Deepankur Gupta is one of India’s rising poker stars with five live poker victories to his name. He first made headlines for winning the $300 No Limit Hold’em Turbo event for $ 8,000 during the WPT Prime Cambodia last year. Since then, he has been unstoppable and has won an impressive four titles in 2024 alone. Most recently, he won the Hyper Turbo event for $ 4,549 at the U Series of Poker (USO) Hai Phong in September this year.
Currently, Gupta is competing in the APT Phu Quoc 2024, which kicked off on November 8 and runs all the way until November 17. At the prestigious main event of the ongoing series, which features a mouth-watering VND 25 billion (~USD 1 million) guarantee, Gupta dominated the opening flight, bagging up the biggest stack of 307,800. The opening flight drew 189 entries following ten 60-minute levels and saw only 70 players survive, with Gupta being the only player to cross the 300k mark.
Hot on his heels was Vietnam’s Dong Van Tan who ended the day with 290,500 in chips. Compatriot Nguyen Trung Quan rounded out the top three stacks, bagging up 243,900 in chips. APT Manila 2024 Zodiac Classic finalist Charles Pansoy (226,800) and Australia’s Dylan Foster (217,700) did well, finishing among the top 10 stacks.
Apart from Gupta, several notable Indian players who made it through Day 1A included the likes of the young talents in Avneesh Munjal (167,100) and Shardul Parthasarathi (109,700), two-time GPI India POY winner Ankit Ahuja (78,700), Natural8 India director and ambassador Kunal Patni (73,400), inaugural WPT Vietnam Main Event champion Dhaval Mudgal (51,800), and Romit Advani (45,600).
Kunal Patni Eyeing Another Deep Run After Two Final Table Finishes
The APT Phu Quoc 2024 is turning out to be a memorable series for the Mumbai poker pro Kunal Patni. With two final table scores already under his belt, he is now eyeing a deep run in the main event. Just a couple of days back, Patni made waves, finishing 9th for VND 82,270,000 ($3,240) in Event #1: Vietnam National Cup and then followed that score with a runner-up finish in Event #19: VND 4 Million Tick Tock BOOM! Super Hold’em for VND 35.70 Million. Now it will be interesting to see how far he can go in the marquee main event of the series.
Other notables who qualified from the opening flight of the tournament were Taiwanese poker pro Chi Jen “Justin” Chu (147,300 ), Chinese player Peng Chen (144,500), Motoyoshi Okamura (134,800) from Japan & Adrien Favre (122,500) from France.
APT Phu Quoc 2024 Main Event Top 10 Stacks After Day 1A
| Position | Name | Chips |
| 1 | Deepankur Gupta | 307,800 |
| 2 | Dong Van Tan | 290,500 |
| 3 | Nguyen Trung Quan | 243,900 |
| 4 | Bui Le Anh | 234,000 |
| 5 | Le Buu Nghia | 232,800 |
| 6 | Charles Pansoy | 226,800 |
| 7 | Dylan Foster | 217,700 |
| 8 | Vladimir Litasov | 205,700 |
| 9 | Vladislavs Azan | 188,000 |
| 10 | Qi Shun Nian | 184,400 |
There are still three more flights left to play out, offering multiple chances for players to still compete and qualify for Day 2 of the prestigious event. The second flight of the event (Flight B) kicks off today at 11am local time, while the final two Flights – C & D will be played out on November 13, starting at 11am and 6pm respectively. Players are allowed to enter this event until the start of Day 2 starting at 11 am on November 14.
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Source: Asian Poker Tour
