Full house at the Grand Loyal Poker Club on Thursday, January 12 as players converged for the final two flights of the World Poker Championship MAIN EVENT. Kicking it off was Day 1C which was the most popular with a thunderous 233 signing up. Only 29 reached the money round led by Vietnam’s Nguyen Xuan Thang who bagged 725,000 (91 BB) to give him the momentary chip lead entering Day 2.
In contrast, the final flight, Day 1D (Turbo), drew the smallest starting field of 111 entries, however by bagging time, UK’s Grant Gardner sat on a massive 783,000 (98 BB) stack to earn the overall top spot into the next round. Coming Day 2, Gardner and Thang will enter as frontrunners and are the only two players with stacks over 90 BB.
Grant Gardner
The bustling day also saw the return of Korean pro Soo Jo Kim to the Asian live circuit. For the past three years, Kim has spent his live poker career on home turf and in the USA. He bagged up the third overall largest stack of 68 BB. Also making the cut was the newest Super Star Challenge winner Gab Yong Kim with 58 BB.
Here are the top 10 in chips:
Rank
Player
Flag
Stack
BB
1
Grant Gardner
UK
783,000
98
2
Nguyen Xuan Thang
Vietnam
725,000
91
3
Soo Jo Kim
Korea
543,000
68
4
Jun Min Park
Korea
532,000
67
5
Luckyman9999
Vietnam
494,000
62
6
Seo Moon Hoo
Korea
488,000
61
7
Le Huy Thanh
Vietnam
485,000
61
8
Jae Hyung Park
Korea
474,000
59
9
Gab Yong Kim
Korea
461,000
58
10
Tam Hoi Wai
Hong Kong
458,000
57
CLICK HERE FOR DAY 2 CHIP COUNTS
Main Event review
From January 10 to 12, the WPC Main Event served four starting days to try to qualify into the next round. 651 took their chances, and with buy in at ₫25,000,000 each, the guarantee was easily shattered for a sweeter ₫14,244,000,000 (~$607,600) prize pool.
CLICK HERE FOR DAY 2 CHIP COUNTS
Dates: January 10 to 14
Buy in: ₫25,000,000 (~$1,060)
Guarantee: ₫10,000,000,000 (~$425,080)
Starting Day
Entries
Survivors
Day 1A
139
17
Day 1B
168
22
Day 1C
233
29
Day 1D (turbo)
111
14
Total entries: 651
Day 2 qualifiers: 82 players
The 82 survivors return to the felt on Friday, January 13 and will race for a final table seat. Cards start flying at 12pm. Everyone is guaranteed ₫36,000,000 (~$1,535) but what they will be gunning for is the juicy winner’s purse of ₫2,710,000,000 (~$115,600). For those in the running, make sure to take note of the list below:
30-seconds action clock will be in play starting Day 2
Day 2 onwards will see blinds increase every 60 minutes
Day 2 will play down to the final 9 players
Redraw at final 24 players and final 9 players
Final table is on Saturday, January 14
Payouts
Place
Payout in VN₫
1st
2,710,000,000
2nd
1,880,000,000
3rd
1,140,000,000
4th
860,000,000
5th
680,000,000
6th
540,000,000
7th
425,000,000
8th
335,000,000
9th
267,000,000
11th – 12th
210,000,000
13th – 14th
170,000,000
15th – 16th
140,000,000
17th – 20th
116,000,000
21st – 24th
97,000,000
25th – 32nd
82,000,000
33rd – 40th
70,000,000
41st – 48th
61,000,000
49th – 56th
54,000,000
57th – 64th
48,000,000
65th – 72nd
43,000,000
73rd – 80th
39,000,000
81st – 82nd
36,000,000
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Live Poker, News, WPCHanoiLoyal2023
