PKC Macau: Longyun Li claims the Main Event title; Ichinose and Takayama win trophies

The Poker King Cup Macau concluded its second stand alone poker festival with an invasion of new faces and seasoned pros taking turns at the spotlight all week. The nine-day event ran from May 18th-26th at the Venetian Macau with the highlight tournament, the HK$5 million guaranteed Main Event, wrapping up last night. Emerging as the envied champion was a new face on stage, China’s Longyun Li who earned his first major tournament title and the HK$1,389,500 (US$178,507) first prize.

Main Event recap

The HK$5 million guaranteed Main Event saw three starting flights bring in a huge 490 entries, and with each one contributing the HK$16,500 entry fee, this created a very lucrative prize pool of HK$7,129,500 that well exceeded the advertised guarantee. Well known players Alex Lee, Wei Guoliang, and Yah Loon Lim finished as the front runners of their respective flights, and with many other pros also in the lineup, they were all headed for an exciting second round.

Entering Day 2 were 231 hungry players gunning for the money round of 63 places. Before it was reached, the number of pros denied any dividends were quite ample with Fabian Quoss, Iori Yogo, Mike Takayama, Chen An Lin, Jae Wook Shin, Nick Wong, Dong Guo, and Lester Edoc among the many that had fallen. The faces at the top of the chip rung had drastically changed with a mix of pros, new faces, and up and coming players in control. Pro Anson Tsang Yan was in the lead with Lim Yohwan and Michael Christopher Soyza within the top ten.

Day 3 saw no brakes with a nonstop flow of players bee-lining directly for the cashier’s booth. Martin Gonzales, Benjamin Hamnett, Ying Lin Chua, Tao Fan, Kosei Ichinose, Sam Cheong, and the early leaders – Lee, Guoliang, and Lim – all at the cue to grab their piece of the pie. For Lim Yohwan he crashed hard in 39th place on a failed bluff against the day’s entering leader Anson Tsang Yan.

It was during this round that Longyun Li staged his rise to the throne. After Soojo Kim was eliminated by Huang Qien in 14th place, Li eliminated last female player in the field Zhao Ting Ting then took a huge chunk of Qien’s stack. To over emphasize his massive chip lead, he finished off Jun Wang in 11th place. Day 3 ended with the final 8 players established and Zhong Yuan Hang slightly edging Li for the chip lead. Both players well dominated the rest of the pack.

Final Table

The final table began with Vietnamese #1 ranked player Linh Tran exiting first in 8th place. After many orbits and the chip lead moved around to different players, pro Simon Burns was ousted next in 7th place by Liu Lifu. Michael Soyza helped shrink the table further by sending Weizhou Zha to the rail in 6th place then they were down to three with the fall of Huang Qien in 5th and Lifu in 4th.

The three-handed round was dynamic with Li, Soyza, and Hang all muscling each other with their big stacks. The chip lead exchanged several times between them until Soyza put the dead halt on Hang in 3rd place to enter the heads up round ahead of Li. Both players agreed on an ICM deal with the remaining 5% and the trophy at stake. It didn’t take long for Li to jump out and slide into the lead. From there, he fully dominated, sending Soyza back-pedaling until he shipped in all the chips and captured the coveted championship title.

Final 8 payouts

1st Longyun Li – China – HK$1,389,500 (US$178,507) deal made
2nd Michael Christopher Soyza – Malaysia – HK$971,000 deal made
3rd Zhong Yuan Hang – China – HK$625,000
4th Lifu Liu – China – HK$462,000
5th Huang Qien – China – HK$346,000
6th Weizhou Zha – China – HK$278,000
7th Simon Burns – England – HK$232,000
8th Linh Tran – Vietnam – HK$185,000

Side Event Winners

•  Head Hunter:  Derx Lai – Hong Kong – HK$81,800
• No Limit Hold’em 2: Vincent Li Kwun Ngai – Hong Kong – HK$75,400
• Ladies Event:  Xia Wang – Hong Kong – HK$29,900
• No Limit Hold’em 3: Chung Hung Hui –Taiwan – HK$49,200
• Deepstack Turbo 1: Ta Wei Tou – Taiwan – HK$62,200
• Head Hunter 2: Xia Linghua – HK$141,400
• Deepstack Turbo 2: Deng Jiwei – China – HK$52,600
• 6 max Turbo: Mike Takayama – Philippines  – HK $40,800
• HK$20K King Stack Event: Kosei Ichinose – Japan – HK$335K

Article by Triccia David