APT Vietnam 2019: China’s Mai Te (198,400) Bags Overall Chip Lead Among 250 Runners Advancing to Day 2, Niranjan NJ (83,600) Leads 9 Indians Coming Through Day 1C

Vietnam has fast become one of the most active live poker destinations in Asia, and the weekend proved just that once again, as the VND 8 Billion GTD Main Event at the 2019 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam played out its third and final starting flight on Saturday. As expected, Day 1C attracted the largest turnout with 301 entries (includes 86 re-entries) joining the action.

China’s Mai Te remained at the forefront among the 145 players who advanced to Day 2 with a stack of 198,400. Te was already holding a massive stack as the play entered its last level of the day, but he rose to the top of the rankings after eliminating two players in quick succession. Te will also begin Day 2 as the overall chip leader among 250 survivors (includes 42 from Day 1A and 63 from Day 1B) from all the three starting flights.

The Indian contingent put in another strong showing on Day 1C with a big group of pros joining the action. The flight in fact saw the largest number of Indians – nine in all- making it through to Day 2 and heading the pack was Nijranjan NJ who managed to bag a healthy 83,600 in chips by the time the play concluded. Niranjan was last seen making a deep run (14th for ₹4.38 Lakhs) at the ₹55K Main Event in the 2018 World Poker Tour (WPT) India series late last year and will be among the Indian pros to keep an eye out on.

Also making Day 2 were Romit Advani (77,400), Akshay Nasa (57,200), Jason Robert Perersa (53,000), 2018 WPT Vietnam Main Event champion Dhaval Mudgal (46,700), Ravi Priya (36,400), Madhav Gupta (35,300), Adda52 pro Kunal Patni (31,600) and Guneet Kwatra (11,300).

In total, 19 Indians will be seen in action on Day 2 today with Manish Lakhotia (108,100) and Meherzad Munsaf (107,700), both Day 1B qualifiers, leading the charge.

Team India Players On Day 2

A look back at the starting flights of the Main Event, we saw 105 entries on Day 1A and 152 on Day 1B. A bumper 301 entries on Day 1C made for an impressive 558-strong field in the Main Event that generated VND 11,174,400,000 (₹3,37,24,338) in prize money. A total of 58 players will take home a piece of the prize pool with the eventual champion set to take home a massive VND 2,269,092,000 (₹68,48,119).

Day 2 will see the survivors from all three starting flights coming together for the first time in the event. Following Te on the top of the chip counts will be the Day 1B chip leader Quang Nguyen (164,000).

Apart from defending champion Tetsuya Tsuchikawa, there are a few other former APT champions also in contention, including Huu Dung Nguyen, SJ Kim, Iori Yogo, Lim Yohwan and Cao Ngoc Anh.

In side event fixtures for today is the NLH Single-Day Event 3 (Shot Clock) that features a buy-in of VND 6,600,000 (₹19,918).

Day 1C Recap

As has been the norm at the APT, the third starting flight in the Main Event pulled in the biggest crowd with an impressive 301 entries joining the fray. When the chips were bagged, Chinese pro Mai Te (198,400) held the biggest stack among the 145 survivors, in fact he will be returning on Day 2 today as the overall chip leader among the total 250 survivors from the three starting flights.

Te was on an upward drive for the majority of the day but he pulled up ahead on the last level of play where he knocked out two players in quick succession, one of them being Michael Kim Falcom, the current APT POS leader.

The other big stacks were Ukraine’s Danilin Oleh (155,600) and Vietnam’s decorated APT champion, Huu Dung Nguyen (148,100).

The Indian contingent once again came out in full force, as nine Indian players made it through to Day 2 yesterday. The line-up includes Nijranjan NJ (83,600), Romit Advani (77,400), Akshay Nasa (57,200), Jason Robert Perersa (53,000), Dhaval Mudgal (46,700), Ravi Priya (36,400), Madhav Gupta (35,300), Kunal Patni (31,600) and Guneet Kwatra (11,300).

Other notables who made the cut for Day 2 include Lim Yohwan (106,900), Hanh Tran (101,200), SJ Kim (103,600), Kosei Ichinose (51,300), Ang Boon Seng (49,400), Andreas Rauh (44,600), Iori Yogo (38,500) Steffan Endres (28,200), Cao Ngoc Anh (25,300) and Nobert Koh (18,300).

Top 10 Chip Counts At the End of Day 1C

1. Mai Te – 198,400
2. Danilin Oleh – 155,600
3. Huu Dung Nguyen – 148,100
4. Kopyl Waldemar – 129,100
5. Ming Yang Liu – 125,900
6. Zheng Xiaosheng – 123,200
7. Loc Nguyen – 122,000
8. Renzo Tu Zhi Hao – 116,400
9. Zhewen Hu – 116,400
10. Huu Tuan Nguyen – 115,600

Images & Content courtesy: theasianpokertour.com

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