After nine hours of play, India’s Vishal Ojha emerged as the new U Series of Poker (USOP) Main Event champion! Ojha outlasted the record-breaking turnout of 1,336 entries to capture his maiden live title and a life-changing ₫4,952,000,000 (~$205,840) ICM payout deal. In a brief interview with the champ, he shared,
“It feels surreal! It will take about two days to sink in. I’ve had a few wins online but this is my first live event trophy, in fact, my first big final table so it feels great! I feel I played well at the final table. There were a few spots where I would have played differently but overall it was good. This win is really special. I wasn’t planning to attend live events in the future but now for sure! I’ll probably extend my stay in Vietnam to play.”
Early at the final table with eight players left, Hu Jin Long fired on every street with a massive bet on the river 
, Ojha called with 
and won it with Hu 
bluffing. This sent Ojha soaring to the chip lead,
“The reason I called was I’ve been playing with these players for three days now so I had a good read on them.”
When asked why he chose to attend USOP Hanoi Main Event, Ojha said,
“I’ve been grinding online events, specifically these Sunday games. Once I reached that level of my bankroll to attend live events, I decided to come over.”
Ojha faced Vietnam’s Mai Bien at heads up. Both players dominated the final table, each one tugging at the chip lead. However, this wasn’t the first time the duo engaged in a showdown. During the final starting flight – Day 1D Turbo – Mai was all in on the bubble with 
set on the turn, Ojha called with 
set, board completed 
. This gave Mai the overall chip lead entering Day 2.
Read up on the final day race via the Final Day – Live Updates and watch the final table race to victory via the livestream:
Main Event review
The USOP Hanoi Main Event was the biggest and richest tournament in Vietnam history pulling in 1,336 over four entry flights for a massive prize pool of VN₫ 29,158,200,000 (~USD 1,212,000). The top 168 players claimed a cut. You can find the complete results via the link at the bottom of the page.
Date: September 7 to 11, 2023
Buy in: ₫25,000,000 (~USD 1,057)
Guarantee: VN₫ 12,000,000,000 (~USD 500,000)
Day 1A: 268 entries (175 unique) / 34 ITM
Day 1B: 357 entries {214 unique) / 45 ITM
Day 1C: 433 entries (285 unique) / 54 ITM
Day 1D (Turbo): 278 entries (153 unique) / 35 ITM
Day 2: 18 players remaining
Total entries: 1,336 (459 unique)
Prize pool: VN₫ 29,158,200,000 (~USD 1,212,000)
ITM: 168 players
Final table payouts
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout in VND |
| 1 | Vishal Ojha | India | 4,952,000,000* |
| 2 | Mai Bien | Vietnam | 4,298,000,000* |
| 3 | Yao Ren Hao | China | 2,105,000,000 |
| 4 | Lee Kun Han | Taiwan | 1,520,000,000 |
| 5 | Ewe Eng Soon | Malaysia | 1,020,000,000 |
| 6 | Tan Xiao Hui | China | 735,000,000 |
| 7 | Le Ngoc Minh | Vietnam | 620,000,000 |
| 8 | Hu Jin Long | China | 532,000,000 |
| 9 | Charles Wong | Hong Kong | 455,000,000 |
*Heads up ICM deal, played for the trophy
For the complete results head to USOP Hanoi – Festival Results
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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