Macau Poker Tournament 2018
The 2018 Macau Millions took place at the City of Dreams resort in the Cotai district of Macau from April 17-23, with 15 official Asia Player of the Year events held throughout its 7-day schedule. These included tournaments with buy-ins ranging from HK$1,000 to HK$30,000, with plenty of cheaper satellites available for just a few hundred dollars.
Drawing the most amount of interest, however, was its $3,000 Main Event, which offered a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, with the ultimate winner also receiving a PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) Platinum Pass worth $30K. This year, the event attracted a record-breaking field of 2,499 players, beating the previous all time high set in 2016 of 2,343 entrants, and as Mark Blake, Head of Live Events in the Asia Pacific, explains:
“Breaking the record for largest field in Macau history is, clearly, a bigger challenge with each installment of the Macau Millions. The ability to meet that challenge each and every time we’ve hosted this event is a proud achievement for my team and I.”
Claims Coveted Trophy
Taiwan’s Chen Lin eventually claimed the title for a HK$1,159,000 (US$147,642) payday, and following his win boasts $969,627 in career earnings since his first live cash back in 2009. The score also represents the 33 year-old professional player’s best to date, narrowly beating the $141,434 he claimed less than three months ago after finishing 8th at the Aussie Millions Main Event.
“I think the trophy means more to me than the Platinum Pass, just because this is the first Main Event title I’ve ever won,” Lin said. “I’ve bubbled three main event final tables so this is a special moment for me.”
HK$3k Main Event
The HK$3k (US$382) Main Event featured a prize pool more than double its $3 million guarantee, and amongst the notable pros finishing in one of its 175 money places was Darren Phua in 78th ($1,847), Alexander Ryskin in 45th ($2,586), Hung-Sheng Lin in 30th($3,503), Victor Chong in 18th ($5,732), and Yazhou Chen in 10th ($11,019).
At the final table, Chen Lin then managed to progress all the way through to heads-up play where he faced off against Xu Jun Huang, a mainland Chinese player who had just $5,000 in winnings prior to the Macau Millions Main Event. On the final hand, Chen Lin (Q-J) raised then called Huang’s (A-10) three-bet preflop, with the 2-J-8 flop inducing a check-raise from Huang. A 10 on turn subsequently saw Huang move-all in, and after Lin quickly called, a harmless 6 on the river saw Huang collect a HK$683,000 ($87,006) for his runner-up finish, while Lin walked away the victor.
Final Table Results
1: Chen An Lin HK$1,159,000 ($147,642)
2: Xu Huang HK$683,000 ($87,006)
3: Zhouchang Xu HK$480,581 ($61,220)
4: Max Menzel HK$360,000 ($45,860)
5: Aditya Sushant HK$276,000 ($35,159)
6: Fangjie Chen HK$204,000 ($25,987)
7: Guigen Xiao HK$155,500 ($19,809)
8: Wei Lin HK$111,000 ($14,140)
HK$30k High Roller
The Macau Millions High Roller attracted an impressive 183 runners, who paid HK$30,000 (US$3,822) a piece to create a prize pool of HK$4,899,276 ($624,435). Amongst the better known pros seeing a return on their buy-ins was Eric Wasylenko in 22nd ($6,883), Phanlert Sukonthachartnant in 20th ($7,520), Tokuho Yoshinaga in 16th ($8,412), and Yang Zhang in 11th ($11,853).
In the end, however, it was China’s Yuefeng Pan who would best fellow compatriot Xianglai Li heads-up to claim the title, with the HK$1,085,000 (US$138,288) he won representing his third biggest score to date, with his best result recorded in 2015 after taking down the Macau Poker Cup 23 Red Dragon for $271,986. Yuefeng Pan now has $653,634 in lifetime earnings, placing him at number 27 on the country’s ‘All Time Money List’, with Elton Tsang topping the list with $12,752,988 in winnings.
Final Table Results
1: Yuefeng Pan HK$1,085,000 ($138,288)
2: Xianglai Li HK$732,000 ($93,297)
3: Michael Soyza HK$504,000 ($64,237)
4: Yifan Zhang HK$411,000 ($52,384)
5: Liu Jiaxiu HK$328,000 ($41,805)
6: Junda Yu HK$252,000 ($32,119)
7: Michael O’Grady HK$183,000 ($23,324)
8: Seng Leow HK$133,000 ($16,951)
Macau Poker Tournament 2018 Results
Latest stop on the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) was the autonomous region of Macau in China, with the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room hosting its 26 event schedule from March 14-25.
The series proved a popular affair, too, with its fields packed with Chinese players, as well as numerous pros from all across the globe, many of whom ended up capturing titles, including Canada’s Kristen Bicknell, USA’s Alex Foxen, and Germany’s Rainer Kempe.
Kristen Bicknell Wins $80k High Roller
Last June, Canada’s Kristen Bicknell became a member of Team partypoker, and since then has strung together some pretty impressive results, but none so more than at the 2018 APPT Macau. At the series, she not only defeated a field of 117 players at the HK$80k National High Roller, including David Peters heads-up, to collect a top prize of HK$2,192,000 ($279,549), but a week or so later she finished 4th at the HK$ 100k APPT High Roller for a further HK$1,523,000 ($194,081).
As a result, Bicknell now boasts career earnings of $1,728,084 since 2006, having won $457,778 in 2016, $551,906 in 2017, and $508,166 in just the first quarter of 2018. Commenting on what keeps her motivated to compete at the highest level, Bicknell said:
“I want to do well to represent women in poker, and that drives me a lot. It kind of motivates me to compete with all the guys. And showing that, you know, women are welcome in this industry, I think is a big step; the more women that play and do well it should hopefully turn things around.”
Alex Foxen Wins $400k Super High Roller
Another top pro claiming a title in Macau was US pro Alex Foxen, who took down the HK$ 400k Super High Roller for HK$7.56m ($963,880). A total of 49 entries and 19 re-entries helped create a prize pool worth US$3,295,919, and amongst the top pros then seeing a return on their investments was Isaac Haxton (9th), Brian Rast (7th), Patrik Antonius (6th), Rainer Kempe (4th), and Sam Greenwood (3rd).
In the end, however, the title was contested between Alex Foxen and Chinese player Huang Shan, with Foxen managing to overcome his remaining opponent to give his career earnings a significant boost to $3,709,590
Rainer Kempe Wins $100k High Roller
Meanwhile, Rainer Kempe enjoyed a great run in Macau, having finished 4th in the HK$400k Super High Roller for HK$2.66m ($339,525), and 3rd in the HK$2.1m Super High Roller Bowl for HK$ 16,005,000 ($2,040,533), before capping it all off with victory at the HK$100k High Roller for HK$1,2m ($153,294). Consequently, Kempe is now placed 3rd on Germany’s ‘All Time Money List’ with $14,424,752 in winnings, with just Fedor Holz ($26,701,373), and Christoph Vogelsang ($ 15,571,786) above him.
Lin Wu Claims Main Event Title
A number of Chinese players won titles at the 2018 APPT Macau, including Ho Lun Pang (APPT Kickoff), Shuize Cai (APPT National), Shijian Tang ($3,000 NLH), Dong Chen ($20,000 NLH), Jian Chen (PokerStars Asia Open, DeepStack), Tak Chung Yan ($3,000 NLH), and Dapeng Mu (6 Handed).
Moreover, taking down the Macau HK$40k Main Event was China’s Lin Wu, who bested a tough field of 356 players to claim its top prize of HK$3.1m ($394,549). Along the way, Lin Wu managed to outlast a whole host of top pros, including Davidi Kitai (9th), and John Juanda (7th), before overcoming India’s Aditya Agarwal heads-up to claim the victory.
Next Stop Korea
Next stop on the Asia Pacific Poker Tour is the Paradise City Casino situated in Incheon, Korea. The series will subsequently run from April 6-15, with its KRW 1,800,000 ($1,670) Main Event taking place over four days from the 12th to the 15th of April. The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour was launched in 2007, and now organizes its live tournaments in China, South Korea, Australia, Philippines and New Zealand. The APPT was also the first poker tour to bring government approved real-money Texas hold’em events to China and Korea.
Since then, several new poker rooms have opened up, and there are now five casinos offering live-dealer cash games, along with the occasional tournament or two. If you’re a serious poker player, and you’ve heard a bit about the games in Macau, you probably believe that they’re extremely juicy.
Macau Poker Tournament 2018 Odds
The mobile casino has taken the concept City Of Dreams Macau Poker Tournaments of personalized gaming to a whole new level. Now you can play on the go 24×7 regardless of where you are. All you need is a smartphone that gives you Internet access via 3G, 4G, LTE, or Wi-Fi. The Poker King Cup Macau 2018 Main Event has a champion, with Wei Ran Pu triumphing over Jian Dong Yu. It was Pu who came into the heads-up confrontation with a substantial lead, which Yu was.