Phua Tops Day 1 of 2022 Poker Dream Vietnam Super High Roller; Iyer and Tang Bag Big Stacks
The first Poker Dream Vietnam festival in the South East Asian country and second ever stop of the new major live poker series has seen a busy start for the most expensive tournament on the schedule. Day 1 of the VND 230,000,000 (approx. $9,900) Super High Roller attracted a field of 79 entries of which 44 players survived the 12 levels of 40 minutes each. The high-stakes competition in the luxury five-star Hoiana Hotel complex near Hoi An has already equaled the turnout of the inaugural Super High Roller in Kuala Lumpur earlier in 2022.
So far, a prize pool of VND 16,916,270,000 (～$692,000) has been generated and that amount will likely increase further. The late registration and re-entry period for the event remains open until the start of Day 2 on Wednesday, October 19, 2022. Cards will be back in the air at 1pm local time with blinds of 10,000-20,000 and a big blind ante of 20,000, giving all entrants at the last minute 20 big blinds (500,000 in chips).
Three players were able to increase their stacks more than four-fold and none other than Triton Poker co-founder Paul Phua leads the way with 2,149,000, ahead of fellow Malaysian player Eng Soon Ewe (2,073,000), and Abhinav Iyer (2,026,000). Other notables in the overnight top ten include Hamish Crawshaw and Danny Tang.
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paul Phua | Malaysia | 2,149,000 | 107 |
| 2 | Eng Soon Ewe | Malaysia | 2,073,000 | 104 |
| 3 | Abhinav Iyer | India | 2,026,000 | 101 |
| 4 | [Removed:446] | Mongolia | 1,980,000 | 99 |
| 5 | Hien Van Dang | Vietnam | 1,903,000 | 95 |
| 6 | Chung Chuen Co | Hong Kong | 1,536,000 | 77 |
| 7 | Wai Loon Ng | Malaysia | 1,462,000 | 73 |
| 8 | Hamish Crawshaw | New Zealand | 1,387,000 | 69 |
| 9 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | 1,300,000 | 65 |
| 10 | Ying Lin Chua | Malaysia | 1,291,000 | 65 |
The UK's Chi Zhang narrowly missed out on the top ten but his potential title defence in this very tournament is still off to a solid start. Zhang concluded a roller coaster day with 1,077,000 in chips after sending Kannapong Thanarattrakul to the rail during the final hands of the night. Thanarattrakul was also involved in crowning the chip leader after he lost the biggest pot of the tournament so far with flopped trips against a flopped full house.
Further notables of the Asia-Pacific region that came up short during an action-packed day included John Tech,
Ngoc Anh Cao, Wai Kiat Lee, Phachara Wongwichit, Victor Chong, Jimmy Guerrero, and Mike Takayama. For Lee, Wongwichit and Chong the end came in quick succession in the last level of the night and it remains to be seen if they take another shot prior to start of level 13.
Kok Weng Beh was also among those to run out of chips despite winning a large pot right away when the action kicked off with a single table. Eventually, a battle of the blinds with Crawshaw saw the Kiwi flop trips and river quads with jack-trey to knock out Beh. Fellow Malaysian player Hing Yaung Chow was another contender known from participating in the Triton high-stakes events and his flopped trips were no good against the turned full house of Thinh Thai Chu.
Once the cards are back in the air for Day 2, the late registration for this event will close. Tournament staff expects several entries at the last minute. The final tournament day will be broadcasted on the Poker Dream Facebook page and Twitch channel with a delay of 30 minutes while the PokerNews team will also be roaming the floor to provide as many key hands as possible.