Team India has had multiple proud moments at the U Series of Poker (USOP) Hanoi 2023, from Abhinav Iyer earning the Mini Highroller title to Arjanveer Chadha winning Event 33 Megastack a few hours ago. Vishal Ojha has now made us proud by defeating a record-breaking field of 1,336 competitors in the VND 12 Billion GTD Event #23: VND 25 Million Main Event, becoming the first Indian to win the USOP Main Event title. This was India’s third victory in the ongoing USOP series.
The historic victory was Ojha’s third cash in the series, bringing his total earnings to VND 6 Billion (INR 2.07 Crores). At the event’s final table, Ojha demonstrated his skills and persistence. Starting with the fourth largest stack, he played top-notch poker to race ahead and finally win it after a brief heads-up with Vietnam’s Bien Mai. Ojha earned a staggering VND 5.75 Billion (INR 1.98 Crores) for his first live title, while Mai took home a decent VND 3.50 Billion for his remarkable runner-up finish.
Talking about his landmark victory to SomuchPoker, Ojha said, “It feels surreal! It will take about two days to sink in. I’ve had a few wins online but this is my first live event trophy, in fact, my first big final table so it feels great! I feel I played well at the final table. There were a few spots where I would have played differently but overall it was good. This win is really special. I wasn’t planning to attend live events in the future but now for sure! I’ll probably extend my stay in Vietnam to play.”
Ojha (35 Million) started the heads-up with a commanding advantage over his opponent (19 Million). The heads-up barely lasted two hands. On the final hand, Mai opened to 900,000 and Ojha 3-bet to 3 million. Mai quickly pushed all-in for 18 Million, and Ojha made a snap call holding Qc Qd against Mai’s Ac 10c. The board ran out Kd 8s 9s 10d 7d. Even though Mai hit a pair of tens on the turn, it wasn’t enough to keep him alive. Ojha won the pot, taking home the coveted main event trophy!
Finla Table Payouts (VND)
- Vishal Ojha – 5,750,000,000
- Mai Bien – 3,500,000,000
- Yao Ren Hao – 2,105,000,000
- Lee Kun Han –1,520,000,000
- Ewe Eng Soon – 1,020,000,000
- Tan Xiao Hui – 735,000,000
- Le Ngoc Minh – 620,000,000
- Hu Jin Long – 532,000,000
- Charles Wong – 455,000,000
Running from September 7 to 11, 202, the main event had a buy-in of VND 25,000,000 and a guarantee of VND 12,000,000,000 (USD 498,806). The event exceeded the expectations, drawing in a never-seen before 1336 (459 unique) entries and resulting in a record-breaking VND 29,158,200,000 (USD 1,212,021), which was finally distributed among the the top 168 finishers. Apart from Ojha, there were plenty of other Indian players who cashed out the main event. The details are available here!
Additional Reading:
USOP 2023: Arjanveer Chadha Wins Maiden Live Title; Vishal Ojha Reaches ME Final Table
USOP Hanoi 2023: Abhinav Iyer Gets India To A Flying Start; Wins Mini High Roller!
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