Zhong Yuan Hang Leads Final Table of Poker King Cup Macau
Only eight players now remain in contention for the trophy, title and lion’s share of the HK$7.129 million (~$915,295) prize pool in the Poker King Cup Macau 2017 Main Event.
The 490 initial entries had been reduced to 63 when play resumed for Day 3 at the Venetian Macau, with all of the remaining players guaranteed a payday of at least HK$26,000 (~$3,338).
The action was frantic from the get-go with a slew of early eliminations. Alex Lee, Wei Guoliang and Yah Loon Lim – the former Day 1A, 1B and 1C frontrunners, respectively – all fell by the wayside as play progressed.
Other notables who could not go the distance included Denmark’s Frederik Farrington, Macau’s Sam Cheong and Hong Kong’s Justin Chan, with the elimination of the latter setting up a redraw for the last three tables.
It took 10 grueling one-hour levels to whittle the 63-strong field down to the official 8-handed Poker King Cup Macau Main Event Final Table, with former Day 2 frontrunner Anson Tsang falling at the final hurdle to close out the day.
Tsang began play with a sizable chip lead of 1.1 million – 210,000 more than next closest rival Weizhou Zha. The Hong Kong player increased this still further with the elimination of Lim Yohwan after the Korean player made an ill-timed bluff in a battle of the blinds with ten-high midway through the day.
Unfortunately for Yohwan, Tsang had flopped trip eights and made the call to send the Korean to the rail in 39th place. That massive pot saw Tsang climb to 2 million in chips; more than double that of next closest rival Longyun Li. Tsang increased this still further to climb to the giddy heights of 3.1 million as play came down to the final three tables.
However, a misstep against China’s Zhong Yuan Hang when there were two tables left saw Tsang get all the chips in on the flop with a king-high flush draw on an ace-high board in a three-bet pot. Hang made the call with ace-queen, which held to take a big bite out of Tsang’s stack and blow the game wide open and see China’s Longyun Li seize the lead.
Two tables quickly became one with the exits of Japan’s Yuhei Sanada, China’s Zhou Jia, Korea’s SJ Kim, China’s Zhao Jia, Zhao Ting Ting and Jun Wang in quick succession.
Wang’s exit was by far the most spectacular, with the Chinese player moving all-in for the last of his chips with pocket fives and running into Longyun Li’s pocket sixes. Li spiked a set on the flop and improved to quads on the river to send Wang to the rail in 11th for an HK$102,000 payday and set up the unofficial 10-handed final table.
The first casualty of the unofficial final table was the unfortunate Alex Shen Zheng, who ran his pocket jacks into the pocket aces of Li – who was sitting in the hot seat for a large part of the day – to further extend the Chinese player’s lead.
It took a nearly a further three hours of play before Tsang’s departure, with Li holding the lead throughout until the final hand. Tsang’s fortunes had waned as the day progressed and he had become the second shortest stack.
When the end came it was sudden and after the action folded around to Tsang on the button he got the last of his chips in with ace-ten and was beaten into the pot by small blind Zhong Yuan Hang holding ace-jack. Hang paired his jack to send Tsang crashing out of the tournament, snag the chip lead and close the day in one fell swoop.
Final Table Lineup
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Simon Burns | 725,000 |
| 3 | Zhong Yuan Hang | 4,280,000 |
| 4 | Huang Qien | 1,400,000 |
| 5 | Liu Lifu | 1,585,000 |
| 6 | Michael Soyza | 1,130,000 |
| 7 | Longyun Li | 4,155,000 |
| 8 | Linh Tran | 870,000 |
| 9 | Weizhou Zha | 555,000 |
When play resumes at 1:30 p.m. on Friday for the official eight-handed final table, blinds will be rolled back to 20,000/40,000 with a 5,000 running ante and will play down until a champion is crowned. Follow all of the live action right here at PokerNews!
