The most recent Macau Poker Cup series was another successful one, held again at the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room.
Records were set, champions were crowned, and millions of Hong Kong dollars were distributed to the best of the players.
Zhenru Xie Wins Red Dragon Main Event
The main attraction of the Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon tournament, the big event that required a HK $11,000 ($1,419) buy-in for the No Limit Hold’em tournament and guaranteed a prize pool of HK $5 million ($645,098).
The first of three starting days brought 213 players into action, and another 148 joined on the second. The final starting day added 447 entries, bringing the event total to 808 entries and prize pool to HK $7,837,600 ($1,011,205). The top 108 players were to be paid from that amount.
Mikal Blomlie was the overall chip leader from those initial flights with 169,500 chips.
Prior to the Red Dragon, there was a HK $6,000 ($774) buy-in NLHE Baby Dragon tournament that drew 258 players for a prize pool that came close to HK $1.5 million ($193,530).
Day 2 started with 221 survivors but reduced the field into the money and down to just 46 players. Names like Blomlie and Andrew Scott exited with cash, as Wai Leong Chan soared to the lead with 766K chips.
Players like Kenny Leong and Winfred Yu busted on Day 3, and Kanaal Chandra bubbled the final table. Hu Liu had the final table chip lead with 3,155,000 chips, with Mathew Ryan in a distant second with 1,765,000 chips and Zhenru Xie in third with 1,275,000 chips.
Action on the final day saw the short stacks exit early and quickly. Five-handed saw Takuya Yamashita and Xie soar, and former chip leader Liu eventually busted in fifth place. Yamashita eventually fell from grace and took third place.
Xie went into heads-up with the lead over Ryan, and despite an initial few hands going to Ryan, Xie took a massive pot that left his opponent with just 900K chips. Ryan then risked his last stack with J-4 against the 7-2 of Xie, but a seven on the flop eliminated Ryan in second and gave Xie the win.
The final results were:
1st place: Zhenru Xie (HK $1,667,000) ($215,076)
2nd place: Mathew Ryan (HK $1,100,000) ($141,922)
3rd place: Takuya Yamashita (HK $658,000) ($84,895)
4th place: Pete Yen Han Chen (HK $491,000) ($63,349)
5th place: Hu Liu (HK $350,000) ($45,157)
6th place: Chen Wang (HK $290,000) ($37,416)
7th place: John Quoc Tuan Hoang (HK $232,000) ($29,933)
8th place: Enming Zhang (Hk $175,000) ($22,578)
9th place: Wai Leong Chan (HK $135,600) ($17,495)
Other Macau Poker Cup Highlights
Prior to the Red Dragon, there was a HK $6,000 ($774) buy-in NLHE Baby Dragon tournament that drew 258 players for a prize pool that came close to HK $1.5 million ($193,530).
The final 31 players in the tournament cashed, a list that included names like Celina Lin and Hao Chen. The final table played out on the second day, and a three-way deal saw Mahipalsinh Vala take home more money for second place than winner Yuhito Hayashi did for his first-place victory. Those top payouts were:
1st place: Yuhito Hayashi (HK $224,300) ($28,939)
2nd place: Mahipalsinh Vala (HK $284,000) ($36,642)
3rd place: Jin Hong Lim (HK $212,000) ($27,352)
The other highlight of the series in Macau was the HK $80,000 ($10,322) buy-in High Roller tournament. A total of 59 entries were tallied for that event, pushing the prize pool up to HK $4,439,160 ($572,739).
The top seven players cashed from the final table, and the final results were as follows:
1st place: Henrik Tollefsen (HK $1,465,000) ($189,014)
2nd place: Rono Lo (Hk $932,000) ($120,246)
3rd place: Daniel Chin (HK $621,000) ($80,121)
4th place: Victor Chong (HK $488,000) ($62,962)
5th place: Shashank Rathi (HK $355,000) ($45,802)
6th place: Quan Zhou (HK $311,000) ($40,125)
7th place: Makoto Yoshimichi (HK $267,160) ($34,469)
