APT / VSOP Superstar Invitational (OPEN Event) - 8 Max - VND 1,500,000,000 GTD Day 1

The superstar invitational has two tables of 5 players now. New players that joined the action are Janag Battulga, Huy Quang Nguyen, and Francis Garson.

Day 1 of the Superstar Invitational has come to an end. The plan was to play down to the final 6, but due to an aircon problem the last 8 players agreed to come back tomorrow at 11 AM.

The day started with 7 players joining the action from level 1. During the day the number of entries grew to a total of 46. The guaranteed prize pool of ₫1,5 billion almost got tripled to a total of ₫4,462,000,000!

Familiar faces like Martin Finger, Mike Takayama, Lester Edoc, Norbert Koh, David Erquiaga, Thanh Le Tu, and Benjamin Sai all joined the action.

After a rusty start, what resulted in a re-entry, the chip leader at the end of Day 1 is bracelet winner Mike Takayama. The Filipino poker pro was short at the last two tables, but a big cooler against Benjamin Sai saw Takayama move up in the chip counts. Takayama ended the day with 2,200,000.

Takayama is closely followed by Ngoc Dai "Mr. Big" Nguyen. The Vietnamese was one of the chip leaders early on and kept his momentum going till the end of the day. Nguyen ended the day with 2,110,000.

Final 8 chip counts

Seat 1. Ngoc Dai Nguyen - Vietnam - 2,110,000

Seat 2. Nang Quang Nguyen - Vietnam - 1,720,000

Seat 3. Jun Hao Wu - Singapore - 1,290,000

Seat 4. Huu Dung Nguyen - Vietnam - 920,000

Seat 5. Mike Takayama - Philippines - 2,200,000

Seat 7. Yuhan Liu - China - 965,000

Seat 8. Duc Anh Nguyen - Vietnam - 605,000

Seat 9. Julien Tran - Vietnam - 1,685,000

The players are playing for a first prize of ₫1,517,080,000 ($64,711.40), and the honor of winning the very first Superstar Invitational.

Final 6 Payouts

1. ₫1,517,080,000 ($64,711.40)
2. ₫1,048,570,000 ($44,726.99)
3. ₫669,300,000 ($28,549.14)
4. ₫513,130,000 ($21,887.68)
5. ₫401,580,000 ($17,129.48)
6. ₫312,340,000 ($13,322.93)

Tomorrow you can follow the final table on the livestream. Blinds will be 25,000/50,000 with an ante of 50,000. You can follow the livestream action through The Asian Poker Tour channels on Youtube and Facebook.

February 5 Schedule:

Event 9: Sunday Special ₫6,000,000 + 600,000 11:00

Event 6: APT / VSOP Superstar Invitational (OPEN Event) - 8 Max - Final Day (50-min Levels) 11:00

Event 5: Mystery Bounty Hunter - Final Day (30-min Levels) - Sponsored by Natural8 11:00

Event 10: Single Day High Roller - 8 Max 11:30 - ₫40,000,000 + 4,000,000

Event 11: Super Satellite to Main Event 17:00 - ₫5,000,000 + 500,000

Event 12: Hyper Turbo - 8 Max 18:30 - ₫18,000,000 + 1,800,000

Event 13: NLH - Win the Button - Hyper Turbo 19:30 - ₫4,000,000 + 400,000

This are the final 8 chip counts:

Minh Phu Dao has busted just after the blinds went up. He pushed his last 7 big blinds in the middle and couldn't make a comeback.

Updated chip stacks will follow shortly.

The blinds are up to 20,000/40,000 with an ante of 40,000.

We have 8 players left, two more need to bust to make it in the money. Today play continues till we reach the money.

The Mystery Bounty Day 1B is down to 35 players. In total 185 entries were made on Day 1B.

Eight more players need to bust, before Day 2 is reached. All players that make it to Day 2 are all in the money.

Day 1A and 1B combine a total of 414 entries.

Quang huy Nguyen was the short stack on the outer table and just pushed his last 6 big blinds in the middle. He couldn't hit the board and busted out in 10th place.

Minh Phu Dao has been grinding his short stack for a while and now pushed his last 7 big blinds in the middle. He got a call from Nguyen.

Dao K♦ 9♦ Nguyen A♦ 4♦

The board runs out Q♦ 9♠ 2♠ 8♣ K♣.

Dao hits two pair to stay alive.

We pick up the action on a flop of 9♣ 9♥ K♣.

Wu bets out 60k and gets raised by Quang Huy Nguyen to 130k. Wu makes the call.

On the 2♥ Wu decides to put Nguyen to the test and pushes all-in for 800k. The Vietnamese has 350k behind, and therefore has a decision for his tournament life.

After 1.5 minute in the tank Nguyen releases his hand.

Not a lot of action in the past 20 minutes. Players all seem to want to make the final table.

The blinds went up while waiting. We are now at level 16, with BBA 15,000/30,000/30,000.