The Asian Poker Tour Phu Quoc 2024 is really turning up the heat. Since November 8, the Corona Theatre on this beautiful island has been buzzing with nonstop poker action. The stakes are high, with a whopping VN₫ 44 Billion (~$1.70 Million) in guaranteed prizes spread across 82 events! And as the festival crosses the halfway mark, Team India is making a serious statement.
Following in the footsteps of Natural8 India Executive Director and Ambassador Kunal Patni, who kicked things off in a big way with two final table finishes and a victory (his third APT title!) in the VN₫ 4 Million Tick Tock BOOM! Super Hold’em, fellow Mumbai pro Avneesh Munjal (cover image) has just added another trophy to India’s collection. He just took down Event #29: VN₫ 60 Million High Roller – Double Stack in spectacular fashion.
Munjal is a beast, both live and online. He was a star player for the Bigcash Bengaluru Allstars in Pocket52 PSL Season 6 and boasts ₹7.05 Crores in tracked online winnings (excluding Natural8 India and Pocket52), with over ₹1.70 Crores in profits. Now, he’s added the biggest live achievement yet to his already impressive poker resume by conquering a field of 117 entries (78 unique) in the High Roller – Double Stack. After two days of intense play, Munjal topped a stacked field, claiming a career-best VN₫ 1.541 Billion (~₹51.34 Lakhs) and kicking off his APT Phu Quoc campaign with a bang!
“I wasn’t even planning on playing this tournament,” Munjal confessed after his win. “There was another side event I was interested in, but it was a bit turbo-ish, so I made a last-minute decision to play this one instead. It was a deep-structured tournament, and even though this was a little above my bankroll, I thought I’d give it a shot.”
And what a shot it turned out to be! But what makes Munjal’s victory even more remarkable is his incredible comeback story. He started the final day as one of the shortest stacks but defied the odds with a combination of skill, strategy, and an undeniable “god-like” run.
“Day 1 was pretty slow for me,” he shared. “I was grinding with 25 to 30 big blinds for most of the day.”
But things took a dramatic turn on Day 2. “The good thing was that the levels were 40 minutes long, giving me a chance to grind. And then today, I ran super hot. I picked up an early double-up right at the start of the day, and from there, as we got closer to the money, I kept getting cards, making hands, and running incredibly well. I kept the momentum going,” he said, describing his incredible heater.
Once the run-good started, Munjal seized the opportunity and never looked back. He took the chip lead early in the day and never relinquished it, navigating through a field of top-tier talent to claim his first APT trophy.
In the final heads-up battle, Munjal faced off against China’s Mingcong Chen, who had just won Event #3: Single Day High Roller – Freezeout a few days earlier. Chen put up a great fight, extending the battle to over two hours, but ultimately fell short, finishing as the runner-up with VN₫ 1.042 Billion ($41,106) – his second-best career score.
“The heads-up match was pretty intense,” Munjal shared. “It lasted for two and a half hours, and I started with about 120 big blinds to his 80. It’s not a scenario you’ve never studied! But I kept grinding and felt like I could read and understand his gameplay. I avoided a couple of high-variance spots and thought it would be easier to grind it out. Gradually, I extended my chip lead, and in the end, there was a hand where the money went in on the turn, and I won the title!”
This victory marks Munjal’s third live title and 12th live cash of the year. The former WPT champion has been making waves all year. He’s the only Indian player to ever win a Short Deck live event (which he achieved at the VPL Summer Series in May) and even had a strong showing at the 2024 WSOP, his second time playing the series in Las Vegas. And to top it off, he’s also still in contention in the APT Phu Quoc Main Event, having bagged a healthy stack of 167,100 (104 BBs) from Flight A. This win also pushed his lifetime live earnings past ₹1.76 Crores!
Adding to India’s success in the High Roller – Double Stack, Amit Kaushik, the 28-year-old poker prodigy from Kurukshetra, Haryana, also reached the final table. Kaushik, who started Day 2 with a healthy stack, finished in eighth place for VN₫ 205.30 Million (~₹6.84 Lakhs). Known for his analytical approach (he has an Applied Mathematics degree from IIT Roorkee!), Kaushik has made a remarkable transition from the corporate world to the poker felt. His poker journey has been incredibly successful, with lifetime online winnings approaching ₹8.50 Crores and a collection of live titles from prestigious stops like the WPT, APT, USOP, WPC, and the DPT.
High Roller – Double Stack Highlights
Event #29: High Roller – Double Stack, with its VN₫ 60 Million buy-in (~₹2 Lakhs), attracted a field of 117 entries (78 unique), generating a whopping VN₫ 6.128 Billion (~$250,141) prize pool. The top 17 finishers were paid, with a minimum payout of VN₫ 96.22 Million.
Day 2 began with 41 players, including five from India. Among the notable players were WSOP bracelet winner and WPT champion Aayush Arya, veteran pro Dhaval Mudgal, and two-time GPI POY (India) Ankit Ahuja. Unfortunately, none of these pros made it into the money, highlighting the tough competition.
Several players fought hard but fell short of the final table, including South Korea’s Juyeol Lee (11th for VN₫ 125.63 Million), USA’s John Joseph Panish (12th for VN₫ 110.31 Million), China’s Junqiang Lyu (13th for VN₫ 110.31 Million), Vietnam’s Nang Quang Nguyen (14th for VN₫ 101.12 Million), Vietnam’s Tran Huy Hoang (15th for VN₫ 110.31 Million), France’s Adrien Pierre Louis Favre Felix (16th for VN₫ 96.22 Million), and Denmark’s Martin Godsk Stausholm (17th for VN₫ 96.22 Million).
Day 1 chip leader Dylan Wayne Foster from Australia was eliminated in tenth place with VN₫ 125.63 Million, setting up the nine-handed final table.
The final table was a star-studded affair, with players from all over the world vying for the title. Here’s how they finished:
Final Table Results (VN₫)
- Avneesh Munjal – VN₫ 1,541,930,000
- Mingcong Chen – VN₫ 1,041,840,000
- Sergius Angelo Santos – VN₫ 677,190,000
- William Jia – VN₫ 560,750,000
- Nguyen Trung Quan – VN₫ 452,280,000
- Gab Yong Kim – VN₫ 356,680,000
- Milos Skrbic – VN₫ 272,720,000
- Amit Kaushik – VN₫ 205,300,000
- Xin Tang – VN₫ 153,210,000
Content and Images Courtesy: Asian Poker Tour
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