Swinging day at WPT Prime Cambodia with four tournaments scattered around the ballorom of NagaWorld Phnom Penh. Trong Hieu Ngo emerged the biggest winner, two players from India lifted trophies, and the heavy hitters were in battle gear at the Super High Roller. Here are the highlights. For pics, head to the Somuchpoker FB page.
Trong Hieu Ngo banks it big at the Mystery Bounty
Vietnam‘s Trong Hieu Ngo was the most envied player at the Mystery Bounty when he pulled the lone US$ 10K top bounty reward… and he did it on just the fourth pull of the day! Ngo went on to ruin eight players’ hopes in Day 2, defeating famous Japanese musical artist Gackt at heads up. Ngo collected a large US$ 16,750 in bounties plus the US$ 18,400 top prize for a combined US$ 35,150 payout. This was his second largest career score and first ever WPT title.
During the final clash, Ngo shoved, Gackt called showing 
while saying “it’s my birthday hand”. Ngo turned up 
and replied “birthday no good!” True enough, it wasn’t, as the board dropp blanks. Somuchpoker was hoping to catch up with Ngo for a brief interview but he quickly grabbed a seat at the ongoing Super High Roller event. No matter, the smile says it all.
Event recap
The Mystery Bounty attracted 250 entrants (Day 1A – 151, Day 1B – 99) over two entry flights. This amassed a prize pool of US$ 121,250 of which 31 earned a cut. It was action from the get-go at Day 2 with Trong Hieu Ngo delivering a double knockout then followed it up with the elimination of Zhaohong Guo. This awarded him three bounty draws of US$ 1,000, US$ 500, and to everyone else’s dismay, the US$ 10,000 bounty, the largest one hidden in the mix.
Down to two tables, Flight B chip leader Yuri Ishida was the recipient of a two-outer bad beat when her pocket Aces were cracked by Ruslan Belinskiy’s pocket Kings. With both players sporting very healthy stacks, she plunged and soon settled for 17th place. Hands later, Belinskiy amassed the chip lead after outkicking Aladin Reskallah into 10th place. This was his first takedown of the day which formed the final table.
Belinskiy quickly picked up where he left off. He eliminated the day’s entering chip leader Alexander Puchalski (9th) followed by Gaurav Sood (8th) who had just paid Kunal Patni a huge double up with pocket Eights holding against Ace-King. Patni collected more after getting lucky on Jasven Saigal but Ngo quickly put an end to it with 
denying Patni’s 
. Patni finished 5th which was good enough to overtake Semen Kapitonov in the Player of the Festival race.
Backed by a massive stack, Ngo finished off Belinskiy in 3rd place and entered heads up out front 60 BB against Gackt‘s 39 BB. Ngo dominated the action, grinding down the Japanese rock star to clinch the win and the coveted WPT trophy.
Dates: August 15 to 16
Buy in: US$ 550
Entries: 250
Prize pool: US$ 80,000
Bounty pool: US$ 41,250
ITM: 31 places
Payouts (includes bounties)
1st
Trong Hieu Ngo
Viet Nam
$35,150
2nd
Gackt
Japan
$17,165
3rd
Ruslan Belinskiy
Russia
$9,200
4th
Tsz Him Phun
Hong Kong
$7,490
5th
Kunal Patni
India
$7,850
6th
Jasven Saigal
India
$3,690
7th
Jin Xiong Lee
Singapore
$2,680
8th
Gaurav Sood
India
$4,190
9th
Alexander Puchalski
Canada
$1,965
10th
Aladin Youri Reskallah
France
$2,065
11th
Bastien Joly
France
$1,565
12th
Ankit Wadhawan
India
$1,565
13th
Jonas Magdalinski
Sweden
$2,345
14th
Michael Kim Falcon
Denmark
$1,345
15th
Eike Soren Strub
Germany
$6,345
16th
David Paul Anstice
Ireland
$1,130
17th
Yuri Ishida
Japan
$1,630
18th
Dhaval Mudgal
India
$1,130
19th
Kohei Nakai
Japan
$925
20th
Samuel Adams
New Zealand
$1,175
21st
Laksh Pal Singh
India
$925
22nd
Hai Nam Le
Viet Nam
$750
23rd
Trent Wayne Fechter
USA
$750
24th
Eric Wasylenko
Canada
$750
25th
Kuen Wai Jeffrey Lo
Hong Kong
$650
26th
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Balushin
Russia
$650
27th
Zhaohong Guo
China
$650
28th
Jhang-Youuu Huang
Taiwan
$650
29th
Ashish Munot
India
$650
30th
Somashekhar Kurkhepally Nahadeva
India
$650
31st
Jiyoung Kim
Korea
$650
First live victory in Asia for Akshay Kapoor at the NLH Single Day
“It feels great to finally win a live event. I normally grind online now but this is my first ever live series in Asia and I binked my first trophy in just my fifth event! I It feels great. This one goes out to my poker mentor Danish Sheikh who has a big role in shaping how I play today. Hope I can grab a few more trophies before the end of the series.”
Two years ago, at the height of the pandemic, Kapoor moved back to India from Australia where he joined a group to improve his online game. Through there, he met many of the poker players in the Indian community whom he traveled with to the series. Kapoor became the third player from his country to lift a trophy at the ongoing festival, following in the footsteps of Ashish Munot (NagaWorld SuperStack) and Kunal Patni (Deepstack NLH).
Event recap
Kyungtae Lee
The event drew 128 runners at US$ 400 a piece for a prize pool of US$ 44,698. The bubble burst on Filipino player Junnie Pamplona who was also in his first live event outside of home soil. Pamplona could not pick up that first cash with 
losing the race against Kyungtae Lee‘s pocket Queens. Shortly after, the final table was formed.
Early on, Lee dominated the action, railing multiple players to build a massive stack. Taiwanese pros Yu Chung Chang aka Never and Zong Chi He were big threats at the table until Chang busted 9th and Zong lost a costly shove against Hyunyong Bae with pocket Eights dusted by pocket Nines.
At five handed, USA’s Scott Christopher Billups 
earned maximum pay from Lee’s 
. Kapoor also enjoyed a double up through Lee with the same hand of Queens over Nines. Billups took the lead when he finished off Japan‘s Muneyuki Tanimura in 5th place. Down to four, the players checked the numbers and an ICM deal was reached with Billups guaranteed the largest cut. They then played for the coveted title and trophy. At heads up, Kapoor led in chips against Billups and closed it out with 
over 
on a dry board.
Buy in: 400
Entries: 128
Prize pool: US$ 44,698
ITM: 16 places
Payouts
1st
Akshay Kapoor
India
$6,496*
2nd
Scott Christopher Billups
USA
$8,658*
3rd
Hyunyong Bae
Korea
$5,113*
4th
Kyungtae Lee
Korea
$8,561*
5th
Muneyuki Tanimura
Japan
$2,235
6th
Zhong Chi He
Taiwan
$1,922
7th
David Rosenthal
South Africa
$1,665
8th
Rocky Pike Harold Brooks
South Africa
$1,475
9th
Yu Chung Chang
Taiwan
$1,296
10th
Sunghwan Lim
Korea
$1,140
11th
Dhaval Mudgal
India
$1,140
12th
Anmol Mehta
India
$1,140
13th
Deliagn Hu
China
$995
14th
Renniel Galvez
Philippines
$995
15th
Avneesh Munjal
India
$995
16th
Long Chen
China
$872
*Four way deal
Zarvan Tumboli wins his first WPT Pot Limit Omaha trophy
Zarvan Tumboli is back in the headlines, this time for winning his first ever WPT side event trophy. Three months prior, Tumboli shipped the inaugural WPT Prime series Main Event in Ha Noi, Viet Nam and now another stellar performance. He outdueled Tunisia’s Selim Souissi who finally agreed to deal and award Tumboli the trophy.
“I’m pretty happy. This was my third consecutive PLO heads up and third PLO trophy. This is my forte. Against this field I was taking many spots and especially on the bubble; that’s where I chipped up the maximum. I was a bit worried about the structure, I didn’t want to get bad beat and bust, but the cards fell in my favor so here I am. Two for India today!”
Event recap
The PLO was another big attraction with 94 entering, among them was top vlogger Andrew Neeme. Just past the seventh hour of play, Neeme was already far gone and was joined by Daniel Chin on the rails with (ah}
busting to Jun Hao Wu 
two pair on a board 
. It didn’t take long for the next three to fall to form the final table.
PLO (1 RE-ENTRY) FINAL TABLE
By four handed, Tumboli was backed by an immense stack followed by Hye Min Choi and two shorter stacks with roughly 13 BB each. After checking the numbers, the deal was rejected. The next shove saw the big stacks Tumboli 
and Choi 
face off with the latter crushed in 4th place. Tunisia’s Selim Souissi cleaned out Russia’s Evgenii Chzhen (3rd) for the last leg to the finish. Despite Souissi‘s attempts, the massive stacked Tumboli could not be cracked to end the game in a handshake deal.
Buy in: US$ 300
Entries: 94
Prize pool: US$ 24,619
ITM: 12 places
Payouts
1st
Zarvan Tumboli
India
$7,000*
2nd
Selim Souissi
Tunisia
$5,488*
3rd
Evgenii Chzhen
Russia
$2,954
4th
Hye Min Choi
Korea
$1,908
5th
Jun Hao Wu
Singapore
$1,477
6th
Jain Bhuvan
Singapore
$1,169
7th
Chun Chung Chan
Hong Kong
$985
8th
Ying Chang Chen
Taiwan
$862
9th
Weimei Cao
China
$781
10th
Wei Wen Thio
Singapore
$714
11th
Ankit Kumar Jajodia
India
$665
12th
Aun Jian Wong
Malaysia
$616
*Heads up deal
Update: Super High Roller
An adjustment was made to the Super High Roller event. Due to player requests, registration closes at the start of Day 2 which takes place on Wednesday, August 17 at 1. For those jumping in, be there before 1pm to secure your spot. Blinds open at 5K – 10K. Buy in is US$ 5,300 with a starting stack of 250,000. The event currently has 45 entries with a prize pool of US$ 218,250.
Day 1 closed with 23 remaining players, among them were Thailand‘s Punnat Punsri who is back in Asia after a spectacular WSOP run, WSOP bracelet champions Mike Takayama and Abhinav Iyer, Phachara Wongwichit, Florencio Campomanes, Vincent Huang, and Florent Remi to mention a few. Sweden’s Matt Douhan bagged the chip lead of 1,295,500, Denmark’s Michael Kim Falcon running second with 965,000.
Stay tuned to Somuchpoker as we bring you updates on the ongoing WPT Prime Cambodia at NagaWorld Phnom Penh. For pics, head to the Somuchpoker FB page.
WPT Prime Cambodia schedule
WPT Prime Cambodia structures
A Quick Guide to WPT Prime Cambodia
Road to WPT Prime Cambodia
Experience WPT Prime Cambodia
WPT Prime Cambodia – Shuffle up and Deal`
WPT Prime Cambodia – Day 1 recap
WPT Prime Cambodia – Ashish Munot wins the SuperStack
WPT Prime Cambodia – Opener Day 1B and Deepstack Freezeout
WPT Prime Cambodia – Younghoon Joo and JK Sorn triumph
WPT Prime Cambodia – Semen Kapitonov wins the Opener for $35K
WPT Prime Cambodia – Anand Kumar and Kunal Patni win trophies
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