After four days of intense competition in the APT Main Event, the event finally has a winner with Dinh Duc Linh emerging triumphant. Coming from Vietnam, Dihn has used his incredible skills and abilities to secure his second major APT title this year. He previously made a name for himself earlier this year by winning the APT Hanoi Mystery Bounty earlier this year.
With this event, Dihn walked away with a large cash reward worth about ₫3,401,355,000 ($145,500) and the poker trophy. This success confirmed Dinh Duc Linh’s reputation as a poker star not just in Vietnam but also across the world.
APT Main Event Details
Getting into the APT Main Event was not easy for Dinh Duc Linh. Like everyone else, he had to provide a buy-in of ₫35,000,000 ($1,500), and even with this steep entrance fee, it still attracted more than 581 entities. This caused the prize pool to rise to ₫17,752,455,000 (USD 759,340).
This meant there was plenty of competition as the players tried to get a slice of that money by getting into the bubble. After three days of intense competition, only Dinh Duc Linh remained with eight other players at the final table. This round consisted of the best players, including Indian player Askshay Nasa who was looking to win his second APT Main Event Title. He entered this competition with a big chip lead of 126 big blinds, making him the only player with triple-digit BBs.
Dihn meanwhile came into the table with about 51 Big Blinds, putting him somewhere in the middle of the pack and making winning an uphill battle.
Dinh Duc Linh’s Remarkable Win
Korean poker player Jeongho Hwang entered the final table with the fewest chips with only 14 Big Blinds and was unable to turn things around. He was eventually eliminated by Chun Chieh Liu, whose Ace-King Hand beat Hwang’s hand and took his remaining chips.
The next player to get knocked out of the race was Australian player Emmanuel Derecho who was left to settle in 8th place and claim his share of the prize pool worth ₫367,500,000 ($15,650). After these two eliminations, there was a lull in the competition as the players played it safe. It would take another hour before the competition picked up again with another elimination.
This time, the unfortunate victim was Chun Chieh Liu from Taiwan. His BBs steadily decreased from 44 to 6 before finally being eliminated by Dinh Duc Linh’s skillful maneuvering. Liu was the only Taiwanese player to advance this far and left in 7th place.
For a while, Vietnamese player Van Sang Nguyen managed to close the gap between him and Nasa and briefly take the lead. However, his aggressive style wasn’t able to maintain that lead as Nasa retook the lead and used his Queen-Ten hand to knock Nguyen out.
Jong Wook Kim remained the only Korean player left and performed quite well. This year had been his breakout year as he has won over $80,000 across multiple live tournaments. Unfortunately, his luck didn’t hold, and he was eliminated next.
Just four hands later, Kim would be joined by Nguyen Duc Cuong. He was a relatively new poker player and was his first major tournament. Cuong was eliminated by Dinh Duc Linh. Still, it would be hard to call this a loss for Cuong who walked away with ₫1,171,700,000 (~$49,900). Before the APT Hanoi event, he only won $6,000 in poker games, making this a huge step up.
At this point, Akshay Nasa’s Big Blinds was steadily reduced to 45 BBs, allowing Dinh Duc Linh to take the lead. The other player, Takumasa Uemura from Japan had only 8 big blinds left. Despite this, Uemura kept playing hard and pushed his remaining chips in. Despite that, Linh was able to eliminate him and leave the Japanese star with ₫1,514,300,000 (~$64,500), his first-ever cash payout.
With just Akshay Nasa and Dinh Duc Linh left, the competition heated up. Nasa briefly took the lead once again and forced Dihn to play catch-up. The competition between the two lasted another hour with Dihn managing to close the lead before revealing his winning hand and knocking out Nasa from the contest.
The APT Hanoi Event was announced with much excitement as many hoped that it would surpass the massive APT Taipei events over a month ago.
To get more details about the details of the event, you can read our APT Hanoi Announcement