Final tables at major poker events are usually built to last into the wee hours of the morning. But the recent Asia Championship of Poker Main Event in the PokerStars LIVE Macau room in the City of Dreams in Macau took it to a whole new level, or should we say, a whole new day.
The heads-up showdown between Sunny Jung and Devan Tang lasted too long on Saturday forcing tournament director Danny McDonagh to call off the proceedings in favor of returning on Sunday and continuing the marathon match.
And true to form, Sunday’s affair between the two finalists took another five hours to finish. In the end, though, it was the Sunny Jung who prevailed, taking home the prestigious ACOP Main Event and the HK$4,352,000 first-place prize that came along with it. The amount is USD$560,000 in case you were wondering.
The Main Event was set to be a doozy with 203 players taking to the felt in an attempt to be the second-ever winner of the ACOP Main Event and join China’s Xing Zhou as the first two triumphant titlists of the tournament. The ACOP Main Event also has one of the biggest buy-ins in the region, making the tournament even more prestigious than most tournaments in Asia.
After what seemed like an eternity even in poker circles, the field finally whittled down to the final nine players and the script remained virtually the same as it has since the tournament began. Chips exchanged hands that it seemed that hand sanitizers would’ve been needed.
In the end, the battle of attrition concluded with Jung and Tang staring each other down. The two exchanged pots for almost two hours before the former eventually steered clear of his adversary, taking down the worthy Tang on his way to being crowned the second ever ACOP Main Event champion.
Big ups to Sunny Jung for the conquest. Just goes to show that patience and perseverance are skills that’s going to take you far in poker tournaments.
