India’s Amit Kaushik was awarded his first ever World Poker Tour (WPT) trophy at the Prime Vietnam festival’s 8 Max Main Event Warm Up. At heads up, Kaushik and Duc Minh Phan struck an ICM deal that guaranteed Kaushik VN₫ 1,006,000,000 (~US$ 42,845) and the trophy. Phan didn’t too bad either, walking away with a payout of VN₫ 1,212,000,000 (~US$ 51,620).
Amit Kaushik
“I entered the final table as second in chips so I had to play very carefully. I just waited for the short stacks to bust out. When it was down to 4 players I was comfortably second in chips, even then I didn’t have to do much, the chip leader was doing everything for me. When he eliminated Ashish third, we were very deep, and tired, so he asked for a deal and I got the trophy.”
Going deep didn’t come easy though. Kaushik entered the final day with just 14 big blinds and was ranked 54th out of 60 players.
“By three tables, I really had grind it out to and pick my spots very carefully. I waited for hands. Luckily I was able to build a good stack for the final table.”
You can relive the final table battle via the Crown Poker Club YouTube channel. For action prior to the final table, check out the SMP Live Updates.
8 Max Main Event Warm Up rundown
The 8 Max Main Event Warm Up was a hot item on the schedule pulling in 471 entries over two entry days. This more than tripled the VN₫ 2BN guarantee for a prize pool of VN₫ 6,853,050,000 (~US$ 291,870). With each flight playing down to ITM of 12.5%, a combined 60 players advanced to the final day. Leading in the pack was Australia’s Hanna Azimai who went on to finish in 9th place.
Other players running well were second in chips Linh Ngo Duong aka Duong Phe who finished in 6th place and Trung Duc Vu who entered the day running 8th rank and finished 5th. The most impressive were undoubtedly Duc Minh Phan and Amit Kaushik.
Duc Minh Phan
Phan held the chip lead for a majority of the final day and maintained rank throughout. Among the numerous players under his belt were Dhaval Mudgal on the bubble to the final table and Ashish Munot in 3rd place. Despite Phan’s massive lead at heads up, he relinquished the title to Kaushik while earning the larger ICM payout.
Amit Kaushik
For Kaushik, he climbed the furthest, going from near bottom of 54th rank (out of 60 returnees) at the start of the final day to heads up. He eliminated Anh Tuan Nguyen in 11th place to earn second rank entering the final table. This was Kaushik’s career best WPT performance and second highest live tournament score.
Dates: May 22-24, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 16,500,000 (~US$ 700)
Guarantee: VN₫ 2,000,000,000 (~US$ 85,320)
Entries: 471
Prize pool: VN₫ 6,853,050,000 (~US$ 291,870)
ITM: 60 players
Place
Player
Flag
Payout in VN₫
1
Amit Kaushik
India
1,006,000,000
2
Minh Duc Phan
Vietnam
1,212,000,000
3
Ashish Munot
India
650,000,000
4
Anatolii Gorbushin
Russia
483,000,000
5
Trung Duc Vu
Vietnam
363,000,000
6
Linh Ngo Duong
Vietnam
276,000,000
7
Hung Wei Yeh
Taiwan
212,000,000
8
Siddharth Jolly
India
165,050,000
9
Hanna Azimai
Australia
129,000,000
10
Dhaval Mudgal
India
129,000,000
11
Anh Tuan Nguyen
Vietnam
103,000,000
12
Trung Van Nguyen
Vietnam
103,000,000
13
Luc Tomassi
France
84,000,000
14
Huy Quang Dinh
Vietnam
84,000,000
15
Huy Quang Nguyen
Vietnam
69,500,000
16
Kanchan Sharma
Vietnam
69,500,000
17
Thanh Tien Nguyen
Vietnam
58,500,000
18
Huu Dung Nguyen
Vietnam
58,500,000
19
Thanh Tien Dinh
Vietnam
58,500,000
20
Bien Mai
Vietnam
58,500,000
21
William Bolton
Australia
49,500,000
22
Khanh Xuan Dao
Vietnam
49,500,000
23
Romit Advani
India
49,500,000
24
Kien Trung Pham
Vietnam
49,500,000
25
Thuy Trung Duong
Vietnam
43,000,000
26
Amit Tejura
Vietnam
43,000,000
27
Harsh Bubna
Vietnam
43,000,000
28
Dylan Foster
Vietnam
43,000,000
29
Raju Jaruplavath
Vietnam
43,000,000
30
Roman Kolotiuk
Russia
43,000,000
31
Jun Hao Wu
Singapore
43,000,000
32
Jasven Saigal
India
43,000,000
33
Sang Yoon Kim
Korea
38,000,000
34
Emil Ukalaev
Russia
38,000,000
35
Yu Sheng Lin
Taiwan
38,000,000
36
Shunsuke Tsujii
Japan
38,000,000
37
Dat Van Ngo
Vietnam
38,000,000
38
Cuong Hung Phan
Vietnam
38,000,000
39
Julien Rouxel
Vietnam
38,000,000
40
Konstantin Generalov
Russia
38,000,000
41
Kohei Nakai
Japan
34,000,000
42
Sebastian Mueller
Germany
34,000,000
43
Hieu Duc Nguyen
Vietnam
34,000,000
44
Anh Khoa Ngo
Vietnam
34,000,000
45
Son Thai Hoang
Vietnam
34,000,000
46
Tran Hai Dang Le
Vietnam
34,000,000
47
Laksh Pal Singh
India
34,000,000
48
Lich Van Vu
Vietnam
34,000,000
49
Thanh Tu Le
Australia
31,000,000
50
Nam Dinh Phan
Vietnam
31,000,000
51
Shung Er Sua
Malaysia
31,000,000
52
Khoi Nguyen
Vietnam
31,000,000
53
Tu Phuong Nguyen
Vietnam
31,000,000
54
Tuan Bao To
Vietnam
31,000,000
55
Dung Anh Tran
Vietnam
29,500,000
56
Viet Van Nguyen
Vietnam
29,500,000
57
Michael Wilklow
Vietnam
29,500,000
58
Eric Wasylenko
Canada
29,500,000
59
Li Wen Xuan
Singapore
29,500,000
60
Mohit Bohra
India
29,500,000
Tags:
WPTVietnam2023
