Chung Yuan Yu Wins Poker King Cup Macau 2017 HK$80,000 High Roller
The Poker King Cup Macau 2017 HK$80,000 High Roller saw 34 players battle it out on the baize for the trophy and the all-important title. With the format supporting unlimited re-entries, three players chose to fire a second bullet to bring the total number of entries up to 37 and juice the prize pool up to HK$2,755,700 (~US$354,052).
It took a little over 14 hours, spread over two days and twenty-three 40-minute levels for Taiwan’s Chung Yuan Yu to take down his first title and emerge triumphant, defeating Thailand’s Phanlert Sukonthachartnant after 15-minutes of heads-up play.
Yu began heads-up with a commanding 4-1 chip lead and while Sukonthachartnant tried his level best to fight his way back into contention the Taiwanese player’s chip mountain was too tall to climb.
It took 10-minutes of pre-flop raise-folding before the first flop was dealt, which Yu took down with a continuation bet to further extend his lead. The very next hand it was all over.
Sukonthachartnant limped the button, Yu raised another 100,000 more from the big blind and the Thai player moved all-in for his last 330,000 with ace-eight offsuit. Yu made the call with queen-eight suited and spiked his queen on the turn to take the title, trophy, and HK$1,020,700 (~US$131,144) first prize.
It appears this is just Yu's first ever live cash and according to his nephew, high stacks specialist and RunGood App developer James Chen, just his second ever tournament though he is a keen cash game player and plays in some of Macau’s high stakes games on a regular basis.
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (HK$) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chung Yuan Yu | Taiwan | HK$1,020,000 | $131,144 |
| 2 | Phanlert Sukonthachartnant | Thailand | HK$661,000 | $84,925 |
| 3 | Liang Yu | China | HK$413,000 | $53,062 |
| 4 | Huidong Gu | Macau | HK$289,000 | $37,131 |
| 5 | Qiang Lin | China | HK$207,000 | $26,595 |
| 6 | Tang Tian Yuan | China | HK$165,000 | $21,199 |
Day 2 began with 22 returning players from Day 1 with Germany’s Fabian Quoss and two new entries choosing to join at the start of level 10 to bring the total number of players up to 25.
This quickly became 24 with the elimination of Xixiang Luo, whose set of sixes were rivered by Tang Tian Yuan’s gutshot straight draw and flush draw, which opened the floodgates for a slew of speedy eliminations.
Notables to fall by the wayside included James Chen (at the hands of his uncle Chung Yuan Yu ironically) PokerStars Championship Macau Single Day High Roller HK$206,000 Champion Quan Zhou, German High Roller specialist Fabian Quoss and Winfred Yu, with the elimination of the last two taking play down to a single ten-handed final table.
Phanlert Sukonthachartnant began the day as chip leader and the Thai player remained in pole position for the majority of the day, only relinquishing his lead when play became five-handed.
Before that, however, there was a flurry of rapid exits with Yuan Li departing shortly before the break marking the end of level 15 after running his pocket sevens into the pocket nines of Sukonthachartnant.
A car crash of a hand immediately after play resumed saw a three-way pre-flop all-in. A short-stacked Wang Zuo, holding pocket jacks, was the first to pull the trigger and Zuo was quickly followed into the pot by Liang Yu, holding pocket kings; Taiwan’s Pete Chen then woke up with pocket aces in late position and made the call, only to see Yu spike a set of kings to bust Zuo and cripple Chen, who departed shortly afterward.
The unfortunate Luo Xi took the unenviable title of bubble boy not long after, making an ill-timed bluff against Liang Yu after moving all-in on the turn on a king-high board with seven-eight suited only to find himself drawing dead when Yu made the call with king-queen offsuit. This sent Xi to the rail and catapulted Yu into the chip lead in one fell swoop.
The first paying casualty was China’s Tang Tian Yuan, who departed in sixth place after running his jack-nine offsuit into the pocket queen of Chung Yuan Yu on a nine-high flop to grant Yu the chip lead.
The departure of Qiang Lin shortly afterward at the hands of Sukonthachartnant saw the latter seize the lead once more, though this subsequently changed hands on numerous occasions with all four remaining players taking it in turns to be top dog.
Huidong Gu enjoyed a stint as table captain before Liang Yu bested him on three separate occasions to whittle down his stack, with the third hand being Gu’s last after he shoved the turn in a hand holding king-high and ran into Yu’s turned two pair with a flush redraw, which duly came in on the river.
The remaining three players were all reasonably deep stacked after this and it took a full 60-minutes of further play until three became two. Liang Yu became the third place finisher after losing a massive pot toChung Yuan Yu, running into the latter’s flopped set of sevens to drop down to under 10 big blinds.
Chung Yuan Yu administered the coup de grace just two orbits later. Liang Yu moved all-in from the small blind for his last 8 big blinds at the close of level 22 with king-eight offsuit with Yu making the call with the dominating king-nine offsuit. The low raggedy board meant Chung Yuan Yu’s kicker played.
This concludes the PokerNews live reporting in the two-day High Roller event but we will return tomorrow for Day 1A of the Poker King Cup Macau 2017 HK$15,000+$1,500 Main Event at 1pm local time so join us then.