The very first WPT Prime event was a huge success. Hundreds of poker players descended on the Crown Poker Club in Hanoi, Vietnam for the WPT Prime Vietnam series.
The WPT has run events in Vietnam since 2018 and the Crown Poker Club has hosted for the tour before. However, this was the very first event to run anywhere under the new WPT Prime series. WPT Prime has replaced the old WPT DeepStacks brand of mid-stakes tourneys held around the world.
The festival consisted of 24 events running from May 19-30. There were multiple satellites running daily and a mix of events ranging from turbos to deepstacks. Most events were no limit hold'em with a couple of pot limit Omaha and short deck tourneys mixed in.
Players who cashed in the events won points towards the WPT Prime player of the year leaderboards and some $30,000 in leaderboard prizes.
Record setting Main Event
The ₫25 million (∼$1,088) buy-in Main Event ran from the May 26 to the end of the festival. Overall, the Main Event attracted 777 entries over the course of its three Day 1s. That was enough to make it the biggest WPT poker tournament ever held in Vietnam.
Those 777 players were down to 96 players by the start of Day 2. Among them was the final winner Zarvan Tumboli of India. Tumboli went into the final 9 on Day 3 with a substantial chip lead which he was able to hold onto all day to become the very first WPT Prime champion.
The WPT tweeted about Tumboli's victory, writing, "Zarvan Tumboli won his way into the WPT history books by taking down the 777-entry field of the WPT Prime Vietnam Main Event at the Crown Poker Club in Hanoi to become the first-ever WPT Prime champion! Zarvan takes home the trophy, the glory, and $131,134 USD for first!"
The next WPT Prime event will be the WPT Prime Gold Coast held at the Star Gold Coast in Gold Coast Australia. The WPT Prime Gold Coast kicks of on June 16, 2022. Further WPT Prime stops in Cambodia, Spain, and Taiwan have also been confirmed by the tour.
WPT Prime Vietnam 2022 Main Event complete final table results
| Position | Player Name | Country | Payout (VND) | Payout (USD) |
| 1st | Zarvan Tumboli | India | ₫ 3.050 Billion | $ 131,394 |
| 2nd | Ashish Munot | India | ₫ 2,025 Million | $ 87,237 |
| 3rd | Trung Van Nguyen | Vietnam | ₫ 1,500 Million | $ 64,620 |
| 4th | Minh Quang Nguyen | Vietnam | ₫ 1,115 Million | $ 48,034 |
| 5th | Denis Pham | Vietnam | ₫ 840 Million | $ 36,187 |
| 6th | Tuan Anh Tran | Vietnam | ₫ 640 Million | $ 27,571 |
| 7th | Do Kwan Nam | South Korea | ₫ 490 Million | $ 21,109 |
| 8th | Trung Nam Tran | Vietnam | ₫ 381 Million | $16,408 |
| 9th | Tien Van Pham | Vietnam | ₫ 300 Million | $12,924 |
Featured image source: Flickr by WPT, used under CC License
