Th World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Vietnam festival concluded its third day of games at the Crown Poker Club in Hanoi with another three players crowned as champions. Making waves at the WPT Opener final table was India’s Avneesh Munjal who dominated the all-Vietnamese competition, eliminating an astounding seven opponents.
At other side events, locals Trung Gia Nguyen and Duy Anh Nguyen also walked away victorious however no champion yet at the Mystery Bounty. The first of three flights completed with 17 reaching the money round. Here are those stories and results.
FESTIVAL RESULTS
India’s Avneesh Munjal dominates to seize maiden live title at the WPT Opener
Making it look easy, India’s Avneesh Munjal kicked off his WPT Prime Vietnam run with a victory at the WPT Opener. Munjal’s rise to the top began by bagging the chip lead at the end of Day 1C to earn him the third largest stack into Day 2. By the time the final table was reached, Munjal moved up one notch to second rank and was the only non-Vietnamese in the round. Impressively, he proceeded to eliminate seven out of his eight opponents to capture his maiden live title and a career live payout of VN₫ 770,000,000 (~US$ 32,280).
Avneesh Munjal
“This is what I’ve been preparing for. The online tournaments that I keep practicing, so it feels great. It was all about patience especially at heads up. I was leading 6:1 and then he was almost near stack at one point but I just stayed patient.”
You can read up on the highlights below or relive the action via the recorded livestream.
Briefly summarizing his final table heater, Munjal eliminated Ngoc Anh Cao (9th) with 
outdrawing 
with two Queens on the board. Next on the chopping block was Quang Van Pham (8th) whose pocket Tens ran into Munjal’s pocket Jacks. After a series of shoves that led to Duy Tien Pham eliminating Phuong Ngoc Nguyen (7th), Pham also couldn’t get by Munjal, falling in 6th place with 
unable to improve against 
.
Before delivering his fourth knockout, Phuong Van Nguyen was the first to double up off Munjal with pocket Aces tough to crack. Munjal made up the lost chips by sending Bao Thai Vu (5th) to his knees with pocket Queens dominating pocket Jacks. It didn’t take long for short stacked Phuong to join the railbirds as Munjal claimed his fifth final table bust.
Vũ Tá NhấT
Down to three, Ta Nhat Vu survived two all in showdowns against Munjal but not so fortunate for Tuan Anh Nguyen whose 
did not improve against the leader’s 
.
Heads up kicked off with Munjal ahead 99 bb to Vu’s 26 bb. Vu proved a tough adversary, winning pot after pot without a showdown to grind to par and at one point take the lead. Munjal recovered and wit just 5 big blinds apart, the final hand landed. Munjal’s 
won the flip against Vu’s 
on a board 
.
Date: May 16-18, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 8,800,000 (~US$ 375)
Guarantee: VN₫ 2,000,000,000 (~US$ 85,280)
Entries: 510
Prize pool: VN₫ 3,957,600,000 (~US$ 168,750)
ITM: 65 players
Final table payouts
Place
Player
Flag
Payouts in VN₫
1
Avneesh Munjal
India
770,000,000
2
Ta Nhat Vu
Vietnam
540,000,000
3
Tuan Anh Nguyen
Vietnam
345,000,000
4
Van Phuong Nguyen
Vietnam
240,000,000
5
Thai Bao Vu
Vietnam
185,000,000
6
Duy Tien Pham
Vietnam
154,700,000
7
Phuong Ngoc Nguyen
Vietnam
128,000,000
8
Quang Van Pham
Vietnam
102,500,000
9
Ngoc Anh Cao
Vietnam
77,000,000
FULL PAYOUTS IN FESTIVAL RESULTS
LIVE UPDATES – WPT OPENER
Trung Gia Nguyen wins the Megastack NLH
Trung Gia Nguyen
The Megastack NLH was a popular one with 131 entries for a prize pool of VN₫ 508,280,000 (~US$ 21,670). Six and half hours in, the bubble burst on a short stack forced to go all in on the big blind and Dan Chu The cleaning up. Dan went on to reach heads up against Trung Gia Nguyen however he could not break down his opponent’s massive stack to fall in 2nd place. The final hand was a short-lived celebration by Dan who was all in with against Nguyen’s 
and the flop awarding him a small pair 
. However the turn 
and river was top pair for Nguyen to ship it and earn the VN₫ 143,500,000 top prize.
Date: May 18, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 4,400,000 (~US$ 188)
Entries: 131 (105 unique, 26 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 508,280,000 (~US$ 21,670)
ITM: 17 places
Place
Player
Flag
Payouts in VN₫
1
Trung Gia Nguyen
Vietnam
143,500,000
2
Dan Chu The
Vietnam
90,900,000
3
Joachim Malik
Germany
53,900,000
4
Song Tang Wen
Vietnam
33,000,000
5
Wai Sum Ng
Hong Kong
25,200,000
6
Thang Ming Tran
Vietnam
21,300,000
7
Thang Quang Do
Vietnam
18,500,000
8
Quan Huan Shi
New Zealand
16,300,000
9
Dhaval Mudgal
India
14,380,000
10
Kyle Bao Diep
USA
12,700,000
11
Kevin Lee
New Zealand
12,700,000
12
Supanat Changkid
Thailand
12,700,000
13
Raj Gokul
India
11,200,000
14
Hung Xuang Hoang
Vietnam
11,200,000
15
Surachai Phoemphun
Thailand
11,200,000
16
Linh Khanh Ta
Vietnam
9,800,000
17
Pawanat Inthvyos
Thailand
9,800,000
Duy Anh Nguyen flips for the 15/15/15 PLO trophy
Anh Duy Nguyen
The 15/15/15 PLO event was the last event on offer for the day. After a lengthy heads up, big stacked Duy Anh Nguyen agreed on a deal then flipped for the trophy. He won it with 
.
Date: May 18, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 3,300,000 (~US$ 140)
Entries: 44 (28 unique, 16 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 128,040,000 (~US$ 5,460)
ITM: 6 places
*Heads up deal, flipped for the trophy
Place
Player
Flag
Payouts in VN₫
1
Duy Anh Nguyen
Vietnam
42,000,000*
2
Van Ky Lam
Vietnam
37,400,000*
3
Armon Van Wijk
Australia
17,900,000
4
Siddartha Jolly
India
12,800,000
5
Hung Thanh Tran
Vietnam
10,300,000
6
Siyool Lee
Korea
7,740,000
Mystery Bounty – Day 1A results
Swell turnout at Day 1A of the Mystery Bounty with 132 entering for a shot at the VN₫ 3,000,000,000 (~US$ 127,920) guaranteed prize pool. This was the first of three flights scheduled. To reach the end of day, it took 27 hands before the bubble burst. Quang Trung Nguyen pushed on the button with and small blind short stack risked it with 
. The board came 
for a straight to Nguyen. He bagged up the second largest stack with UK’s Stephen Nathan as chip leader.
Stephen Nathan
Buy in: VN₫ 11,000,000 (~US$ 470)
Guarantee: VN₫ 3,000,000,000 (~US$ 127,920)
Day 1A: 132 entries / 17 survivors (ITM)
Day 1B: Friday, May 19, 2023 at 11am
Day 1C: Saturday, May 20, 2023 at 11am
End of Day 1A – 17 survivors
Rank
Player
Flag
Stack
1
Stephen Nathan
UK
388,000
2
NguyễN Trung Quân
Vietnam
276,500
3
Ngô Văn ĐạT
Vietnam
241,000
4
Ngô TrầN Minh NhậT
Vietnam
198,000
5
NguyễN Thanh Hùng
Vietnam
192,000
6
HuỳNh NgọC CườNg
Vietnam
180,000
7
Daniel Francis
New Zealand
179,000
8
NguyễN NgọC ĐạI
Vietnam
165,000
9
NguyễN Văn ViệT
Vietnam
145,000
10
QuốC Hưng
Vietnam
137,000
11
Hanna Azimai
Australia
107,000
12
Cornan Zsolt
Romania
106,500
13
Evgeii Nekrasov
Russia
98,500
14
Armon Van Wijk
Australia
87,000
15
Alok Birewar
India
62,000
16
Aleksei Varashev
Russia
50,000
17
NguyễN TiếN Thành
Vietnam
26,500
Tags:
WPTVietnam2023
