2023 WPT Prime Vietnam Main Event Eyes New Records After Strong Turnout on Day 1b

Crown Poker Club in Hanoi

It was a very busy day of live poker in Ha Noi as the flagship tournament of the 2023 World Poker Tour Prime Vietnam stop is poised to create new records for the location and brand. Day 1b of the 2023 WPT Prime VND25,000,000 Main Event attracted 304 unique players who purchased 84 re-entries and the 388 entries boost the overall attendance to 626 entries thus far.

The second of three starting days occupied all but two tables at Crown Poker Club, leaving just the live-stream table to conclude the Super High Roller in which Joshua McCully defeated fellow Aussie Luke Martinelli in heads-up. Both are expected to jump into Day 1c alongside a whole slate of notables who fell on the wayside on Day 1b.

There is very little doubt that the 777 entries of the 2022 edition will be surpassed by a wide margin, which is also highlighted by the 20 entries generated in the evening satellite. Other lofty goals include breaking the 1,020 entries of the first World Poker Championship (WPC) Main Event on Vietnamese soil, along with the a potential prize pool record for a non-High Roller series live poker event in the country as well. 

Day 1b chip leader Rajasekhar Puttamsetty

The second flight played down to 49 survivors and India’s Rajasekhar Puttamsetty emerged as the chip leader with 580,000. He was spotted in the field with the knockout of Armon Van Wijk in a coin flip before he increased his stack. Near the money bubble, Puttamsetty doubled through Julien Rouxel when his pocket kings for an overpair were ahead of Rouxel’s queen-jack for top pair.

Soon after that on the same table, the bubble would burst when Evgeniy Chernyi held with pocket tens versus king-ten to send a round of applause through the poker room. Chernyi ended the evening with 479,000 in chips, good enough for fourth place for Day 1b.

Top 5 Chip Counts After Day 1b:

1st: Rajasekhar Puttamsetty (India) – 580,000
2nd: Zhi Jian Xiong (China) – 501,000
3rd: Duy Thuc Nguyen (Vietnam) – 498,000
4th: Evgenii Chernyi (Russia) – 479,000
5th: Hoan Cong Le (Vietnam) – 445,000

Notables to advance from the second flight were Mohit Bohra (419,000), Rikuto Sashida (407,000), aforementioned Julien Rouxel (223,000), Keita Minami (217,000), Aditya Agarwal (116,000), and Muskan Sethi (62,000).

Khanh Nguyen has become the first player to bag up chips two times as he advanced with 358,000, which is far superior than the 60,000 he claimed on Day 1a. He will receive a min-cash for the previous efforts and all other participants can do so as well as the bigger stack will be carried over into Day 2.

Among those to come and leave without anything to show for were Jack Wu, Kunal Patni, Vincent Chauve, Eric Wasylenko, David Tai, last year’s runner-up Ashish Munot, Kanchan Sharma, Abhinav Iyer, Dhaval Mudgal, Julian Warhurst, Ngoc Anh Cao, and Ting-Yi “Eric” Tsai.

Two former WPT Prime Main Event winners were in contention as well but neither Marc Inizan nor defending champion Zarvan Tumboli made it through. The elimination of Tumboli left the Indian almost speechless when his pocket kings were looked up by the ace-eight of Jhon Hendri on a six-high flop only for an ace to follow right on the turn. Hendri’s fortune ran out two spots away from the money, and he will likewise have to return for the third and final flight.

Day 1c is expected to be a very busy one and it will kick off at 11 a.m. local time. Six levels of late registration until approximately 3.30 p.m. local time give poker enthusiasts from near and far the opportunity to join the action and WPT staff expects that alternates may come into play.

Stay tuned for more live action from Vietnam right here on WPT.com until a winner is crowned on Monday, May 29, 2023.