Macau Poker Cup 23 off to a good start It was a very busy opening weekend for one of Asia’s most anticipated events, the Macau Poker Cup, which kicked off its 23rd edition of the series on Friday, August 28, 2015 at the PokerStars Live Macau poker room in City of Dreams Macau.
Xiang Rong wins the Baby Dragon
After the first three of the seventeen scheduled events wrapped up, excitement was in the air as the numbers were truly impressive. A total of 854 players took to the felt, easily surpassing the previous season’s opening weekend tally. As expected, the biggest attraction this weekend was the Baby Dragon event that saw a record-breaking 353 players pony up the HK$6,000 entry fee. The total prize pool climbed to nearly HK$1.85M with HK$430K going to the eventual winner, China’s Xiang Rong. This victory will surely keep Rong smiling for some time, as not only did he rise above a very tough field, but doubly so because it was his first-ever live tournament. We will surely be keeping an eye on him throughout the week.
China’s Xiang Rong wins the Baby Dragon (Photo PokerStars / Kenneth Lim)
Alan King Luan Lau running good
Other players we are also on the lookout for at the MPC 23 are Alan King Lun Lau from Hong Kong and Yuguang Li from China. These two players are running very hot this year and are displaying their poker prowess early in this series. Lau kicked off the MPC 23 with a small profit at the first event of the series, the HK$2,000 Deepstack No Limit Hold ‘em, and then he followed it up with an impressive 2nd place finish at the Baby Dragon. On Monday night, he continued his momentum with a 3rd place finish at the HK$2,000 Deepstack Pot Limit Omaha event. That’s already three cashes out of four events.
Yuguang Li leads the APOY leader board
Li is also making his presence felt at the MPC 23. As we all remember, Li bagged back-to-back titles last March at the MPC 22. He won the MPC 22 Red Dragon Main Event and the High Roller Event the following day. At this series, Li has already profited in two out of four events. He placed 3rd in the HK$2,500 KO Bounty event, and on Monday night, he placed 9th at the HK2,000 Deepstack PLO event. Li is currently leading the Asia Player of the Year 2015 leader board, and to-date, has earned a whopping HK$3.5M. With two more weeks of poker festivities at the MPC 23, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see both Lau and Li upping their APOY 2015 stats and adding more wad to their pockets.
By the way the series is looking, there will certainly be a lot of exciting action happening as the MPC 23 progresses. Alongside a slew of side events, satellites to the Red Dragon Main Event are running daily. It will be interesting to see how the numbers will eventually fare compared to the previous series considering how many players have already made their way to the felt. We shall soon find out so stay tuned as we will be posting more on the MPC 23 in the days to come. The MPC 23 is a 17-day poker festival that will run until Sunday, September 13, 2015.
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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