WPT Prime Vietnam: Phuong Xu claims series opener for career high VN₫ 745M

Big day for Vietnamese player Tu Phuong Nguyen aka Phuong Xu who came out victorious at the WPT Opener. Phuong entered Day 2 as one of the race leaders, was first to stack a million in chips, lucked out on a cooler at the final table, then out-flipped fellow countryman Nam Le for the trophy. Phuong pocketed a career-high VN₫ 745,000,000 (~US$ 32,154) on an even chop heads up deal.

On May 19, the World Poker Tour launched its brand new series WPT Prime at the Crown Poker Club in Hanoi, Vietnam with the first four days highlighting the WPT Opener. Three starting days were offered with each succeeding day seeing a significant rise in turnout. Day 1A set the pace at 123, Day 1B climbed to 185, and Day 1C crushed them both with a massive 288 entries. Added together, 596 entered for a guarantee smashing prize pool of VN₫ 4,624,960,000 (~US$ 199,610). Day 2 kicked off with all 74 qualifiers assured a piece of the pot. Watch some of the action via the video highlights or you can also read on for the recap down below.

Buy in: VN₫ 8,800,000 (~US$ 380)

Guarantee: VN₫ 2,500,000,000 (~US$ 107,933)

Entries: 596 (386 unique, 210 re-entry)

Prize pool: VN₫ 4,624,960,000 (~US$ 199,610)

ITM: 74 players

Final table payouts in Vietnamese Dong

*Heads up even chop; rest of the payouts can be found below

Day 2 event recap and winner’s story

Eventual champion Phuong Xu carried in a huge 79 BB stack, just 1K behind Day 1C chip leader Huu Son Pham aka Mr Muoi. After two hours of action, Phuong jumped well ahead of the pack, becoming the first player to stack a million in chips. By the next break, new faces were at the helm, Bui Duc Thien and Nam Le with over 2M each. Impressively, all of the starting day chip leaders were still in the field until two of them banged heads leading to the end of Mr Muoi in 12th place. During the hand, Muoi’s was unable to improve against Day 1B captain Terry Nguyen.

Emotions began to rise as players closed in on the final table. Australia’s Phillip Nguyen was happy to ladder up his short stack. After several uncalled shoves, he survived a coin flip to claim all of Hong Phuc Pham’s chips then followed it up with a double up through USA’s Duy Ho who bullied on the small blind only to run into big blind Phillip’s pocket Queens. The final table was formed at the fall of Trung Hieu Phan to the fiery Quang Ming Nguyen aka Mr Ngo.

Early fireworks at the table with big pairs causing havoc. On the first all in clash, Phuong got extremely lucky with pocket Kings spiking the two-outer to survive Thien’s pocket Aces. On the flip side, not so successful forDuy who was sent packing by Terry in 9th place with pocket Jacks dominating pocket Fours. After the fall of Khac Thai Nguyen (8th), Phuong’s good fortune continued, finishing off Thien in 7th place with beating Ace-King. Opposite result however for Mr Ngo whose was outdrawn by Phillip’s eight in the window. For Terry, his final stand happened on a blinds versus blinds situation. Facing a board all his chips were in the middle with top pair that failed to improve on the river against Nam ‘s .

From here, busts were quick. Nam stopped Day 1A chip leaderHoang Nevar in 4th place with both hitting the flop over top pair and Phuong emptied out Phillip to reach heads up against Nam. With both players even in chips, a deal was immediately struck to split the remaining cash down the middle then discussed who would claim the coveted trophy. In the end, they settled for a one hand flip. Phuong’s improved to trips Eights to dust Nam’s pair.

Payouts 10th to 74th in Vietnamese Dong

That concludes the first WPT Prime Vietnam side event with a guaranteed prize pool. Up next is the Mystery Bounty featuring a VN₫ 1,000,000,000 (~US$ 43,310) guarantee. The event runs from May 23 to 24 with two starting flights offered. Buy in is VN₫ 11,000,000 (~US$ 476). Cards in the air at 11am and 330pm.

Full WPT Prime Vietnam schedule

Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you daily recaps and highlights of the inaugural WPT Prime Vietnam from start to finish.

Event articles:

WPT Prime debuts in Hanoi
Launch day of WPT Prime Vietnam
WPT Prime Vietnam – Day 1 results
WPT Prime Vietnam – Day 2 results
WPT Prime Vietnam – Locals heat up Day 1C
WPT Prime Vietnam – Day 3 results
WPT Prime Vietnam – Filipinos dominate