APT Kickoff - VND 1,000,000,000 GTD - Flight B

Shung Er Sua

After a "turbo" process that took almost seven hours to complete, Flight B's starting field of 108 entries was reduced to 16 and are all guaranteed a piece of the VND1,753,957,000 (~US$75,400) prize pool for the Kickoff Event of the APT Summer Series here in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Malaysia's Shung Er Sua, who went on a hot streak towards the middle of the proceedings, emerged as the flight's chip leader with exactly 500,000 followed by Xiao Yucheng of China with 377,000 while Vietnam's Nguyen Duc Cuong was third with 330,000.

Other notables to make it through the day were Wei Huang (198,000), Armando Cabardo (178,000), Thomas Alex Ward (58,000), and Navin Bechar (41,000).

Armando Cabardo

Flight A's Kiwanont Sukhum of Thailand is still the overall chip leader with 669,000.

The top ten stacks from Flight B are below.

You can see a full APT Kickoff Flight B Survivors List Here

Day 2 plays down to the champion and will commence at 12:15pm here at the Grand Loyal Poker Club.

Keep it here for the all action!

Thanh Nguyen

Thanh Nguyen is our unlucky 17th-place finisher and won't be coming back for Day 2 tomorrow.

Nguyen shoved his last 16,000 into the middle with Cheng Chang Tao and Jaemoon Seok making the call from the blinds.

The action was checked all the way to showdown as all three players revealed their hands.

Tao held J♦ 4♦ for just jack-high and Seok didn't have much better as he tabled 5♣ 5♥. Nguyen could score a triple-up with the winning hand but could only turn over 4♥ 3♥ and was sent home in 17th place.

The remaining 16 players are now bagging up their chips and will get some rest ready for Day 2 tomorrow.

A full write up of the flight's action will follow shortly.

With play hand-for-hand, Thanh Nguyen opened to 18,000 only for Cheng Chang Tao to shove his last 67,000 into the pot. Nguyen ran the decision over in his head before settling on a call.

Nguyen A♥ 9♦ Tao A♠ A♦

Nguyen was in a world of pain and had little hope on the T♣ 4♥ 2♥ flop.

The Q♠ turn meant he was drawing dead as the 5♣ completed the board earning Tao the double-up and leaving Nguyen extremely short-stacked.

After losing a chunk of his chips to overall leader Sua Shung Er on a missed draw, Vietnam's Nguyen Minh Tu shoved his remaining stack of less than 40,000 only to be called by Huang Wei of Taiwan in the big blind.

Nguyen showed Q♠ T♥ while Huang tabled A♣ Q♣.

The subsequent board of :Q♦ J♠ 7♥ J♣ 3♦ sends the flight into hand-for-hand with the elimination of Nguyen.

17 players remain, one bust out away from ITM.

Play has started to slow up as we are now just two spots away from the money.

After one more elimination, play will be hand-for-hand until we have 16 players remaining.

Huy Thanh Phan limped in pre-flop and Wei Huang shoved behind. The blinds folded their hands and Phan called off his remaining chips to put himself at risk.

Phan 9♠ 9♦ Huang J♣ J♠

No help would come for Phan as the dealer put out a board that read K♥ 8♠ 4♥ :Kc; 2♣ and he was out in 20th.

Just 19 remain.

Yoshikazu Nakai shoved 60,000 into the pot with Minh Tu Nguyen also shoving behind.

Nakai K♦ 7♣ A♣ Q♣

Nakai would manage to hang onto his tournament life as the board ran out 8♠ 7♠ 8♥ 9♣ 3♣ giving him a pair of sevens which was good for the pot.

Ireland's Alex Ward open shoved Q♦ T♥ after action was folded to him on the D. After a few seconds in the tank, Phong Tran Huy of the host opted to call for his tournament life and was delighted to see he dominated his opponent with K♠ T♦.

However, bad news immediately showed up as the Window Card was the Q♠ along with the 8♣ and 5♣ to complete the Flop.

The Turn and River did nothing to improve the Vietnamese's situation and Phong was sidelined for good--at least for this tournament.

22 players are left.

Just 23 remain in Flight B of the Kickoff with 16 places available in Day 2.

Thanh Nguyen

Yu Jin Oh shoved his stack from the small blind and was called by Thanh Nguyen in the big blind.

Oh A♥ K♣ Nguyen Q♥ 7♥

Nguyen had live cards but needed to connect with the board but the A♦ 6♦ 5♥ flop left his chance of survival looking bleak.

The Vietnamese player turned the best card in the deck as the 8♥ opened up a world of outs.

The great escape was complete when the J♥ fell on the river, giving Nguyen a flush and earning him the pot.