Alan Lau Wins PokerStars Macau Poker Cup 26 Red Dragon
PokerStars Macau Poker Cup 26 concluded the series' flagship tournament, the HK$15,000 Red Dragon Main Event, late Thursday night. This year's edition of the popular freezeout event drew a massive field of 1,216 runners, continuing its tradition as one of Asia's marquee poker events.
Hong Kong pro Alan Lau won this year's Red Dragon for HK$3,265,000, or roughly $420,000. That's nearly double Lau's previous total live cashes of $244,571. He also won a preliminary event in this series for $33,751.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alan Lau | Hong Kong | HK$3,265,000 |
| 2 | Chien Fa Chou | Taiwan | HK$1,954,000 |
| 3 | Apoorva Goel | India | HK$1,163,000 |
| 4 | Yang Zhang | China | HK$840,000 |
| 5 | Edwin Gerard | USA | HK$570,000 |
| 6 | Liang Xu | China | HK$411,500 |
| 7 | Bobby Zhang | Australia | HK$348,000 |
| 8 | Zhen Wen | China | HK$300,500 |
| 9 | Jun Liu | China | HK$253,720 |
PokerStars Team Pro Celina Lin, PokerStars Team Online Pro Randy Lew, Bryan Huang, Tom Alner, Kitty Kuo, Louis Salter, Dong Guo, JP Kelly and PokerStars Team Pro Jake Cody were some of those who fired in the event, with the latter making a deep run into the top 30 before busting out.
According to the live updates, Lau began the final table second in chips but soon moved into a slight lead over Chien Fa Chou. In the meantime, a number of short stacks doubled up as a couple of levels passed, shrinking the average stack.
Finally, after three hours of chips being exchanged, Jun Liu went down in ninth when he lost a race with fives to the ace-ten of Yang Zhang.
A couple of more dominoes quickly fell after that. Zhen Wen shoved for 15 big blinds over a late-position raise from Apoorva Goel and flopped two pair with A♣J♣, but Goel turned a straight with K♠10♣. Then, Bobby Zhang was short-stacked and jammed for under 10 big blinds with A♥9♥ only to run into Yang Zhang's tens.
Lau battled with fellow big stack Zhang, with the latter taking the lead during the course of their clashes. Eventually, though, Lau took control of the tournament when Zhang made a crucial misstep, four-bet shoving for nearly 50 big blinds with fours when Lau had aces and three-bet him button versus cutoff. Lau avoided the appearance of a third four and swept up almost half of the total chips as the tournament remained six-handed.
The last remaining American player was Edwin Gerard. He held up with jacks against Liang Xu's ace-ten but couldn't ladder any further than fifth after scoring that elimination. He fell at the hands of Lau when both picked up pairs in the blinds, but Lau's tens trumped Gerard's sixes.
Zhang had managed one double through Lau after jamming an open-ender but then fell in fourth when he lost a race to former leader Chou. That led to some discussion of a deal, but nothing came to fruition and Lau took his massive lead into three-handed play.
Lau didn't slow down after play resumed. He raised in the small blind holding A♠Q♠ and quickly called when Goel jammed for just under 20 big blinds with A♦2♥. No deuce appeared and Lau took over 100 big blinds and a 5-1 lead going into heads-up play with Chou.
It didn't take long for Lau to turn that lead into a trophy — 10 hands, to be exact. Chou shoved about 20 big blinds in on the button and Lau tanked and called with K♠J♠. He was again in a dominating spot, this time against K♥8♦. Lau didn't have to sweat much as a couple of spades were on board by the turn, leaving Chou drawing to just two outs. Lau secured the win after a brick fell on the end.
Photo courtesy of PokerStars
