India’s Amit Kaushik was awarded his first ever World Poker Tour (WPT) trophy at the Prime Vietnam festival’s 8 Max Main Event Warm Up. At heads up, Kaushik and Duc Minh Phan struck an ICM deal that guaranteed Kaushik VN₫ 1,006,000,000 (~US$ 42,845) and the trophy. Phan didn’t too bad either, walking away with a payout of VN₫ 1,212,000,000 (~US$ 51,620).
“I entered the final table as second in chips so I had to play very carefully. I just waited for the short stacks to bust out. When it was down to 4 players I was comfortably second in chips, even then I didn’t have to do much, the chip leader was doing everything for me. When he eliminated Ashish third, we were very deep, and tired, so he asked for a deal and I got the trophy.”
Going deep didn’t come easy though. Kaushik entered the final day with just 14 big blinds and was ranked 54th out of 60 players.
“By three tables, I really had grind it out to and pick my spots very carefully. I waited for hands. Luckily I was able to build a good stack for the final table.”
You can relive the final table battle via the Crown Poker Club YouTube channel. For action prior to the final table, check out the SMP Live Updates.
8 Max Main Event Warm Up rundown
The 8 Max Main Event Warm Up was a hot item on the schedule pulling in 471 entries over two entry days. This more than tripled the VN₫ 2BN guarantee for a prize pool of VN₫ 6,853,050,000 (~US$ 291,870). With each flight playing down to ITM of 12.5%, a combined 60 players advanced to the final day. Leading in the pack was Australia’s Hanna Azimai who went on to finish in 9th place.
Other players running well were second in chips Linh Ngo Duong aka Duong Phe who finished in 6th place and Trung Duc Vu who entered the day running 8th rank and finished 5th. The most impressive were undoubtedly Duc Minh Phan and Amit Kaushik.
Phan held the chip lead for a majority of the final day and maintained rank throughout. Among the numerous players under his belt were Dhaval Mudgal on the bubble to the final table and Ashish Munot in 3rd place. Despite Phan’s massive lead at heads up, he relinquished the title to Kaushik while earning the larger ICM payout.
For Kaushik, he climbed the furthest, going from near bottom of 54th rank (out of 60 returnees) at the start of the final day to heads up. He eliminated Anh Tuan Nguyen in 11th place to earn second rank entering the final table. This was Kaushik’s career best WPT performance and second highest live tournament score.
Dates: May 22-24, 2023
Buy in: VN₫ 16,500,000 (~US$ 700)
Guarantee: VN₫ 2,000,000,000 (~US$ 85,320)
Entries: 471
Prize pool: VN₫ 6,853,050,000 (~US$ 291,870)
ITM: 60 players
Place | Player | Flag | Payout in VN₫ |
1 | Amit Kaushik | India | 1,006,000,000 |
2 | Minh Duc Phan | Vietnam | 1,212,000,000 |
3 | Ashish Munot | India | 650,000,000 |
4 | Anatolii Gorbushin | Russia | 483,000,000 |
5 | Trung Duc Vu | Vietnam | 363,000,000 |
6 | Linh Ngo Duong | Vietnam | 276,000,000 |
7 | Hung Wei Yeh | Taiwan | 212,000,000 |
8 | Siddharth Jolly | India | 165,050,000 |
9 | Hanna Azimai | Australia | 129,000,000 |
10 | Dhaval Mudgal | India | 129,000,000 |
11 | Anh Tuan Nguyen | Vietnam | 103,000,000 |
12 | Trung Van Nguyen | Vietnam | 103,000,000 |
13 | Luc Tomassi | France | 84,000,000 |
14 | Huy Quang Dinh | Vietnam | 84,000,000 |
15 | Huy Quang Nguyen | Vietnam | 69,500,000 |
16 | Kanchan Sharma | Vietnam | 69,500,000 |
17 | Thanh Tien Nguyen | Vietnam | 58,500,000 |
18 | Huu Dung Nguyen | Vietnam | 58,500,000 |
19 | Thanh Tien Dinh | Vietnam | 58,500,000 |
20 | Bien Mai | Vietnam | 58,500,000 |
21 | William Bolton | Australia | 49,500,000 |
22 | Khanh Xuan Dao | Vietnam | 49,500,000 |
23 | Romit Advani | India | 49,500,000 |
24 | Kien Trung Pham | Vietnam | 49,500,000 |
25 | Thuy Trung Duong | Vietnam | 43,000,000 |
26 | Amit Tejura | Vietnam | 43,000,000 |
27 | Harsh Bubna | Vietnam | 43,000,000 |
28 | Dylan Foster | Vietnam | 43,000,000 |
29 | Raju Jaruplavath | Vietnam | 43,000,000 |
30 | Roman Kolotiuk | Russia | 43,000,000 |
31 | Jun Hao Wu | Singapore | 43,000,000 |
32 | Jasven Saigal | India | 43,000,000 |
33 | Sang Yoon Kim | Korea | 38,000,000 |
34 | Emil Ukalaev | Russia | 38,000,000 |
35 | Yu Sheng Lin | Taiwan | 38,000,000 |
36 | Shunsuke Tsujii | Japan | 38,000,000 |
37 | Dat Van Ngo | Vietnam | 38,000,000 |
38 | Cuong Hung Phan | Vietnam | 38,000,000 |
39 | Julien Rouxel | Vietnam | 38,000,000 |
40 | Konstantin Generalov | Russia | 38,000,000 |
41 | Kohei Nakai | Japan | 34,000,000 |
42 | Sebastian Mueller | Germany | 34,000,000 |
43 | Hieu Duc Nguyen | Vietnam | 34,000,000 |
44 | Anh Khoa Ngo | Vietnam | 34,000,000 |
45 | Son Thai Hoang | Vietnam | 34,000,000 |
46 | Tran Hai Dang Le | Vietnam | 34,000,000 |
47 | Laksh Pal Singh | India | 34,000,000 |
48 | Lich Van Vu | Vietnam | 34,000,000 |
49 | Thanh Tu Le | Australia | 31,000,000 |
50 | Nam Dinh Phan | Vietnam | 31,000,000 |
51 | Shung Er Sua | Malaysia | 31,000,000 |
52 | Khoi Nguyen | Vietnam | 31,000,000 |
53 | Tu Phuong Nguyen | Vietnam | 31,000,000 |
54 | Tuan Bao To | Vietnam | 31,000,000 |
55 | Dung Anh Tran | Vietnam | 29,500,000 |
56 | Viet Van Nguyen | Vietnam | 29,500,000 |
57 | Michael Wilklow | Vietnam | 29,500,000 |
58 | Eric Wasylenko | Canada | 29,500,000 |
59 | Li Wen Xuan | Singapore | 29,500,000 |
60 | Mohit Bohra | India | 29,500,000 |
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