Tran Thanh Dat wins the Main Event
Tran Thanh Dat – Photo Win Poker
Officially started on August 17th at Win Poker Hanoi, Pro Poker Club HCM City and on August 23rd at Win Poker Danang, the Vietnam National Poker Champions 5 (NPC5) has successfully wrapped up the month for poker players in Vietnam.
The Main Event with a buy-in of VND9M attracted a total of 296 entries, creating a prizepool of VND2.5B with 38 players ITM. Final table saw a lot of familiar faces in the Vietnamese poker circuit, including Nguyen Van Dung, John Phan and Macaron Tran.
Finally, claiming the victory was Tran Thanh Dat after an impressive run. He was the chip leader at the end of Day 1C at Win Poker Hanoi, then managed to secure a place among the top 3 at the start of Day 2, and again heading up to the final table with the second-largest stack bested only by Vi Van Phuc. After several hours at the final table, he eliminated 9 opponents to officially claim the trophy and become NPC5 Main Event champion.
Final table payouts at the NPC5 Main Event
1st Tran Thanh Dat (Dat 9) – VND 521,000,000 ( Approx. US$22,498)
2nd Giang Hoang – VND 310,000,000
3rd Tomy Lương – VND 210,000,000
4th Vi Van Phuc – VND 150,000,000
5th Quoc Vu – VND 112,000,000
6th Nguyen Van Dung (Dung God) – VND 91,000,000
7th John Phan – VND 80,000,000
8th Tran Hoai Anh – VND 70,000,000
9th Macaron Tran – VND 61,500,000
10th Lahoxixi – VND 54,000,000
Singapore’s Norbert Koh wins the High Rollers, continuing his successful run this year
The other major event at the NPC5 this time – the VND 16.5M buying High Rollers – attracted 54 entries, raising the prize pool from a VND 500M GTD to an impressive figure of VND 839,916,000. ITM were the top 7 players. Eventually, it was Singapore’s Norbert Koh that defeated several notable names at the final table including Jul Tran, Duy Ho and Ngoc Khanh to pocket the VND 283.500.000 first prize.
Norbert Koh has been enjoying a great 2018 so far. Earlier this year at APL Vietnam he topped the NLH 8 Max Turbo, and then at the recent APT Vietnam Ho Chi Minh in July he managed to reach the money in 4 events, including a win at the No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack. Most recently at the APPT Manila, again Koh cashed in at 5 events. And despite having to face tough competition this time at the NPC5 High Rollers, Koh played well, adding one more title to his collection.
Final table payouts at the NPC5 High Rollers
1st Norbert Koh – VND 283,500,000 ( approx. US$12,242)
2nd Mr. Sanh – VND 190,600,000
3rd Le Ngoc Khanh – VND 127,900,000
4th Tran Thanh Van – VND 89,000,000
5th N/A – VND 64,300,000
6th Duy Ho – VND 48,300,000
7th Tran Huy Hoang – VND 36,300,000
