APT Vietnam 2019: Pham Dinh Nam (125,300) Tops 42 Survivors on Day 1A of Main Event, Aditya Sushant (88,600) Leads 6 Indians to Day 2

They may have bricked the 2019 Pokerstars Players NLHE Championship (PSPC) but Team India is back in action once again, this time at the 2019 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam. The country has historically been a very fertile host for Indian players, as last year we saw numerous Indian pros raking in big scores at various stops held in the country. The most notable among them was singer-turned poker pro Dhaval Mudgal, who won his career`s first major international title in the 2018 World Poker Tour (WPT) Vietnam Main Event for ₹76.02 Lakhs.

The just-started 13-day long series is currently underway at the Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh and has already crowned champions in the two starting events. While Michael Kim Falcon took down the series-opener Monster Stack event, Alex Lindop came out on top in the Super High Rollers. Team India made a strong opening at the series with three challengers, namely, Vishal Tajpuria, Shravan Chhabria and Meherzad Munsaf posting scores in the Monster Stack.

Running alongside the final day of the Monster Stack was the first of three starting flights of the VND 8 Billion GTD Main Event. Day 1A of the Main Event registered 105 entries with 42 runners making it through to Day 2. Leading the Day 1A survivors is local talent Pham Dinh Nam (125,300) even as an impressive six Indian challengers bagged chips for Day 2.

Taking forward the biggest stack among the Indians was the Chennai-pro Aditya Sushant (88,600) with Akash Malik (56,600), Nishant Sharma (54,900), Eka Vedantham (46,100), Siddarth Jain (36,200), and Siddharth Kapoor (9,500) all making the cut for Day 2.

Indian Players Progressing to Day 2

Two more starting days of the event are lined up with Day 1B opening today, and Day 1C set to take place tomorrow. Day 2 play will start on January 13 and the event will run through all the way till January 15 where a champion will be crowned.

Day 1A Recap

The opening day of the Main Event saw intense action with local pros ruling the show. The top 3 stacks are all players from Vietnam and while Nam holds the largest stack, close on his coattails are fellow countrymen Nguyen Chi Thinh (123,100) and Nguyen Binh Minh (121,000).

Among the other notables who made Day 2 are Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (POY) Thailand Phachara Wongwichit (96,900), Siyang Phua (70,000), Vincent Li (67,500), Julien Tran (61,900), Kiat Lee (38,300) and Minh Le (34,300).

Top 10 Chip Counts At The End of Day 1A

1. Pham Dinh Nam – 125,300
2. Nguyen Chi Thinh – 123,100
3. Nguyen Binh Minh – 121,000
4. Nguyen Duc Bien – 116,500
5. Dinh Tan Tai – 110,200
6. Felder Bruno – 103,300
7. Dinh Xuan Dinh – 100,800
8. Ji Xia Qing – 100,500
9. Pham Thanh Tung – 97,400
10. Phachara Wongwichit – 96,900

Like in several past APT events, bubble protection is in force at the various events at the ongoing series. The bubble protection offers insurance to players on the bubble round and any protected player falling on the bubble can receive his or her buy-in back in form of APT tournament credits. Players who have pre-registered for this will be able to avail the benefits as the bubble round approaches in the Main Event.

The second featured tournament at the series is the Championships Event that will kick off right after the Main Event crowns a winner.

Images & Content courtesy: theasianpokertour.com

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