WPT Vietnam: Romit Advani, Madhav Gupta, Shashank Jain & Eka Vedantham Advance From Day 1C in Kickoff Event, 7 Indians Among 74 Survivors on Day 2

WPT Vietnam Cover
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  • Namita Ghosh March 17, 2019
  • 2 Minutes Read

With its proximity that makes travel easy, attractive structures and juicy guarantees, Vietnam has become a very popular stop for poker tournaments in Asia. After testing the waters with their inaugural halt in the country last year, the World Poker Tour (WPT) is back at Pro Poker Club in Ho Chih Minh City for yet another action-packed edition. Just the fourth day into the series and the crowds have picked up exponentially with nearly all tournaments recording big turnouts. Capturing the headlines so far at the stop has been the Kickoff event that has far exceeded expectations by registering 595 entries across its four starting flights.

Vietnam is also Team India’s favorite hunting ground, and as expected, a sizeable Indian contingent is in attendance at the series. Making this stop even more interesting for Team India is the fact that there are two Indian challengers, namely, 2018 WPT Vietnam Main Event winner Dhaval Mudgal and Nikunj Jhunjhunwala who are both currently the joint frontrunners in the WPT Asia Pacific Player of the Year (POY) race. While Mudgal is already present at the series, Jhunjhunwala is expected to join soon.

Team India once again got off to a flying start at the series with two Indians, namely Alok Birewar (222,000) and Praveen Dwarkanath (84,000) making the cut for Day 2 on the opening flight of the Kickoff event. A day later, Pavan Jain (17,000) managed to progress from Day 1B.

Day 1C of the Kickoff saw the biggest turnout of all, i.e., 271 entries and the list of 34 survivors featured four Indian names – Romit Advani (390,000), Maddy Gupta (185,000), Shashank Jain (167,000) and Eka Vedantham (126,000). Unfortunately, no Indian player could make it from the Day 1D Turbo flight of the event, and in all, a total of seven Indians will now be returning on Day 2.

Romit Advani
Romit Advani is among the top stacks heading to Day 2

In side event action, the Bounty 2-Day and WPT Vietnam Super High Roller have both opened to action. While the Bounty Event registered 178 entries, the Super High Roller was well underway with 51 entries and registrations still open at the time this report was filed. While both tournaments will play down to a winner today, two more tournaments, i.e., the Short Deck Hold ‘em 2-Day and Deepstack Turbo are slated to kick off today.

 

Kickoff – Day 1 C & Day 1D Recap

With a buy-in of VND 10,000,000 (₹29,801), the WPT Vietnam Kickoff began on March 14, and after four starting flights, the field size stands 595-strong. Only 74 players remain standing and have progressed to Day 2.

Participation numbers grew steadily with 74 entries registered on Day 1A, followed by 121 on Day 1B. Surpassing all expectations, a whopping 271 entries were recorded on Day 1C. A big group of Indians was also seen in action and end of the day, four Indians, namely Romit Advani (390,000), Madhav (Maddy) Gupta (185,000), Shashank Jain (167,000) and Eka Vedantham (126,000) found bags for Day 2.

Madhav Gupta
Madhav Gupta

With no Indian featured in the list of survivors from the final flight, i.e., Day 1D, a total of seven Indians remain in contention for the title at the event, and it is Advani leading the Indian campaign as he comes back on Day 2 today with the 5th largest stack.

Advani is in fact, second in stacks among the 34 Day 1C survivors, after Singapore’s Norbert Koh (4,29,000). Quoc Anh Nguyen (3,39,000) carries the third largest stack from the flight.

A total of 74 survivors from the four starting flights will be returning for Day 2 play, and holding the overall chip lead among them will be Pavil Lubov (518,000) who had topped the list of survivors on Day 1B. Day 1C chip leader Norbert Koh (429,000) carries the next big stack and following suit is Waldemar Kopyl (427000) who made it from Day 1D.

Norbert Koh
Singapore’s Norbert Koh topped Day 1C survivors

Top 10 Chip Counts (Day 1A-1D) For Day 2

1. Pavil Lubov (Day 1B) – 518,000
2. Norbert Koh (Day 1C) – 429,000
3. Waldemar Kopyl (Day 1D) – 427000
4. Eun Ho Kwon (Day 1B) – 406,000
5. Romit Advani (Day 1C) – 390,000
6. Quoc Anh Nguyen (Day 1C) – 339,000
7. Pasi Heinanen (Day 1B) – 337,000
8. Daruma (Day 1D) – 3,31000
9. Thomas Kuo (Day 1C) – 3,27,000
10. Thai Ha (Day 1C) – 3,22,000

On the tap for Monday is the first starting flight of the VND 25 Million buy-in Main Event, alongside the VND 8,800,000 buy-in PLO 2-Day. The Bounty Event is also expected to play down to a champion tomorrow.

 

Content & Images Courtesy: Danny McDonagh & World Poker Tour

Keep following PokerGuru for more exciting updates from the 2019 WPT Vietnam!

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