Chinese poker springs to life as Chen Qin wins the largest ever poker tournament to be held outside of the USA: Asia-Pacific Poker Tour’s (APPT) Beijing Millions.
I know that Chang is the most common surname in the world. I also know that every time I walk into a casino it’s full of Chinese gamblers.
Now that tells me something.
Poker can be huge in mainland China, and it’s started off on the right foot, with the APPT Beijing Millions attracting a field that has only ever been topped in the land of the stars and stripes.
2,732 players paid ¥3,000 ($480) to create a prize pool of ¥7,376,400 ($1,195,000), and 188 players received at least ¥12,500 ($2,026) with Chen Qin overcoming an all Chinese final table to take home the largest prize of ¥675,000 ($105,000).
“We always believed that this would be a successful event, but this result greatly exceeded our wildest expectations,” said APPT President Danny McDonagh told the PokerStars blog. “It’s a great honor for PokerStars and the APPT team to be selected to support this tournament. It’s been a historical week. Not just the record itself, but how it may change the future landscape for poker in China.”
McDonagh has every right to be happy as the tournament broke the previous record set at the 2013 Brazilian Series of Poker where 2,446 players entered another event organized by the largest online poker room in the world.
The Beijing Millions was the centerpiece of a 10-day poker festival held at the Beijing Star Poker Club, and it’s the first time the APPT has held a tournament on Mainland China.
In order to accommodate the monster field, PokerStars created six starting days, and amongst the 188 that made it through to the second day of action were PokerStars Team Pros Celina Lin, Bryan Huang and Vivian Im. Im finishing in 151st place, Huang in 50th and Lin immersing herself the deepest when her tournament ended in 24th place.
“I’m so happy to run such a successful event in Beijing and have the support of APPT and the event organizers from the Beijing Sports and Administration Centre,” AoBoTe principal Jian Yang told the PokerStars blog. “The APPT is a professional event management group capable of running major international poker tournaments and together we created a miracle with the Beijing Millions. I hope the cooperation between APPT and Star Poker will strengthen and develop poker further in China.”
Qin defeated Yang Zhang in heads-up action after a four-way deal had been struck. Qin held a 2:1 chip lead when the action began and the final hand saw Qin turn a full house to see off the two pair of Zhang.
Final Table Standings
1st. Chen Qin – ¥675,000*
2nd. Yang Zhang – ¥700,000*
3rd. Tong Shen – ¥650,000*
4th. Feng Bai – ¥587,500*
5th. Jing Liu – ¥312,500
6th. Chen Hao – ¥250,000
7th. Qiang Liu – ¥205,000
8th. Hui Xu – ¥162,650
9th. Yuanye Chen – ¥125,000
*Denotes a four way deal
