While most of the poker world has shifted their attention to the online poker scene, poker players in Vietnam are cashing in on the latest local tournament series held in Corona Resort Phu Quoc’s poker room. Opened only last June 2020, the Corona poker room is the first official poker venue where Vietnamese are allowed to play cash games and just last week while the rest of the world was in the middle of a pandemic, the Corona Poker Championship pushed through with its festivities.
The six-day series which ran last July 14 – July 19, 2020 hosted a total of seven events throughout the schedule with buy-ins ranging from VND 6.6 million (~USD 270) to as high as VND 220 billion (~USD 10,000) for its Super High Roller event. With player pools significantly less than the usual, only the Main Event posted a guaranteed prize pool of VND 2 billion (~USD 86,187) with a minimum payout of VND 550 million (~USD 23,701) for the champion. Nonetheless, the combined prize pool of the seven events rose to over VND 7 billion (~USD 310,712) awarding skilled Vietnamese players their fair share of prizes.
Event #3 Main Event: Tran Huy Tien – VND 600,000,000 (~USD 27,270)
Corona Poker Championship’s highlighting Main Event attracted the most number of players for the series, drawing in a total of 153 entries. Posting a buy-in of VND 16,500,000 (~USD 680) each, the initial VND 2,000,000,000 (~USD 86,187) guarantee was breached with the generated prize pool totaling to VND 2,226,200,000 (~USD 101,190). Bagging his biggest live score to date according to HendonMob, the Main Event champion was no other than local player Tran Huy Tien, taking home VND 600,000,000 (~USD 27,270) in winnings. The victory was a great redemption as Tien came close to topping the Vietnam Series of Poker’s High Roller event in Ha Noi last June 30th, ranking 4th place for VND 110,000,000 (~USD 4,742).
Buy-in: VND 16,500,000 (~USD 680)
Dates: July 16 to July 19, 2020
Guarantee: VND 2,000,000,000 (~USD 86,187)
Entries: 153
Prize pool: VND 2,226,200,000 (~USD 101,190)
ITM: 20 places
Event #3 Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Player Location | Prize in VND |
| 1 | Tran Huy Tien | Vietnam | 600,000,000 (~USD 27,270) |
| 2 | Nguyen Tien Dung | Vietnam | 375,000,000 (~USD 17,040) |
| 3 | Nguyen Hoang Anh | Vietnam | 250,000,000 (~USD 11,360) |
| 4 | Le Huong Ly | Vietnam | 173,000,000 (~USD 7,860) |
| 5 | Tran Viet Nhat | Vietnam | 131,000,000 (~USD 5,950) |
| 6 | Nang Quang Nguyen | Vietnam | 100,000,000 (~USD 4,550) |
| 7 | Tran Ngoc Dung | Vietnam | 82,000,000 (~USD 3,730) |
| 8 | Cody Schumacher | USA | 67,000,000 (~USD 3,050) |
| 9 | Pham Ngoc Quoc Bao | Vietnam | 56,000,000 (~USD 2,550) |
Event #4 High Roller: Julien Tran – VND 370,000,000 (~USD 16,820)
Following a win in the previous K.O. Bounty tournament, Vietnamese Julien Tran comes back with another victory taking down one event after the other. With only five places out of the 31 players receiving a payout, Tran bested through the field to take the lion’s share of the VND 902,100,000 (~USD 41,000) generated prize pool.
Co-founder of Poker Coach Vietnam, Tran has proven his skill set well above the rest, having multiple top finishes recorded in recent years. According to HendonMob, the pro’s total live earnings amounts to just a little over USD 100,000 with tournament results dated back to 2015.
In an interview back in 2017 with Somuchpoker, Tran said “My goal is to simply keep studying the game, and try to reach the best version of myself as a poker player. The result should naturally come as I improve.” and true enough, his hard work is evidently paying off.
Buy-in: VND 33,000,000 (~USD 1,360)
Dates: July 16 to July 17, 2020
Entries: 31
Prize pool: VND 902,100,000 (~USD 41,000)
ITM: 5 places
Event #4 High Roller Full Payouts
| Place | Name | Player Location | Prize in VND |
| 1 | Julien Tran | Vietnam | 370,000,000 (~USD 16,820) |
| 2 | Pham Quang Hung | Vietnam | 225,000,000 (~USD 10,230) |
| 3 | Vi Khoa Duong | Vietnam | 135,000,000 (~USD 6,140) |
| 4 | Do Kwan Nam | Korea | 100,000,000 (~USD 4,540) |
| 5 | Dang Van Hien | Vietnam | 72,100,000 (~USD 3,270) |
Event #7 Super High Roller: Nguyen Hoa Thinh – VND 1,800,000,000 (~USD 81,820)
The last event of the series, Super High Roller was the latest addition to the schedule, attracting well-known individuals in the local poker community. Players such as Linh Tran, Dao Minh Phu, Dang Van Hien, Nguyen Duy Tung and more came in to join the Super High Roller action, posting a buy-in of VND 220,000,000 (~USD 10,000) each. Marketed with a free business class air ticket and 1 night at Raddison Blu’s suite, a total of 18 players competed to win the sweet VND 1,800,000,000 (~USD 81,820) top prize.
After several hours of play, it was local Nguyen Hoa Thinh who topped the small field of players beating opponent Huu Dung Nguyen in heads up play. The top payout was a great win for Nguyen as his best live cash recorded is eight times less than what he most recently won.
Buy-in: VND 220,000,000 (~USD 10,000)
Date: July 19, 2020
Entries: 18
Prize pool: VND 3,600,000,000 (~USD 163,640)
ITM: 3 places
Event #7 Super High Roller Full Payouts
| Place | Name | Player Location | Prize in VND |
| 1 | Nguyen Hoa Thinh | Vietnam | 1,800,000,000 (~USD 81,820) |
| 2 | Huu Dung Nguyen | Vietnam | 1,100,000,000 (~USD 50,000) |
| 3 | Nguyen Nam Duong | Vietnam | 700,000,000 (~USD 31,820) |
Other results
Event #1 Monster Stack: Nguyen Tien Dung – 102,080,000 (~USD 4,640)
Event #2 K.O. Bounty: Julien Tran – 42,000,000 (~USD 1,910)
Event #5 NLHE Deepstack: Tran Thanh Vinh – 26,750,000 (~USD 1,215)
Event #6: Short Deck: Pham Ngoc Quoc Bao – 34,360,000 (~USD 1,560)*
*Denotes deal was made
