The launch of WPT Prime reached its halfway mark with six days of festivities already completed at the Crown Poker Club in Hanoi, Vietnam. From the get-go, turnout has been tremendous. Eager players jumped the felt early to test their skill and luck against the new format, and hopefully capture one of the coveted new trophies. The latest player to pull it off was USA’s Duy Ho at the Mystery Bounty event. Ho crushed the final table and defeated Vietnam’s Hai Le in just three quick hands. He is now race leader in the Player of the Festival leaderboard. Another big winner was Thailand’s Nuttaya Shinawatra who drew the single largest bounty prize of VN₫ 170,000,000 (~US$ 7,335). Check out the video highlights.
The Mystery Bounty event attracted a combined 256 entries across two flights to boost the prize pool well over VN₫ 2.4 Million. Each flight bagged at ITM for a total of 33 players advancing (Flight A – 18 players, Flight B – 15 players). Making headlines once again was Deepstack Cheap Freeze champion Ngo Minh Trien who topped the overall chip counts. Also newsworthy was the ultimate bubble round where short stack Ho eliminated an even shorter stacked player when his 
shove found success with a five on the flop to defeat 
.
As expected, Day 2 was filled with drama and excitement as the returning players hunted down the largest bounty prizes, most especially the lone VN₫ 170M in the mix. It took seven attempts before Shinawatra came up to the plate after eliminating Singapore’s Li Wenxuan (26th). As the only woman in the field, lady luck shined on her, drawing the one-outer envelope to send her rail erupting.
Leading up to the final table, Ho eliminated Victor Lam in 13th place. On the big blind Ho defended with 
which improved to two pairs on the flop to dust and bust Lam‘s pocket Aces. The day’s entering leader Tien exited 12th; and to form the final table, Nguyen Hoang Linh dominated Hong Kong’s Yik “Ray” Chiu out in 10th place.
Buy in: VN₫ 11,000,000 (~US$ 475)
Guarantee: VN₫ 1,000,000,000 (~US$ 43,150)
Entries: 256
Cash prize pool: VN₫ 1,664,000,000 (~US$ 373,852)
Bounty pool: VN₫ 819,200,000 (~US$ 35,348)
ITM: 33 players
Total prize pool: VN₫ 2,483,200,000
Most kills: Hai Le = 6
Richest in bounties: Nuttaya Shinawatra = VN₫ 179,200,000
Highest grossing: Hai Le = VN₫ 422,083,000
Final table payouts in Vietnamese Dong
| Place | Player | Flag | Payout | Bounties | Total |
| 1st | Duy Ho | USA | 321,517,000 | 47,500,000 | 369,017,000 |
| 2nd | Hai Le | Vietnam | 274,583,000 | 147,500,000 | 422,083,000 |
| 3rd | Nguyen Tien Thanh “Villanelle” | Vietnam | 213,903,000 | 45,000,000 | 258,903,000 |
| 4th | Nuttaya Shinawatra | Thailand | 103,500,000 | 179,200,000 | 282,700,000 |
| 5th | Rajesh Sabapathy | Australia | 80,000,000 | 20,000,000 | 100,000,000 |
| 6th | Nguyen Hoang Linh | Vietnam | 65,000,000 | 40,000,000 | 105,000,000 |
| 7th | Huynh Ngoc Cuong | Vietnam | 55,000,000 | 55,000,000 | |
| 8th | Le Van Dien “Kenny” | Vietnam | 46,000,000 | 90,000,000 | 136,000,000 |
| 9th | David Erquiaga | Philippines | 38,000,000 | 38,000,000 |
Final Table
First to tumble was Philippines’ David Erquiaga. Prior to reaching the final table, Erquiaga survived a staggering six all in showdowns with one of the hands earning him a triple up. Le Van Dien aka Kenny followed in 8th place. Kenny eliminated four players to boost his payout three times over. It took time before the next bust. Hai Le was clearly in command until Ho lucked out with 
straight cracking the leader’s pocket Kings. From there, Ho was on fire. He outdrew Huynh Ngoc Cuong with 
pairing the king to beat 
, then in separate hands, he burned both Nguyen Hoang Linh (6th) and Rajesh Sabapathy (5th) on the river. To bring about heads up, Hai Le matched Ho in final table kills, cleaning out both Nuttaya Shinawatra (4th), and Nguyen Tien Thanh “Villanelle” (3rd). In total, Hai Le scalped the most heads totaling six kills.
Before heads up got underway, the pair immediately reached an ICM deal and opted to play for the trophy plus split the remaining two bounties down the middle. Ho went on to victory, shaving down Hai Le in just three quick hands.
Remaining payouts 10th to 33rd
| 10th | Yik Chiu “Ray” | Hong Kong | 32,000,000 | 5,000,000 | 37,000,000 |
| 11th | Dang Quang Thi | Vietnam | 32,000,000 | 32,000,000 | |
| 12th | Ngo Minh Tien | Vietnam | 32,000,000 | 110,000,000 | 142,000,000 |
| 13th | Vu Hoai Lam “Victor” | Vietnam | 27,500,000 | 125,000,000 | 152,500,000 |
| 14th | Lasse Klieve Lien | Malta | 27,500,000 | 5,000,000 | 32,500,000 |
| 15th | Duc Hanh Pham “Minh Than” | Vietnam | 27,500,000 | 27,500,000 | |
| 16th | Minh A Nguyen | Vietnam | 23,000,000 | 23,000,000 | |
| 17th | Duong Vi Khoa | Vietnam | 23,000,000 | 23,000,000 | |
| 18th | Dinh Xuan Dinh | Vietnam | 23,000,000 | 23,000,000 | |
| 19th | Dang Duy Thanh | Vietnam | 19,000,000 | 19,000,000 | |
| 20th | Le Anh Minh | Vietnam | 19,000,000 | 19,000,000 | |
| 21st | Julien Melet | France | 19,000,000 | 5,000,000 | 24,000,000 |
| 22nd | Van Sang Nguyen | Vietnam | 15,000,000 | 15,000,000 | |
| 23rd | Nam Le | Vietnam | 15,000,000 | 15,000,000 | |
| 24th | Mai Tri Minh aka Max Black | Vietnam | 15,000,000 | 15,000,000 | |
| 25th | Zach Bernstein | Thailand | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 26th | Li Wenxuan | Singapore | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 27th | Kim Truong Son Nguyen “Jason” | Vietnam | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 28th | Tien Quyet Pham “Teddy” | Vietnam | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 29th | Nhu Hai Le | Vietnam | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 30th | Tran Van Thinh aka Tuan Lam | Vietnam | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 31st | Ngoc Tuan Truong | Vietnam | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 32nd | Bien Mai | Vietnam | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 | |
| 33rd | Cao Ngoc Anh | Vietnam | 13,000,000 | 13,000,000 |
Player of the Festival update
The race is steamy at the Player of the Festival with the US$ 5,000 WPT Passport prize to any brand Main Tour of choice causing players to rethink their deals. While money can be negotiated, points are not. With the completion of the Mystery Bounty event, champion Duy Ho now leads the race with 750 points. He overtook four time final tablist Vu Thai Bao in second rank with 710 points. Satellites and Super Stars Challenge Invitational are not point-generating. Here are the top 5 after 10 side events.
| DUY HỒ | 750 |
| VŨ THÁI BẢO | 710 |
| Nguyễn Tú Phương | 600 |
| NGÔ MINH TIẾN | 525 |
| NGUYỄN DUY THỨC | 500 |
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
WPT Prime Vietnam – Phuong Xu wins the Opener
WPT Prime Vietnam – Bien Mai, Duy Thuc Nguyen, Pham Quang Huy win trophies
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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