Record-breaking Red Dragon Main Event; Celina Lin wins the Ladies, Jiwei Deng slays the Baby Dragon

The Macau Poker Cup is back once again with 17 days of poker festivities at the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room in City of Dreams. The ongoing event kicked off on August 25th and is set to conclude on September 10th with the most prestigious event in Asia, the Red Dragon Main Event, sure to be slain.

Record-breaking Red Dragon Main Event

Through the years, the Red Dragon has seen its numbers consistently grow with players hunting down that ultimate honor. At the MPC 27, it could not have been any more obvious. There were 1,308 players in attendance making this Red Dragon event the largest freeze-out tournament in the region.

Breaking down the attendees by nations, it is not unusual to see China at the top of the list however it is mind-blowing how many came to fight for the glory. There were 779 players from China while the next closest nationality came from Hong Kong with 98 followed by Japan with 78. Overall there were 40 countries represented.

Although China dominates in numbers, they did have a slow start in the trophy-grabbing stats. They did manage to pick up the pace and won the last seven events. They now have the most trophies collected out of all the countries with 8 in total. Hong Kong and Taiwan follow with 4 trophies each.

Celina Lin wins the Ladies event

Celina Lin – Photo Long Guan Courtesy of PokerStars

Putting faces to the vast number of attendees, let’s start with Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin. Hailing from China, Lin is one of the fiercest and most highly decorated female pros in Asia. She has not one but two Red Dragon trophies on her victory shelf and is looking primed for a third after getting some early practice. Just before jumping into the big one, Lin cashed in three events then landed herself a Golden Spadie at the HK$5,000 Ladies Event, topping the 45-woman field.

Final Results

1. Celina Lin (China) – HK$70,700
2. Xia Wang (Macau) – HK$45,200
3. Meian Pan (China) – HK$29,425
4. Vilma Goldman (Philippines) – HK$21,600
5. Chia Lin Chang (China) – HK$15,700
6. Yongwei Mo (China) – HK$13,800

Jiwei Deng slays the Baby Dragon

Another Chinese player no longer a statistic was Jiwei Deng. Deng captured one of the most desired trophies of the event, the HK$8,000 Baby Dragon. This event had a record-breaking field of 793 entries, exceeding the 2M guaranteed prize pool by leaps and bounds to a smashing HK$5,538,312. At the heads up round, Deng and runner-up Xiangling He were already setting personal milestones with both players certain to pocket the largest live tournament cash of their career. With nearly even stacks, they struck a deal that split the pot down the middle, and battled for little fiery red icon. Deng went on to win it in just a few hands and earned his first ever major tournament title.

Final Table Results

1. Jiwei Deng (China) — HK$942,000
2. Xiangling He (China) — HK$941,000
3. Qicheng Du (China) — HK$443,000
4. Danny Wee Zhi Tang (Singapore) — HK$321,812
5. Chun Hung Chen (Taiwan) — HK$216,000
6. Fang Xing (China) — HK$166,000
7. Jun Li (China) — HK$127,500
8. Bobby Zhang (Australia) — HK$110,700
9. Mike Kuan Hsiang Huang (China) — HK$94,100

Xiaobing He wins the Single Day High Rollers event

With the Chinese dominating by numbers, it is of no surprise to see another new face raise one of the trophies. Xiaobing He took down the HK$100,000 Single Day High Roller shot clock event and was awarded HK$2,450,000, the largest first place payout of the MPC 27 so far. Among the 99 total entries, He overcame players the likes of Adrian Attenborough, Jake Cody, and Chen-An Lin all of whom made it as far as the money round.

Final Table Results

1. Xiaobing He (China) – HK$2,450,000 
2. Wenwu Xue (China) – HK$1,700,000 
3. Hongjun Zhao (China) – HK$1,124,000 
4. Martin Finger (Germany)- HK$880,000 
5. Ben Lai (Hong Kong) – HK$710,000 
6. Jinghui Ying (China) – HK$553,000 
7. Yang Wang (China) – HK$435,000 
8. Adrian Attenborough (Australia) – HK$340,000 
9. Jake Cody (UK) – HK$258,900

Article by Triccia David