James Chen has won the Macau Poker Cup 23 High Roller; Tom Alner and Scott Davies also make the final table.
Chen defeated a field of 75 entrants, over the space of two days. The 75-minute final table was a whizz-bang affair. The PokerStars blog stated that Chen ‘dominated’ the event. He started as the final table chip leader, and never let go of the baton.
Prior to this event Chen only had one other score on his Hendon Mob profile. Earlier this year he finished runner-up to Eric Fung in the HK$ 6,000 NLHE Baby Dragon event at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) at the City of Dreams. His heads-up opponent carried more experienced. Yoshimichi finished fifth in a €10,200 Turbo at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Grand Final in Monaco for $70,074.
The final contained three consistent and classy Asian tournament performers. British born pro Tom Alner is a regular on the Asian live tournament scene. In 2013, he won the HK$ 11,000 Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon Main Event for $106,103 – he would finish third for HK$726,000 in this one. The other non-Asian player at the final table was Scott Davies. The former World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP-APAC) Main Event winner, recently picked up a High Roller title at the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) in Peru. Davies would earn HK$ 279,000 for this seventh place finish.
The most experienced Asian player at the final table was Liang Yu. Earlier this year he won the APPT9 HK$ 100,000 High Roller for $321,477 and late last year finished runner-up to Fabian Quoss in the HK$250,000 APPT High Roller earnings just under half a million dollars. Yu would finish fourth for HK$559,000
The heads-up phase of play only lasted five minutes. Yoshimichi opened the button for 160,000, Chen three-bet to 420,000, and Yoshimichi called. The flop was [Tc] [5c] [4s], Chen bet 475,000 and Yoshimichi called. The turn was the [Qh], Chen bet 750,000, Yoshimichi moved all-in and Chen called. It was [Th][6h] for Yoshimichi – holding second pair – and Chen held pocket jacks for the over pair. The [Qc] changed nothing.
Chen was the new Macau Poker Cup High Roller champion.
Final Table Results (HKD)
1st. James Chen – $1,704,000
2nd. Makoto Yoshimichi – $1,117,000
3rd. Tom Alner – $726,000
4th. Liang Yu – $559,000
5th. Wayne Zhang – $391,000
6th. Yan Cai – $335,000
7th. Scott Davies – $279,000
8th. Xiang Zhu – $251,500
9th. Huidong Gu – $223,500
