APT Vietnam: Laksh Pal Singh Leads 5 Indians on Day 1A of Championships Event, Gaurav Sood Finishes Runner-Up in PLO Hi

With the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam Main Event done and dusted, the action has since shifted to the other marquee event of the series, VND 6 Billion (~₹1.77 Crores) GTD Championships Event! The first of two starting flights of the Championships Event played out on July 10 registering 60 entries (47 unique players and 13 re-entries), and as expected, the field had numerous Indians in the mix.

PokerGuru Ambassadors have been frontrunners at major international stops with team members like Ashish Ahuja and Kartik Ved doing exceedingly well at the 50^th annual World Series of Poker. Ved, in fact, is the last Indian standing on Day 5 of the Main Event with roughly 120 players remaining. After conquering Las Vegas, PokerGuru Ambassadors have now set their sights on Vietnam with two team members headlining a list of five Indians advancing to Day 2 of the Championships Event.

Laksh Pal Singh and Ashish Munot both arrived late at APT Vietnam, and despite falling out early in the Main Event, they have made amends by advancing to Day 2 in the Championships Event.

Singh leads the five Indians who made it through Day 1A of the Championships Event with a stack of 166,800 (approx. 111 big blinds) and is the sixth-biggest stack heading into Day 2.

Others who made it through include Manoj Pentakota (146,400 – 97 big blinds), Ashish Munot (107,000 – 71 big blinds), Vaibhav Sharma (99,800 – 67 big blinds) and Manish Lakhotia (57,500 – 38 big blinds).

Filipino pro Joseph Talamayan (562,500 – 375 big blinds) bagged the largest stack among 25 survivors on Day 1A.

Team India has done exceedingly well in the side events having already won one title and almost half a dozen deep runs, and we have another significant score to report. Well known online player Gaurav Sood finished runner-up to Japan’s Hiruma Shinosuke in the VND 9,900,000 (~₹29,287) buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha Hi side event on July 10. Sood collected VND 110,000,000 (~₹3.25 Lakhs) for his runner-up finish following a heads-up deal with Shinosuke.

The other side event, NLHE Single Day Event #2, crowned a champion in Vietnam’s Cao Ngoc Anh.

Today’s schedule includes the second and final starting flight of the Championships Event, along with Queen Cards Super Deep Stack Turbo and Deep Stack Hyper Turbo #1 side events. Bringing the day’s proceedings to a close will be the Dafabet Players Party that will be held at the Xing Xing Night Club 10 pm (ICT) onwards!

VND 6 Billion (~₹1.77 Crores) GTD Championships Event – Day 1A Recap

The second most prestigious event (after the Main Event) at the stop played out the first of two starting flights on July 10. Day 1A registered 60 entries (47 unique players and 13 re-entries), each dishing out the VND 38,500,000 (~₹1.13 Lakhs) buy-in and as expected, there were a good number of Indians in the mix. Five among them were able to advance to Day 2 and leading this group of Indians is PokerGuru Ambassador Laksh Pal Singh (166,800 – 111 big blinds). The four other Indians joining him on Day 2 include Manoj Pentakota (146,400 – 97 big blinds), PokerGuru Ambassador Ashish Munot (107,000 – 71 big blinds), Vaibhav Sharma (99,800 – 67 big blinds) and Manish Lakhotia (57,500 – 38 big blinds).

Emerging as the end-of-day chip leader was Filipino pro Joseph Talamayan who bagged a monster stack of 562,500 (375 big blinds). Choi Yun Lam Kevin (183,600 – 122 big blinds) and Soo Jo Kim (169,400 – 113 big blinds) round out the top three stacks of the day.

Other notables who made it through to Day 2 include Main Event champion Zhou Jiaping (102,800), Quang Nguyen (85,300) and Punnat Punsri (60,900).

Late registrations for the event remain open till the start of Level 10 on Day 2 where the opening blinds will be 1,000- 1,500.

Top 10 Chip Counts At the End Of Day 1A

1. Joseph Talamayan – 562,500
2. Choi Yun Lam Kevin – 183,600
3. Soo Jo Kim – 169,400
4. Tran Huy Hoang – 169,100
5. William Kang – 168,800
6. Lakshpal Singh – 166,800
7. Manoj Pentakota – 146,400
8. Frank Lillis – 140,300
9. Ashish Munot – 107,000
10. Dao Ngoc Nam – 103,700

PLO Hi

The event attracted 53 entries, each paying up the VND 9,900,000 (~₹29,287) buy-in generating a prize pool of VND 462,690,000 (~₹13.68 Lakhs).

The event saw India’s Gaurav Sood heads-up against Japan’s Hiruma Shinosuke for the top prize. The duo stuck a heads-up deal before resuming play, and on the final hand of the tournament, both players moved all-in on the flop .

Gaurav Sood

Hiruma Shinosuke

The turn and the river saw Shinosuke hitting a backdoor flush and he won the title along with VND 124,320,000 in prize money. Sood had to concede to a runner-up finish and collected a paycheque of VND 110,000,000 (~₹3.25 Lakhs).

Final Table Results (VND)

1. Hiruma Shinosuke – VND 124,320,000*
2. Gaurav Sood – VND 110,000,000*
3. Chaesung Lim –VND 65,730,000
4. Dhanesh Chainani – VND 47,060,000
5. Deep R – VND 35,200,000
6. Tran Hung Manh – VND 27,160,000
7. Tan Chong – VND 21,570,000
8. Dajia Chen – VND 17,570,000
9. Shaun Conroy – VND 14,650,000

*denotes heads-up deal

NLH Single Day Event #2

The second one-day NLH event at the stop pulled in 85 runners each ponying up the VND 8,800,000 (~₹26,058) buy-in, making for a total prize pool collection of VND 659,600,000 (~₹19.51 Lakhs).

Local pro Cao Ngoc Anh outlasted the competition to stake his claim on the APT trophy and the VND 176,280,000 (~₹5.21 Lakhs) first-place prize money.

Final Table Results (VND)

1. Cao Ngoc Anh – VND 176,280,000
2. Tom Henricus Verbruggen – VND 117,520,000
3. Hwang Seong Il – VND 81,690,000
4. Richard Marquez – VND 59,010,000
5. Min Chun Kwok – VND 44,130,000
6. Peter Randle – VND 34,060,000
7. Nguyen Tien Thanh – VND 27,040,000
8. Frederic Bolliet – VND 22,030,000
9. Hung Ching Chow – VND 18,360,000

Content & Images Courtesy: Asian Poker Tour

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