Running from 6-17 November at the Pro Poker Club, this year’s final edition of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam concluded yesterday. The festival featured an incredible five tournaments on its schedule yesterday. The most prominent of them all was the VND 6 Billion GTD Championships Event, which ran from 13 to 17 November and drew 179 entries to generate a whopping VND 6,077,050,000 ( INR 1.88 Crores) in prizepool, which was eventually shared by the top 18 finishers.
In the end, the largest share of the prizepool went to France’s Vincent Chauve who took down the marquee event after a gruelling three-hour heads-up with Japan’s Go Mori to win the first-place VND 1,576,810,000 (INR 48.81 Lac) prize. Mori settled for VND 1,051,200,000 as second place prizemoney.
Chuave has been in good form at the series. The French player finished runner-up to India’s Akshay Nasa in the Main Event and then did better in the Championships Event to eventually win the title.
Chuave entered the heads-up with a 4:1 advantage though, Mori fought hard and was able to take the chip lead once. However, Chuave regained his lead and eventually went on to win the title. The last hand of the dual saw Chauve move all-in for 8.1 Million with Kc Jh. Mori, who was left with 560,000, decided to call with 10d 7s. The board ran 5s 3s 6s 9c 6h, giving the title to Chuave!
From Team India, Dhaval Mudgal who won the first-ever WPT Vietnam Main Event title last year was chasing his second major title in Vietnam. The veteran pro entered Day 2 as the chip leader and then began the final table play with the second largest stack. While he was one of the favourites to win the title, but his run eventually ended in the third place for VND 730,780,000 (INR 22.62 Lac)!
2019 has been a fantastic year for Mudgal as the talented pro has been doing pretty well especially on the live felts. His 3rd place finish in the Championships Event was by far his 8th FT finish this year.
There were two Indians entering Day 3 of the Championships Event. Another player coming back for Day 3 among 26 survivors was Laksh Pal Singh, who had a roller-coaster ride. He started off well by winning some crucial pots, but later his stack came down. While he managed a double-up through Dhaval Mudgal to make a comeback and grow his stack to 244k, he ultimately exited in 10th place for VND 136,880,000 (INR 4.23 Lac) after his pocket sixes did not hold up on a 6x 7h 9d Jh Kh board. .
Final Table Payouts (VND)
- Vincent Chauve – VND 1,576,810,000
- Go Mori – VND 1,051,200,000
- Dhaval Mudgal – VND 730,780,000
- Tien Pham – VND 527,830,000
- Fu Bang Huang – VND 394,730,000
- Kang Feng Lien – VND 304,650,000
- Kensuke Koizumi – VND 241,920,000
- Vincent Huang – VND 197,100,000
Akshay Nasa Finishes Runner-Up In The VND 65M High Rollers
Another exciting event on the final day schedule was the VND 65 Million buy-in High Rollers that drew 18 entries. Topping the field was the Korean Pro Soo Jo Kim who earned 400,000,000 ( INR 12.38 Lac) for his win. The latest APT Main Event champion, Akshay Nasa who was chasing for his second title at the poker series finished runner-up and banked VND 347,600,000 (INR 10.76 Lac).
Nasa was the star performer at the series. After winning the latest APT Vietnam Main Event, he was in contention for the second title in the penultimate High Roller event of the series. While the young gun fought well, he could not go all the way, eventually losing the title to Korea’s Soo Jo Kim.
Final Table Payouts (VND)
- Soo Jo Kim – 400,000,000
- Akshay Nasa – 347,600,000
- Lau King Lun Alan – 300,000,000
The Asian Poker Tour came to an end with the declaration of the APT Player of the Series winner, which was also won by Vincent Chauve. It was a landmark week for him with a runner-up finish and a major win, earning him 1065.83 points on the POS Leaderboard to win the coveted POS title.