At the end of the first day of the VND 12 billion guaranteed Main Event, it’s India’s Anuj Yadav who leads the way with 328,600 chips. 143 players ponied up the VND 35,000,000 entry fee a combined 190 times on the first day, and we expect many more to enter over the coming days to try and claim their share of the fantastic VND 12 billion (~$500K USD) prize pool.
Late Day Surge
Anuj had a relatively quiet start to Day 1a and didn’t start to make a run toward the top of the leaderboard until the end of the day. He didn’t feature in any of the earlier top 10 chip counts, but after the dinner break, he went on a tear, picking up pots left and right.
The hand that propelled him to the top of the rankings happened during the last level of the day when he came up against one of the other biggest stacks in the tournament. We join the action on the river, with the board showing Q7483, Anuj had checked over to Petr Rudnev, who deliberated before deciding to make a bet of 21,500 into a pot of 30,000. However, Anuj hit back with a river check-raise to 90,000, putting Petr in a tough decision.
Eventually, Petr made the fold, giving Anuj a huge pot and bumping his stack up to 280,000. Anuj would go on to collect a few more pots before play ended for the day, giving him a stack of over 325,000.
Big Names Still In
As well as our chip leader, we have a number of other notable APT players still left in the event. Vietnam’s own Pham Duy Anh and Tran Tuan Anh are still in the event, currently sitting second and third in chips respectively. They’ll both be hoping to put in a strong performance in their home tournament, and Tran Tuan Anh will be looking to add a second APT title to his resume, after winning the APT Main Event in Ho Chi Minh back in August 2022.
The winner of the Super High Roller event, Julian Warhurst has also made it through to Day 2, as has former APT Main Event Cambodia champion Michael Lindstrom. We’ve also seen the runner of the APT Kickoff event, Yongfu Dong make it through to the second day of play, and we’re sure he’ll be hoping to go one better in this event.
APT Da Nang Main Event Day 1a Top Ten Chip Stacks
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anuj Yadav | India | 328,600 |
| 2 | Pham Duy Anh | Vietnam | 251,400 |
| 3 | Tran Tuan Anh | Vietnam | 249,100 |
| 4 | Yongfu Dong | China | 238,200 |
| 5 | Xiaohua Fu | China | 231,500 |
| 6 | Koangho Lee | South Korea | 203,900 |
| 7 | Nguyen Khac Cuong | Vietnam | 203,800 |
| 8 | Linh Duong Ngo | Vietnam | 193,700 |
| 9 | Gavin Mark Flynn | Ireland | 192,200 |
| 10 | Amit Kaushik | India | 192,000 |
What do you think the biggest stack will be after all the Day 1s have been completed? Can any of our Day 1a chip leaders go on to win the event? Let us know on social media and stay tuned for all the latest poker news and events.
Image Source: The Asian Poker Tour (APT)
