Poker in Asia is on the rise and the number of tournaments and leagues is increasing every year. After the grand success of its tournament series in China last year and Philippine this year, the Asia Poker League (APL) headed to Vietnam with its APL Road Series Vol. 2 in Vietnam, which kicked off on 25 May and will run through 4 June 2018 at the newly-opened Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh City.
Over 30 Indian players are participating in the series and we have two young Indians, who have won their first-ever international titles, namely Devesh Thapar and Adarsh Jayappa from Bengaluru.
The Delhi lad Devesh Thapar won the VND 4,000,000 KO Bounty for VND 94,164,000 ( INR 2.77 Lac), while Bengaluru’s Adarsh Jayappa shipped the Super Deepstack Turbo for VND 112,499,000 (INR 3.31 Lac) to claim the coveted title. Thapar who was also a part of the runner-up team Gujrat Falcons in PSL Season 2 is an emerging talent. Last year, he took part in WSOPE at Casino King’s Rozvadov and made the deepest run from Team India finishing 66th in THE COLOSSUS for €3,361 (INR2,53,042). He has also made several deep runs at various DPT Events happening in Goa.
After losing a big hand near the bubble, Devesh entered the final table as the shortest stack but got a double-up in the very first hand. Then, he went crushing and eventually won the coveted title.
“It was a 2-day bounty event with134 registrations. I registered very late but luckily made a huge stack. But near the bubble, when there were 15 players left, I lost a big hand with the guy 3rd in chips QQ v AK. And I became 13/15 and then it came to the final table, I had 2.5 big blinds which was like the shortest. The FT started and I doubled in the first hand KJ V A8. Then, I went crushing after that, I was always ahead and my hands held. I became the chip leader in heads-up and with God’s grace, I won the event.”
On the final hand, Thapar had Kx Jx against his opponent’s 4x 4x. The board ran Jx 6x Ax 6x 3x”.
Devesh was elated and said, “Taking down 5k USD. It was a great experience and my first 1 place finish gave me my first international title”. When asked about what he was looking forward to the most in the series, he said, “I will be looking forward to High Roller event, because it has a unique structure.”
There are several players playing in the series from Bengaluru, namely, Vidwath Shetty, Mukunda Dashrathy, Anik Ajmera, Adarsh Jayappa and Chiraag Patel. However, it is Jayappa who is shining among them. He won Super Deep Stack Event. He has also made deep runs across DPT events.
Meanwhile, the APL Main Event has got underway and several players from Team India have entered Day 2, including Chiraag Patel (194,900), Sumit Sapra (142,600), Kush Kataria (121,500), Akshay Nasa (113,800), Rana Singh (109,700), Dhaval Mudgal (101,700), Vidwath Shetty (89,400), Zarvan Tumboli (75,700), Rubin Labroo (59,900) and Varun Gupta (38,600).
Stay tuned in for the latest updates from APL Main Event and other APL events ahead!