Red Dragon attracts huge field
The headline event of the Macau Poker Cup has always been the Red Dragon Main Event, with the premier live tournament enjoying large fields as its prominence on the Asian poker calendar has grown. Although already optimistic about the field size for this one, organisers will have been very pleasantly surprised by the 1,145 entries. This number not only exceeds the personal best field for a Red Dragon Event, but also sets a new benchmark for the largest freezeout tournament ever hosted in Asia.
The total prize pool for this tournament now stands at HK$11,995,020 (USD$1,556,457) with 135 payout spots allocated. The champion is set to take home HK$2,509,000 (USD$325,564). Countless familiar faces have turned up to be involved in this momentous tournament, with many of them going on to have a very successful first day.
Two days of action in the books
Each of the three day 1 flights saw Pokerstars Live Macau room filled with players at the start of play, but it didn’t take long for the competitors to find some elbow room. More than three-quarters of the field would hit the rail over the course of the starting days, with only 270 progressing to day 2. The remaining field contained a strong contingent of pros, with several of them bagging up six figure stacks. Jason Wai Tung Lo carried 136,200 forward, Leon Li-Ta Hsu bagged up 100,100 and Dong Guo took 166,800 through to the second day. Raghav Bansal also accumulated 131,000 during the first day.
Notable names Dong Guo, Sparrow Cheung, Raghav Bansal and Pete Chen all fell during the second day, but managed to cash as the field quickly shrank through the day. Only 59 players survived to pull up a chair for day 3, and while Leon Li-Ts Hsu did not make it, Jason Lo finished up with 261,000. Jack Salter put together a stronger stack of 475,000, with Feng Weng Chen leading the way on 997,000. Australia’s Geoffrey Mooney is his nearest challenger with 679,000.
Two-time champ Celina Lin chipping up
Celina Lin has enjoyed a truly remarkable run of form in the Red Dragon event over the years, and remains the only player to have ever lifted the trophy twice. She doesn’t appear to have settled for two either, as she has been a force throughout this tournament and managed to bag up an impressive 410,000 chips at the end of day 2.
Lin currently sits in 13th on the leaderboard and remains the biggest story in the field with just 59 left. If she can complete a third Red Dragon triumph it would undoubtedly be an amazing accomplishment, but there is still another full day before the final table is set. Tomorrow we will find out who the names of those finalists will be.
| Last Name | First Name | Table | Seat | Chip Count | |
| 1 | Chen | Feng Wen | 4 | 9 | 997,000 |
| 2 | Mooney | Geoffrey | 4 | 7 | 679,000 |
| 3 | Wong | Hoi | 4 | 3 | 591,000 |
| 4 | Qiu | Shuai | 6 | 7 | 585,000 |
| 5 | Su | Hao | 5 | 2 | 542,000 |
| 6 | Lu | Xun | 3 | 8 | 523,000 |
| 7 | Harada | Go | 5 | 7 | 512,000 |
| 8 | Salter | Jack Zi Yang | 2 | 5 | 475,000 |
| 9 | Lee | Daniel Hyongin | 3 | 7 | 469,000 |
| 10 | Alner | Tom | 6 | 3 | 468,000 |
| 11 | Song | Liang | 5 | 1 | 438,000 |
| 12 | Chen | Wenxiang | 6 | 8 | 411,000 |
| 13 | Lin | Celina | 4 | 2 | 410,000 |
| 14 | Li | Yu | 1 | 6 | 403,000 |
| 15 | Chong | Victor Fook Kiong | 1 | 1 | 398,000 |
| 16 | Cai | Hui | 4 | 8 | 398,000 |
| 17 | Xu | Liang | 7 | 8 | 394,000 |
| 18 | Ko | Yuki | 1 | 2 | 387,000 |
| 19 | Sun | Sheng | 6 | 6 | 363,000 |
| 20 | Smirnov | Alexey | 7 | 2 | 363,000 |
| 21 | Liu | Xiao | 3 | 2 | 359,000 |
| 22 | Zhu | Jingxuan | 6 | 2 | 353,000 |
| 23 | Mascunana | Manuel Iii | 2 | 7 | 342,000 |
| 24 | Laodee | Paphawin | 5 | 9 | 337,000 |
| 25 | Noda | Hiroyuki | 1 | 9 | 320,000 |
| 26 | Ye | Binyu | 7 | 9 | 302,000 |
| 27 | Tu | Nan | 6 | 5 | 301,000 |
| 28 | Miao | Jia | 2 | 4 | 284,000 |
| 29 | Ma | Yanjun | 2 | 9 | 267,000 |
| 30 | Lo | Jason Wai Tung | 2 | 1 | 261,000 |
| 31 | Shin | Jae Wook | 5 | 3 | 249,000 |
| 32 | Tong | Yanzhong | 3 | 5 | 233,000 |
| 33 | Zhao | Xiaozhou | 4 | 1 | 222,000 |
| 34 | Wang | Yanfeng | 2 | 2 | 219,000 |
| 35 | O’donoghue | Liam Oliver | 3 | 9 | 215,000 |
| 36 | Kuo | Chun Liang | 1 | 3 | 214,000 |
| 37 | Tan | Jingsheng | 6 | 1 | 201,000 |
| 38 | Lyu | Qi | 1 | 7 | 194,000 |
| 39 | Xie | Tao | 7 | 7 | 190,000 |
| 40 | Yu | Zheng | 2 | 3 | 178,000 |
| 41 | Nietsche | Stefan | 5 | 6 | 178,000 |
| 42 | Ng | Sau Chin | 3 | 4 | 174,000 |
| 43 | Hamnet | Benjamin | 6 | 9 | 164,000 |
| 44 | Shao | Leshi | 2 | 6 | 162,000 |
| 45 | Lin | Wai Tat | 5 | 5 | 158,000 |
| 46 | Lian | Shuyu | 2 | 8 | 123,000 |
| 47 | Chang | Chia Lin | 7 | 3 | 119,000 |
| 48 | Yan | Zi Qin | 3 | 1 | 114,000 |
| 49 | Yang | Fang-kai | 3 | 3 | 113,000 |
| 50 | Duan | Qifeng | 3 | 6 | 108,000 |
| 51 | Jiang | Ying | 4 | 6 | 108,000 |
| 52 | Zhou | Xiao Bo | 5 | 4 | 106,000 |
| 53 | Guo | Hui | 1 | 8 | 97,000 |
| 54 | Wang | Jing | 4 | 4 | 96,000 |
| 55 | Qian | Hu | 7 | 6 | 88,000 |
| 56 | Cheng | Kelvin Kwun Yip | 7 | 1 | 82,000 |
| 57 | Ngan | Simon Kwun Wah | 4 | 5 | 80,000 |
| 58 | Chen | Si | 1 | 4 | 55,000 |
| 59 | Yan | Zhiyong | 7 | 5 | 27,000 |
Full coverage: Macau Poker Cup 25
Article by Craig B.
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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