000 |
| 12 | CHAN KAI TAI JACKSON | HONGKONG | 1 | 7 | 110,000 |
| 13 | NGUYEN VU THANH | VIETNAM | 1 | 1 | 105,500 |
| 14 | TRAN DUC NGHIA | VIETNAM | 4 | 5 | 105,000 |
| 15 | CHI THANK NGUYEN | HONGKONG | 4 | 4 | 105,000 |
| 16 | MITCHELL NONG | USA | 4 | 3 | 100,000 |
| 17 | PHAN TRÍ CƯỜNG | VIETNAM | 3 | 7 | 83,000 |
| 18 | ZARVAN TUMBOLI | INDIA | 1 | 8 | 83,000 |
| 19 | LUAT TRAN | VIETNAM | 3 | 8 | 76,000 |
| 20 | WEI CHAN LEE | MALAYSIA | 2 | 5 | 75,000 |
| 21 | HUNG CUONG PHAM | VIETNAM | 4 | 8 | 57,000 |
| 22 | HOANG TON NGUYEN | VIETNAM | 3 | 2 | 50,000 |
| 23 | KAZUMA INOTSUME | JAPAN | 1 | 3 | 47,000 |
| 24 | TUN THANH NGUYEN | VIETNAM | 2 | 2 | 45,000 |
| 25 | SJ KIM | KOREA | 4 | 7 | 39,000 |
| 26 | AKSHAY NASA | INDIA | 2 | 1 | 29,000 |
| 27 | NGUYỄN VĂN XUÂN | VIETNAM | 1 | 4 | 27,000 |
| 28 | NGUYỄN HÒA THỊNH | VIETNAM | 3 | 3 | 24,500 |
Nguyen Dang Toan wins the Welcome WPT Vietnam
Dutch player Nguyen Dang Toan claimed his first-ever victory in Vietnam after taking down the Welcome WPT Vietnam event. Nguyen dominated the final table, knocking out four players including Indian pro Sumit Sapra at heads up. For his victory, he earned the VND 260,000,000 (~US$11,160 ) first place prize money.
The two-day event fielded 137 entries with a strong showing of pros from all over the Asian region. Upon trimming down to the final 9, the only notables left were Alan King Lun Lau, Julien Tran, and Sapra.
While Sapra ran up his stack, even claiming the chip lead, Lau and Tran both had a rougher time. Entering second-in-command, Lau suffered a big loss in chips to Nguy Xuan Hong when his
were cracked by 
full house on a board of 
. He fell in 8th place to Nicholas Dixon. Tran, on the other, was eliminated in 6th place by eventual winner Nguyen Dang Toan with A-J running into J-J. Tran was Toan’s second knockout of the final table with Huy Coshet sent packing just prior in 7th place.
Thus began Toan’s rise. He also won a big pot on an earlier hand against the day’s entering chip leader, Dung Pro. Both players were all in on a flop 
; Dung with 
straight and Toan with 
two pair. The turn 
and 
river improved Dung to a flush but it also improved Toan to a full house. Dung held on to see a few players drop before him until he was railed in 5th place by Sapra.
Toan’s next victim was Dixon in 3rd place. Dixon was the bane of a few players but he couldn’t get past the leader. His 
shove fell to Toan’s
on a board 
. This led to the heads up match with Toan ahead 1.3M to Sapra’s 750k. It took only a couple of hands before both players were all in. Sapra
, Toan
. The board ran 
for a higher pair spiked by Toan to win it.
Final Table payouts
Prizepool: VND 930,230,000 – Buyin: VND 7,700,000 – Entries: 137 – ITM: 18
1st Nguyen Dang Toan – Netherlands – VND 260,000,000
2nd Sumit Sapra – India – VND 163,720,000
3rd Nicholas Dixon – Australia – VND 97,210,000
4th Nguy Xuan Hong – Vietnam – VND 58,600,000
5th Dung Pro – Vietnam – VND 45,580,000
6th Julien Tran – Vietnam – VND 38,140,000
7th Thai Sang Bao Huy – Vietnam – VND 33,020,000
8th Alan King Lun Lau – Hong Kong – VND 29,350,000
9th Nguyen Ngoc Thien An – Vietnam – VND 26,000,000
WPT Vietnam MAIN EVENT – VND 8BN Guaranteed
The event everyone will be looking to capture is the WPT Vietnam MAIN EVENT – VND 8BN Guaranteed. Action begins tomorrow, Friday, September 28 at 1pm. Buy-in is VND 22,000,000. There are three starting days lined up. Players are allowed one re-entry per day.
From start to finish, the Somuchpoker team will provide full coverage of the event both in English and in Vietnamese. We will also have live reporting throughout the Main Event so stick with us for all the action.
Article by Tricia David
