Wall to wall action at Day 9 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Vietnam as players poured in Crown Poker Club in capital city Hanoi. The highlight was the High Roller Warm Up event, attracting a 168 entries (110 unique, 58 re-entry) to shatter its VN₫ 2BN guarantee and create a prize pool of VN₫ 8,148,000,000 (~US$ 347,100). To date, this was the largest prize pool of the festival.
With the past couple of days seeing an influx of international players hit the felt, it was no surprise to see many bump elbows with the local pros. Among the attendees were Abhinav Iyer, David Erquiaga, Benjamin Sai, Robert Kiss, and John Perry however all missed the mark.
Roman Kolotiuk
On the thirteen and a half hour mark, the intense action concluded with Russia’s Roman Kolotiuk delivering the bubble to ensure the remaining 21 players a piece of the lucrative pot. Kolotiuk bagged up the sixth largest stack.
Huynh Ngoc Cuong
Locking up the chip lead was a very familiar face, Vietnam’s Huynh Ngoc Cuong who recently won the Mystery Bounty event. Cuong was one of eleven locals that reached the money round. Others making it through were Ngoc Anh Cao, Huu Dung Nguyen, and Player of the Festival second ranked Dinh Tien Thanh. Check out the chip counts below and the payouts.
The final stage of the race is on Thursday, May 25, 2023 starting at 11:30am. Returning players are guaranteed VN₫ 116,000,000 (~US$ 4,940), and for the eventual champion, a massive VN₫ 1,964,000,000 (~US$ 83,660) awaits.
High Roller Warm Up
Date: May 24-25 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 55,000,000 (~US$ 2,345)
Entries: 168 (110 unique, 58 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 8,148,000,000 (~US$ 347,100)
ITM: 21 places
1
HuỳNh NgọC CườNg
1,440,000
2
Alo Toi He Day
1,238,000
3
Huu Dung Nguyen
1,222,000
4
Alan Pham
1,186,000
5
Ngoc Anh Cao
986,000
6
Đinh TiếN Thành
937,000
7
Roman Kolotiuk
880,000
8
Đinh Quang Huy
878,000
9
Daniel Francis
875,000
10
Mike Wilklow
872,000
11
Evgenii Katymqel
849,000
12
Cankai Zhang
831,000
13
Jhon Hendri
748,000
14
Peter Kiem
728,000
15
Hieu Lavita
682,000
16
Pham Bao
510,000
17
Sakai Yuki
482,000
18
Evegnii Chernyl
470,000
19
Ngo Khoa Anh
422,000
20
Van Phing Nguyen
334,000
21
Baby Tuchu
268,000
Payouts
Place
Payout in VN₫
1
1,964,000,000
2
1,307,000,000
3
938,000,000
4
686,000,000
5
511,000,000
6
388,000,000
7
300,000,000
8
237,000,000
9
190,000,000
10
190,000,000
11
161,500,000
12
161,500,000
13
140,500,000
14
140,500,000
15
126,500,000
16
126,500,000
17
116,000,000
18
116,000,000
19
116,000,000
20
116,000,000
21
116,000,000
In addition to the above-mentioned event, a large field was also seen at the two-day Big Bounty with 182 runners (136 unique, 46 re-entry) for a cash pool of VN₫ 855,400,000 (~US$ 36,440). To reach the money round, five double ups were first seen and a cooler that sent Jia Chi Lee‘s stack plunging.
This led to the final hand. Lee was in a three-way shove and was nearly out with 
dominated by 
. Lucky for her, the two-outer materialized on the river to survive elimination while a short stack with 
went bust.
The final 23 players return on Thursday, May 25 at 11am. With every player guaranteed a piece of the pot, the hunt will be for the VN₫ 5M per head scalped and the VN₫ 221,000,000 (~US$ 9,415) top prize.
Date: May 24-25, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 11,000,000 (~US$ 470)
Entries: 182 (136 unique, 46 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 855,400,000 (~US$ 36,440)
Bounty pool: VN₫ 910,000,000 (~US$ 38,765)
ITM: 23 places
End of Day 1 – 23 players
1
Chu Thế Dân
439,000
2
Hưng Lê
402,000
3
Nguyen Duy Anh
357,000
4
TuấN Tùng
320,000
5
Shih Chien Kuei
315,000
6
Man Lok
263,000
7
Phan NgọC Quang
255,000
8
Linh Ran
247,000
9
Beab Su Kim
233,000
10
Jiang Yongbo
216,000
11
Shu Wei Chou
198,000
12
Harvey Woon
198,000
13
Chuan Hsieh
177,000
14
Paul Elliott
145,000
15
Kenji Hamamoto
144,000
16
Laksh Pal Sinh
137,000
17
Shoh Iohinoseki
134,000
18
Jia Chi Lee
105,000
19
Chamaria
91,000
20
Zemedkun Masrsha
88,000
21
Scoh Carmichael
50,000
22
Jae Kyung Sim
28,000
23
Yang Hai Yang
25,000
Payouts
Place
Payout in VN₫
1
221,000,000
2
148,500,000
3
87,500,000
4
53,000,000
5
41,000,000
6
34,000,000
7
29,000,000
8
25,400,000
9
22,000,000
10
19,000,000
11
19,000,000
12
19,000,000
13
16,000,000
14
16,000,000
15
16,000,000
16
13,000,000
17
13,000,000
18
13,000,000
19
10,000,000
20
10,000,000
21
10,000,000
22
10,000,000
23
10,000,000
Thuy Trung Duong wins Superstack Turbo
Thuy Trung Duong
The Superstack Turbo was also quite popular with 90 sign ups. Chinese Texas Holdém Poker Association (CTP) founder David Tai from Taiwan was among the attendees. He ran deep into 3rd place while the title went to Thuy Trung Duong for his first ever WPT cash.
Date: May 24, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 5,500,000 (~US$ 235)
Entries: 90 (80 unique, 10 re-entry)
Prize pool: VN₫ 436,500,000 (~US$ 18,595)
ITM: 12 places
Place
Player
Flag
Payout in VN₫
1
Thuy Trung Duong
Vietnam
138,500,000
2
Ong Chien Chan
Malaysia
83,000,000
3
Hsing Hsiung Tai
Taiwan
52,500,000
4
Yi Te Wu
Taiwan
34,000,000
5
Kazuki Maeda
Japan
26,000,000
6
Long Gia Le
Vietnam
20,700,000
7
Guillame Lecointre
France
17,500,000
8
Marc Inizan
UK
15,200,000
9
Bien Mai
Vietnam
13,900,000
10
Pei Chen Lee
Taiwan
12,600,000
11
Khuong Van Hoang
Vietnam
11,700,000
12
Ivan Govorov
Russia
10,900,000
WPT Player of the Festival – update
After 23 events, there has been a change of leadership. Australia’s Armon Van WIjk has now moved into the top spot after placing second at the Hyper Turbo event. Dinh Tien Thanh has moved one spot down to second rank.
There’s still plenty of time to rake in points with the Main Event coming up on May 25, starting at 11am. The player with the most points accrued at the end of the festival will win a WPT Passport worth $5,000 to be used at any Season XXI Main Tour. Here are the standings.
1st
Armon Van Wijk
850
2nd
Dinh Tien Thanh
775
3rd
Tran Thanh Hung
765
4th
Vu Ta Nhat
750
5th
Nguyen Trung Quan
700
6th
Huynh Ngoc Cuong
650
7th
Avneesh Munjal
630
8th
Chu The Dan
550
9th
Dhaval Mudgal
530
10th
Truong Toan Chan
500
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