Herve Gouzil Wins Record Breaking USOP Grand Finale Madness Kick Off

France’s Herve Gouzil overcame a swinging heads up to clinch his first ever U Series of Poker title at the USOP Grand Finale – Madness Kick Off in Hai Phong, Vietnam. This was Gouzil’s first ever  title on Asian soil and with it came a payout of VND 2,150,000,000 (~US$ 84,000). In a post win interview, Gouzil was elated for his victory and shared his thoughts on the crucial hand,

[Translated from French]

“It was intuition when I was behind in chips and I made a big move three-betting all in with King-Jack offsuit and I think he (my opponent) was tired and wanted to end it. That was a big blow to him.”

Indeed that hand was a game changer as Gouzil three-bet shoved with K♣J♠ and Nguyen called with A♣6♣. The board favored Gouzil running J♦J♥8♣8♦6♥ to switch command. This sent Nguyen down to 11 bb and pushed with big slick on a ten-high flop. Gouzil called with bottom pair that held for the win.

USOP Grand Finale – Madness Kick Off

The USOP Grand Finale launched their series with the Madness Kickoff as its opening event at the Pullman Grand Hotel in Hai Phong, Vietnam, boasting a VND 10 Billion guaranteed (~USD 400,000) prize pool. An affordable buy-in of VND 11,000,000 (~USD 430) attracted a record-breaking 1,582 entries, pushing the prize pool beyond the initial guarantee to an astounding VND 14,722,092,000 (~US$ 580,000).

Madness Kick Off Review

• Date: November 29 to December 1, 2024
• Buy in: VND 11,000,000 (~US$ 435)
• Guarantee: VND 10,000,000,000 (~US$ 394,250)
• Entries: 1,582 (1105 unique)
• Prize pool: VND 14,722,092,000 (~US$ 580,000)
• ITM: 199 players

Final Table Payouts

Four (4) Day One flights were offered in this multi-day event to provide enough opportunities for players to advance to the Day 2 Final.

Flight Results

• Flight A: 212 entries / 27 ITM
• Flight B: 277 entries / 35 ITM
• Flight C: 606 entries / 76 ITM
• Flight D: 487 entries / 61 ITM

Flight C saw a record-breaking 606 contenders – the biggest number of entries for a flight of any opening event. The total registrants on this flight assured that the VNB 10 Billion guarantee would be surpassed. Day 2 saw 198 qualifiers return to compete until a champion was crowned.

Final 9 Recap

It took a little over 7 hours until a final table of 9 was formed. The locals heavily dominated with seven contenders on the round. However that quickly dropped to six with  first casualty Vietnam’s Hoai Phong Ngo. He was followed by Australia’s Travis Endersby in 8th place whose big slick lost the flip to pocket queens. This left only one non-local, Gouzil from France.

Out in 7th was Vietnam’s Trung Phong Nguyen who was the only player that bagged multiple stacks. Nguyen earned the minimum payout in 199th place and collected a larger VND 383,000,000 (~USD 15,100) for his deeper finish. Another local fell with Minh Quan Nguyen cut short at 6th place when his paired ace ran into a stronger kicker. Thi Minh Hong Pham joined the railbirds in 5th place, being the highest finisher among the women pros in this event and her first recorded payout in Asian soil.

Crowd favorite and a well known Vietnamese ace, Pham Tien Dung, was stopped in 4th place was the fourth place. Pham held the chip leader throne for the later part of the event, but had some unlucky flips, including his last stand with big slick that was foiled by Gouzil’s pocket sevens.

The third place of VND 1,000,000,000 (~USD 40,000) went to Vietnam’s Pham Van Phu. Phu also held the chip leader throne during this event with some very solid play, but then also ran into some unlucky flips. In the end, Phu’s pocket kings succumbed to Nam’s Ace-Jack off. This payout was Phu’s biggest career score.

Heads Up

The final heads-up showdown between Vietnam’s Nguyen Hoang Nam and France’s Herve Gouzil played less than an hour with the blinds pressuring both players. Gouzil had a 42 bb to Nguyen’s 23 bb entering heads-up play but quickly switched on Nguyen’s aggression on a flopped flush. Gouzil bounced back when his King-Jack offsuit got lucky against Nguyen’s Ace-Six suited then closed it out shortly after to deny the last local hope.

Despite the loss for Nguyen he earned a career high payout of VND 1,450,000,000 (~USD 57,000). Madness Kickoff champion Guozil earned the lion’s share worth VND 2,150,000,000 (~USD 84,000).

Links:

Madness Kickoff – Payouts
Madnes Kickoff – Final Day Live Updates

USOP GF – Schedule
USOP GF – Photos