Nguyen Minh Tuan clinches inaugural APL Da Nang Main Event

After six days of stiff competition, the inaugural Asia Poker League Da Nang Main Event concluded with Vietnam’s Nguyen Minh Tuan lifting the trophy and the handsome VND 2,026,500,000 (~US$ 87,400) first prize.

Final Day recap

The Main Event ran from December 14 to 19 attracting 525 entries at VND 22,000,000 (~US$ 950) each to easily surpass the VND 8BN guarantee for a much richer VND 10,185,000 (~US$ 439,600). Portions of the cash were claimed in Day 2 and Day 3. The juicier cuts were determined today.

Read up on all the action via our live posts. We also have a recap below.

Live Updates

Final 9 payouts

1st Nguyen Minh Tuan – Vietnam – VND 2,026,500,000 (~US$ 87,400)
2nd Liu Jian – China – VND 1,383,400,000 (~US$ 59,700)
3rd Anton Widjaya – Indonesia – VND 889,700,000 (~US$ 38,400)
4th Lee Seok Young – Korea – VND 622,300,000 (~US$ 26,800)
5th Sumit Sapra – India – VND 477,900,000 (~US$ 20,600)
6th Song Daewoong – Korea – VND 397,200,000 (~US$ 17,100)
7th Zhang Chi – China – VND 329,500,000 (~US$ 14,200)
8th Lee Jong Wook – Korea – VND 262,800,000 (~US$ 11,300)
9th Young Hwan Sung – Korea – VND 197,400,000 (~US$ 8,500)

The final day ran a very quick and fiery 6.5 hours with a total of 103 hands tabled. The first big pot happened on the sixth hand. The top two leaders faced off, Anton Widjaya and Nguyen Minh Tuan. Nguyen won the bout without a showdown to steal the chip lead. On the seventh hand, Widjaya jumped back out front by eliminating shortest stacked Young Hwan Sung in 9^th place. Sung shoved with and failed to improve against .

India’s only hope, Sumit Sapra, nearly banged the rail next with running into Tiger Lee Seok Young’s , however a king showed up on the board and it was a fist pump instead of a bump out.

Action continued with big stacks in full aggression. Nguyen took command of the table winning multiple pots then booting out Lee Jong Wook in 8^th place. On the 30^th hand, Nguyen added more to his towering pile by ending Zhang Chi’s run in 7^th place with a dominating over . By this point, Nguyen had a third of the chips in play at his disposal.

Liu Jian in action

Stealing Nguyen’s thunder was China’s Liu Jian who delivered the next four eliminations. Short stacked Song Daewoong was his first victim. Song couldn’t gain any traction and pushed with . Jian called with and landed a straight .

At five-handed, Liu continued to dominate winning a big pot against Nguyen for his flush on a board . This gave Jian nearly half of the chips in play. Big pots were then exchanged between Jian, Nguyen, and Widjaya. Sapra hoped to join the party but was bumped out instead by Jian with pairing the queen to dust Sapra’s .

With half the chips in play to battle with, Jian muscled the competition until two double ups paid to Lee Seok Young sent him spiraling below average. On the 80^th hand, he recovered some of the chips by eliminating Lee in 4^th place with finding partners on the board to crush Lee’s . With Lee‘s elimination, this ensured no Korean player would claim the coveted title.

Fifteen hands later, heads up was reached when Jian railed Widjaya in 3^rd place with straight over on a board . Despite claiming four heads, Jian was still behind Nguyen entering the final duel.

Heads up lasted 8 supercharged hands. Both players were in full attack mode with heavy three-bets seen preflop. On the third hand, Jian evened them up but on the sixth hand, Nguyen amassed 65% of the chips in play with pair to Jian’s lower pair on a board .

The final hand quickly arrived with Jian fueling the pot. With blinds at 40k – 80k, Nguyen raised to 240k, Jian three-bet to 850k, Nguyen called. On the flop and turn Jian bet 650k and 1M and Nguyen called. On the river, Jian checked, Nguyen shoved holding straight, Jian called for his game life with pair.

Huge celebration quickly followed with the Vietnamese rail cheering on Nguyen for his impressive feat. He was the only local representative at the final table and was able to bring it home.

APT Da Nang Coverage