Asian Poker Tour Vietnam 2019: Abhinav Iyer ships the main event for INR 69.51 lakhs

Abhinav Iyer, the Mumbai lad did the country proud by taking down the 8 billion Vietnamese dong (VND) GTD Mian Event at the 2019 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Vietnam for a massive VND 2,269,092,000 (INR 69.51 Lakhs) which also happens to be his best career score till date! He made his poker debut at World Series of Poker (WSOP) and posted many scores on the live and online felts. He completely dominated his way on the final stretch of the Main Event to win the title. This very win of Iyer’s has established Vietnam as Team India’s new favourite hunting ground!

Iyer entered the final day with a chip lead of 4,825,000 and within the early levels of play, Iyer’s stack had crossed the 10 Million-mark with Te Mai, in a distant second with 2.6 Million in chips. The final table lasted for three hours where Iyer had eliminated five out of the eight finalists including Sim Kok Wai, Ming Yang Liu, Mark Gruendemann, Huu Tuan Nguyen and Daiki Hirokawa. Iyer never gave up on his chip lead throughout and eventually started the heads-up play against Hirokawa with an overwhelming 5:1 chip advantage. The Japanese pro was unable to overcome the chip gap, which led Iyer to his victory.

Team India At The Main Event

19 challengers made the cut for Day 2 with Manish Lakhotia (108,100) bagging the biggest stack from the Indian camp. Only 6 contenders remained by the end of Day 2. Iyer started Day 3 with a stack of 272,500 and was the only Indian to make it to the final table. However, three other Indians also managed to post scores in the event: Eka Vedantham (45th for ₹1.68 Lakhs), Dhaval Mudgal (49th for ₹1.40 Lakhs), and Meherzad Munsaf (58th for ₹1.16 Lakhs).

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Abhinav Iyer – 4,825,000
2. Te Mai – 2,105,000
3. Daiki Hirokawa – 1,740,000
4. Ming Yang Liu – 1,625,000
5. Huu Tuan Nguyen – 1,235,000
6. Mark Gruendemann – 1,060,000
7. Sim Kok Wai – 895,000
8. Hak Do Kim – 895,000

Final Table Recap

Sim Kok Wai was the first to get eliminated on the eigth-handed final table. With blinds at 40,000/80,000, the action folded to Abhinav Iyer who raised to 185,000 from the hijack with a 10 of Hearts and 8 of Hearts and Wai moved all in for 665,000 from the cut-off holding Ace of Spades and 2 of Spades. Iyer called for 480,000 and the dealer flipped over 10 of Spades, King of Diamonds, Jack of Spades, 3 of Spades and 6 of Diamonds. Iyer flopped a pair of tens to bust out Wai in eighth place. Iyer`s stack swelled to 6 Million after the hand.

Iyer took out another player on the 5th hand. He opened with 80,000 from the cutoff with a 7 of Diamonds and 5 of Clubs, Huu Tuan Nguyen called from the button with Jack of hearts and 9 of Clubs, along with Hak Do Kim who was in the small blind holding. Ming Yang Liu moved all in for 805,000 from the big blind with Ace of Clubs and 10 of Spades. Kim re-shoved all-in, while Iyer and Nguyen checked to see the community cards. Iyer picked up two pairs of sevens and fives to eliminate Liu in seventh place. Iyer`s stack got another boost to reach 9.5 Million.

Mai Te raised to 200,000 in the very next hand and Hak Do Kim jammed from the button for 250,000 with Ace of Diamonds and Queen of Clubs and Te promptly called with 50,000. The runout brought Mai a pair of aces ending Kim’s run in sixth place.

Mark Gruendemann, who was already short-stacked, moved all in with King of Diamonds and 10 of Hearts and came up against Iyer, who held Ace of Clubs and 2 of Spades. The community cards read 7 of Hearts, 3 of Spades, 4 of Spades, Ace of Hearts and 6 of Hearts and Iyer picked up a top pair on the turn, ousting Gruendemann in fifth place.

Iyer raised to 500,000 on the final hand with 2 of Diamonds and 2 of Clubs and Horikawa moved all in with Queen of Diamonds and Jack of Diamonds. The board brought 10 of Clubs, 7 of Clubs, Queen of Clubs, 2 of Hearts and 8 of Spades. Though Horikawa flopped a pair of queens, Iyer improved his hand to three-of-a-kind deuces to win his career-first live title, along with an impressive payday of 69,51,174.

Iyer had a dominating 59% of the chips in circulation as it came down to four-handed play. With the blinds at 50,000/100,000, Iyer raised to 250,000 from the button with Ace of Clubs and 5 of Diamonds and Huu Tuan Nguyen shoved all-in from the small blind with Ace of Spades and 9 of Clubs. Te Mai folded and Iyer snap-called. The rundown 2 of Clubs, 5 of Hearts, 3 of Diamonds, Ace of Hearts and Ace of Spades once again favoured Iyer, who made two pairs of aces and fives, leading to Nguyen’s fourth-place exit.

Te Mai was down to only 19 big blinds. He eventually moved all in with 8 of Clubs and 2 of Hearts against Iyer who held King of Spades and King of Diamonds. The board ran out 10 of Diamonds, 10 of Spades, 2 of Clubs, 3 of Clubs and 6 of Clubs and was of no help to Mai who busted out in third place.

The final showdown between Iyer and Horikawa began with Iyer starting off as the massive chip leader over the latter. Horikawa tried hard to overcome the huge chip gap but in the end, it proved to be too steep a climb for the Japanese pro.

Final Table Results (VND)

1. Abhinav Iyer – VND 2,269,092,000
2. Daiki Horikawa – VND 1,512,731,000
3. Te Mai – VND 1,051,629,000
4. Huu Tuan Nguyen – VND 759,571,000
5. Mark Gruendemann – VND 568,039,000
6. Hak Do Kim – VND 438,408,000
7. Ming Yang Liu – VND 348,137,000
8. Sim Kok Wai – VND 283,642,000

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