The excitement continues at the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Phu Quoc 2024. The series has crowned more than 50 champions and Indian players have been making big waves with already more than a dozen of final table finishes, including two titles won by Natural8 India director and ambassador Kunal Patni (Won VND 4 Million Tick Tock BOOM) and fellow pro from Mumbai Avneesh Munjal (Won Event #29: VN₫ 60 Million High Roller – Double Stack for a career-best INR 51.34 Lakhs).
While there are several exciting events unfolding at the ongoing series, all eyes are on the VND 36 Million APT Main Event featuring a massive VND 25 Billion ($1 Million) in guaranteed prize pool. Following its four startng flights, the event drew 753 entries, and with an additional 42 entries before Day 2, the event’s total field reached 795 entries (400 unique) – a new record for the Phu Quoc tour stop with 56% increase on the last year’s APT Phu Quoc Main Event, which drew 507 entries.
According to the updates from the Asian Poker Tour, a total of 331 started Day 2 leg and competed through ten 60-minute levels to advance to Day 3 of the Main Event and battle it out for their share from the mammoth VND 25,000,000,000 ($1,000,000) guaranteed prize pool. When Day 3 came to a close, there were only 50 players left to battle it out for the grand prize of VND 4,710,000,000 ($185,430), which comes with the coveted APT Golden Lion Main Event Trophy. Vietnam’s own Nghiem Xuan Thieu, who recently won Event #12: Sunday Super Stack, ended up the day as the chip leader, amassing 1,703,000 chip.
Hot on his heels was fellow countryman Do Tien Vu who bagged up with 1,547,000 chips, while China’s Jinlong Hu, who started Day 2 as chip leader kept his main event dream alive, rounding out the podium with 1,523,000 chips.
Other notables who advanced to Day 3 include the Philippines’ David Erquiaga who bagged a top ten stack of 1,154,000, and Australia’s Dylan Foster (602,000) who will be looking to make his eighth APT final table.
Three Indian Return for Day 3 of the APT Phu Quoc 2024 Main Event
Day 2 saw 292 players return to the felts, including an impressive 12 Indian players led by Deepankur Gupta (307,800). Out of the 12 Indians, only three advanced to Day 3 with Amit Kaushik leading the trio with a stack of 523,000. Kuashik surged in chips after the elimination of Tuan Tai Nguyen who ran his queen-jack into the ace-king of Kaushik to exit the day just before the bubble. Shortly after that, we saw a double bubble with both Cao Tran Ngoc and Nevan Chang getting eliminated from two different tables at the same time and chopping the 119th place payout. The remaining 118 players continued to compete until the 10-levels were done and dusted for the day with a field of 50 left in contention.
Coming back to Kaushik, he made two final table finishes – eighth place for VND 205.30 Million in Event #29: VND 60 Million High Roller – Double Stack, followed by a sixth place for VND 39.94 Million in Event #42: VN₫ 10 Million Turbo. Now he is guaranteed at least VND 87,500,000 but will be eyeing a bigger score in the main event.
Kuashik is followed by Deepankur Gupta (290,000) who has won an impressive four titles this year. Most recently, he won the Hyper Turbo event for $ 4,549 at the U Series of Poker (USOP) Hai Phong. He qualified from Day 1A of the event as chip leader and will be looking to chip up to make it to the coveted final table.
Last but not the least, we have Shardul Parthasarathi (167,000), who is the shortest among the three Indians. Fresh off a runner-up finish at the DPT Grand High Roller, he placed 12th in Event #41: VN₫ 10 Million Turbo – Double Stack for VND 19.96 Million and will be now be eyeing a big score in the main event.
Romit Advani and Kunal Patni Shine In #47: NL Hold’em Event
Indians have been making big waves at the ongoing series, particularly the Natural8 India director and ambassador Kunal Patni who has scored four final table finishes so far. He ran also ran deep in Event #47: NL Hold’em, finishing 17th for VND 22,640,000. Another Indian to make waves in this event was Romit Advani, who secured a strong sixth place finish, earning VND 86,080,000 and taking Team India’s final table tally to an impressive 13.
The event was eventually won by Japan’s Ryo Kotake who overcame a field of 147 entries including Dang Hong Thao in heads-up to claim the 369,572,000 top prize.
Main Event Day 2 Top Ten Stacks
| Rank | Name | Chip Counts |
| 1 | Nghiem Xuan Thieu | 1,703,000 |
| 2 | Do Tien Vu | 1,547,000 |
| 3 | Jinlong Hu | 1,523,000 |
| 4 | Truong Thang Minh | 1,294,000 |
| 5 | Kyosuke Nagami | 1,261,000 |
| 6 | Koangho Lee | 1,252,000 |
| 7 | David Erquiaga | 1,154,000 |
| 8 | Quang Trung Dinh | 1,053,000 |
| 9 | Witsarut Ketnarin | 1,012,000 |
| 10 | Kaihua Huang | 903,000 |
Day 3 resumes at the 11:30am local time and will play down until a final table is reached. Keep following PokerProNews for more updates. Follow us on our social media platforms –Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and Youtube for all the interesting stories and updates from the world of poker!
Image Credit: Asian Poker Tour
