APT Vietnam 2019: USA’s Duy Ho (565,500) Tops 77 Main Event Day 2 Survivors, Young Gun Abhinav Iyer (272,500) Leads 6 Indians to Day 3

The 2019 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam has captured the attention of the railbirds back home with Team India continuing it`s forward march in the VND 8 Billion GTD Main Event.

The Pro Poker Club of Ho Chin Minh City saw three events play out over the weekend. Day 2 of the Main Event witnessed 250 players fighting to progress to Day 3. Out of the 77 participants who survived the day, USA`s Duy Ho bagged the chip lead with 565,500, followed by Van Ngoc Binh (540,000) and Huu Tuan Nguyen (523,000).

From India, 19 players were seen in action at the start of Day 2, with Manish Lakhotia (108,100), Meherzad Munsaf (107,700) and Young Gun Abhinav Iyer (95,200) holding the three-biggest stacks. While Lakhotia, along with 12 other Indian challengers failed to reach Day 3, Iyer had a fantastic day at the felts as he bagged a stack of 272,500. He will be leading the remaining six Indian contenders on Day 3.

Indian Chip Counts For Day 3

With only 58 places guaranteed to receive payouts, the competition is sure to get more heated as we near the final table.

Two side events, the NLH Single Day 2 and 3 also played out over the weekend. Malaysian pro Kiat Lee shipped the NLH Single Day 2 for VND 102,947,000, while NLH Single Day 3 crowned a winner in China’s Jinlong Hu who banked VND 165,150,000 in prize money.

Main Event – Day 2 Recap

Out of the 250 runners who returned to the felts on Day 2, 19 were Indians. After 8 hours of rigorous play, only six among them made the cut for Day 3.

Among the six Indians who made Day 3 is the 2018 WPT Vietnam Main Event winner Dhaval Mudgal. Mudgal came into Day 2 with a workable stack of 46,700 that he was carrying forward from Day 1C. He made it through to Day 3 with 89,000 in chips.

His name first popped up in the APT live update in level 10, where he raised to 2,000 from middle position and Lim Lung Huan called from the button, followed by Andreas Rauh in the big blind. The flop opened . Mudgal check-raised to 2,500 and Huan and Rauh called yet again. The and completed the board. Mudgal tabled to win the pot against Rauh’s , while Huan mucked his hand.

Towards the end of the day, Mudgal lost a big pot of Mai Te. With the board running , Te’s got the better of Mudgal who mucked his hand.

Another Indian challenger who advanced to Day 3 was Meherzad Munsaf. He had the second-biggest stack of 107,700, among the Indian contingent at the start of the day and after a rough day at work, he bagged 43,000 for Day 3.

One of the key hands for Munsaf came in level 14. In a three-way hand, Munsaf held , against two opponents holding and respectively. The runout got Munsaf the nut flush and he eliminated one of the two players.

Another Indian challenger still in contention in the Main Event, Vinod Meglamani was also seen losing his chips to Nguyen Duc Bien during the last levels of the day. He bagged 123,000 by the time the bags were brought out.

Headlining the Indian battalion on Day 3 will be Young Gun Abhinav Iyer. He opened the day with 95,200 and consolidated to a very impressive 272,500 in chips by the time play wrapped up.

Joining Iyer on Day 3 will be fellow countrymen Eka Vedantham (121,500) and Jason Pereira (61,000).

Topping the 77 survivors of the Day 2 was USA`s Duy Ho with 565,500 in chips. Ho is trailed by Van Ngoc Binh (540,000) and Huu Tuan Nguyen (523,000), who round up the top three stacks for Day 3.

Other notable stacks include Daiki Hirokawa (330,500), Sim Kok Wai (324,000), Mark Gruendemann (284,000), Zhou Jun (251,500) and Masaki Nakamura (195,000).

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 2

1. Duy Ho – 565,500

2. Van Ngoc Binh – 540,000

3. Huu Tuan Nguyen – 523,000

4. Huu Dung Nguyen – 445,000

5. Phan Dinh Nam – 436,700

6. Zheng Xiaosheng – 432,000

7. Mai Te – 430,500

8. Shi Peng Fei – 425,000

9. Lin Yuu Sheng – 381,000

10. Lim Kooon Ting Daniel – 359,500

NLH Single Day 2

NLH Single Day 2 pulled in 105 entries and topping them all was Malaysia’s Kiat Lee who pocketed VND 102,947,000, after striking a three-way deal.

During the final table, with only three players left, Lee, who was the shortest stack, struck an ICM deal with the other two players that left VND 12 Million and the trophy up for grabs.

First up, Lee eliminated Jeonggyu Cho in third place (for VND 117,598,000), setting up his heads-up date with Vinh Tran. However, Tran decided to forfeit the trophy to Lee and split the remaining pot, which resulted in Tran walking away with VND 111,292,000 in prize money.

Final Table Result (VND)

1. Kiat Lee – VND 102,947,000*

2. Vinh Tran – VND 111,292,000*

3. Jeonggyu Cho – VND 117,598,000*

4. Hii Wang Kiong – VND 52,148,000

5. Tetsuya Tsuchikawa – VND 38,998,000

6. Dinh Xuan Dinh – VND 30,098,000

7. Soh Chye Wee – VND 23,901,000

8. David Battersby – VND 19,473,000

9. Nguyen Dinh Thi – VND 16,228,000

10. Cheong Mun Wahandy – VND 13,523,000

*denotes three-way deal

NLH Single Day 3

NLH Single Day 3 ran alongside the Main Event and still managed to draw in 169 entries, collecting VND 983,580,000 in prize pool. With only 29 players assured payouts, the race to finish in the money was intense. In the end, China’s Jinlong Hu emerged as the winner and banked the VND 165,150,000 top prize.

The final three players locked in a deal, following which play continued till 1am. After the chip lead was taken over by Cho Yi Pang from Huynh Van Tan, a three-way showdown took place.

With the community cards open, Pang finished in third place with his . Tan was relegated to the runner-up spot with his as it failed to match up to Hu’s .

You can catch the final table action here.

Final Table Results (VND)

1. Jinlong Hu – VND 165,150,000*

2. Huynh Van Tan – VND 143,700,000*

3. Cho Yi Pang – VND 163,018,000*

4. Nguyen Duy Tung – VND 74,782,000

5. Francis Garson – VND 55,925,000

6. Min Zhang – VND 43,162,000

7. Nguyen Thanh Dat – VND 34,275,000

8. Marisa Devic – VND 27,925,000

*denotes three-way deal

With the High Rollers 1 and Short Deck (Shot Clock) events slated to begin today, it promises to be another exciting day at the 2019 APT Kickoff Vietnam!

Images & Content courtesy: theasianpokertour.com

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