ACOP Main Event Final Day, Drinan Looks to Close
The final day of the Asia Championship of Poker Main Event starts today at 2 p.m. local time. Chip leader Connor Drinan (1,755,000) leads the final seven.
Drinan has been an intimidating, and sometimes whimsical, presence at the table throughout the tournament. From side bets on what other players are holding to slamming a few all in bets onto the table, Drinan looks poised to add the ACOP Main Event title to his resume. Pokernews's Nicki Pickering interviewed Drinan on Day 3, you can check out the interview below.
Zhou Zhou might have something to say about it, he ended the day on 1,210,000. Zhou rebounded from a hand where he had Thomas Ward (1,335,000) all in and at risk. Zhou had pocket aces and Ward, pocket kings. A king came on the window and put Zhou among the shorter stacks. However, his late surge put him over 1-million chips and in a strong position to challenge Drinan.
Hsien Yuan Yang (370,000) is the short stack, but might be a dark horse to win. After spending the first part of Day 4 extremely short stacked he managed to double, then triple up on his way to at least a top 7 finish. He enters play today as the short stack, which has become a position he seems quite comfortable in.
Here is the table draw and chip counts for the remaining seven players. The PokerStars blog put together player profiles for each of the remaining players, and you can see those below. Before the end of the day, one of these players will be the new ACOP Main Event Champion.
| Seat | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thomas Ward | New Zeland | 1,335,000 |
| 2 | Nan Tu | China | 1,370,000 |
| 3 | Connor Drinan | USA | 1,755,000 |
| 4 | Hsien Yuan Yang | Chinese Taipei | 370,000 |
| 5 | Zhou Zhou | China | 1,210,000 |
| 6 | Qi Luo | China | 980,000 |
| 7 | Xixiang Luo | China | 780,000 |