Nishant Sharma is among the elite few Indian poker players at USOP Hai Phong 2024. While he hadn’t earned any cashes in the series until today, he reached the Final Table of Event #39 VND 88 Million Super High Roller, and his impressive run eventually ended in 5th place. Sharma was in the thick of the action until his elimination.
At the time of writing this article, we still aren’t sure of the exact field of entries, total prize pool, and the players paid. However, the initial advertised guarantee was VND 2.4 Billion, and if we go by the participation we’ve seen in the series so far, we’re sure that this amount would’ve been surpassed. The final table was live-streamed on USOP’s YouTube channel, and here’s a look at the chip counts at the start of the FT:
Number | Name | Chip Count |
1 | Karrim Ahmed | 5M |
2 | Munteanu Bogdan Andrei | 4.5M |
3 | Nguyen Ngoc Dai | 4.3M |
4 | Jia Willliam | 3.8M |
5 | Duong Chi Thanh | 2.7M |
6 | The Naing | 2M |
7 | Cao Tran Ngoc | 2M |
8 | Nishant Sharma | 1.9M |
9 | Kemter Tommy | 1.2M |
Sharma began as the second lowest chip stack at the final table. However, he chipped up a few times and survived long enough to end in the 5th position. At one time, Sharma was doing well with a stack of 4.4 million chips, but he faced off against Duong Chi Thanh in a QQ vs AA pot, where the latter hit a full house, and Sharma’s stack came down to only 1.9 million again.
A few minutes later, he was busted by South African poker player Karrim Ahmed, who stood third with a chip count of 5.8 Million after busting Sharma. During this hand, Sharma was all-in with the remainder of his 1.5M chips. He had A5 against Karrim’s A9, and the latter hit a 9 on the flop itself. The 5 on the river was of no use to Sharma, who walked away with a prize of VND 645,700,000 (~₹21.97 Lakh). See the final hand above.
Also Read: Siddharth Karia Snags 3rd Place At USOP Hai Phong Mini Main Event
While he did get busted, his antics on the felt caught the eye of another iconic poker player, Zarvan Tumboli, who has a bitter-sweet message for the young poker player. Nishant is a formidable player on the international and national poker scene and has been in the cash several times in his career. He is one of those rare poker players who have shipped a ME of a series back to back.
Number | Name | Amount |
1 | William Jia | VND 2,101,014,000* |
2 | Munteanu Bogdan-Andrei | VND 1,948,985,000* |
3 | Chi Thanh Duong | VND 1,180,000,000 |
4 | Karrim Ahmed | VND 858,000,000 |
5 | Nishant Sharma | VND 645,700,000 |
6 | Ngoc Dai Nguyen | VND 490,000,000 |
7 | Tommy Kemter | VND 378,000,000 |
8 | Cao Tran Ngoc | VND 299,000,000 |
9 | The Naing | VND 241,000,000 |
10 |
*Heads up ICM deal and played for the trophy
He achieved this feat by winning Poker Stars 10 and 11 Main Events in 2023 and 2024. At 11, he shipped the main event, cashing for nearly a career-best score of MYR 811,629 (~₹1.53 Cr) out of the total prize pool of MYR 6,807,305. In 2023, he brought home a cash of VND 3.7 Billion. It would be an understatement to say that Nishant is currently on a hot run.
It’s heartening to see that while Tumboli was not at USOP, he still has an eye open for the other Indian players who are raking in cash on foreign shores. Before this event, his best live cash was $230,475 when he stood 34th at Event #65 of the 49th World Series of Poker, Las Vegas.
We have been constantly updating the winners list of the ongoing USOP Hai Phong 2024 series. You can view the latest and updated results here. For more updates from the poker world, keep reading GutshotMagazine.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram
Roy D’Silva is a published author and has covered various beats in his decade-long experience, including Bollywood, OTT and now poker. An avid cyclist and documentary buff, Roy’s looking to be right, front, and center of that one big story in the poker world.
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