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Yasheel Doddanavar, Eka Vedantham top WPT Vietnam ME Day 1A

The VND 25 million Main Event of the 2019 WPT Vietnam is underway at the Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh City. The tournament had its first out of a three total starting flights lined up in yesterday’s schedule. Our Indian contingent is faring well till now at the series, with Madhav Gupta and Kalyan Chakravarthy finishing deep in a couple of events so far.

The day drew 136 entries (including 19 re-entries) to the felts. Defending Champion Dhaval Mudgal entered yesterday, while WPT India Main Event winner Nikunj Jhunjhunwala was also in the mix. Mudgal didn’t find a bag at the end of the day, while Jhunjhunwala progressed along with 4 other Indians.

Team India had a brilliant outing yesterday, with the top 2 chip stacks from Day 1A, both belonging to Indians. Leading the chip counts is India’s Yasheel Doddanavar who bagged 333k chips at the end of the day. He is closely followed by countryman Eka Vedantham at 2^nd spot with 323.5k chips.

During the day, the likes of APT Vietnam Kickoff ME winner Abhinav Iyer, Meherzad Munsaf, Madhav Gupta, Alok Birewar, Neel Joshi, Kush Kataria, Raman Gujral and others were also spotted in action. However, only Joshi (132k chips), Birewar (49.5k chips), Jhunjhunwala (78k chips), Kataria (90k chips), Doddanavar and Vedantham progressed out of the total 37 survivors from this flight.

Coming to the chip leaders, Doddanavar is relatively newer to the live scene but is a regular online grinder. He has already cashed in the series, at 6^th place for ~INR 59k in the Deepstack Turbo. On virtual felts, he has won a few significant titles too, across leading platforms.

Vedantham is a renowned community entity and this is his second international poker trip, after the APT Kickoff Vietnam earlier this year. He has won plenty of cashes from Indian live tournaments including the July 2018 DPT HR win. In the online scenario too, he has a very illustrious record.

Local pros Quang Nguyen and Linh Tran are also in the mix and have bagged a decent stack to progress to Day 2. In the last hand of the tournament, Jhunjhunwala doubled up and now sits with a stack that he can at least play with. The race for the Asian Player of the Year is also being contested tooth and nail. Mudgal and Jhunjhunwala are both at the top of the race and any good finish in coming days will instantly make one ahead of the other.

Top 10 Chip Counts on Day 1A –

1. Yasheel Doddanavar – 333,000
2. Eka Vedantham – 323,500
3. Tuan Pro – 303,500
4. Richard Marquez – 181,000
5. Quang Nguyen – 180,000
6. Hu Jin Long – 154,000
7. Kilian Loeffler – 150,600
8. Lin Hung Sheng – 150,000
9. Linh Tran – 135,000
10. Neel Joshi – 132,000

Keep reading GutshotMagazine.com as we aim to bring you timely updates from WPT Vietnam and other such events happening across the globe.

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