Macau High Stakes Challenge

This article first appeared in the Nov/Dec 2012 issue of World Gaming magazine.

The Poker King Club and Neptune Group joined forces to raise the bar for Asian poker with the world’s largest one-day poker tournament.

Home to some of the biggest cash game action on the planet, it was only a matter of time until Macau got in on the act of big buy-in poker tournaments. The last day of August saw the attention of the poker world firmly focused eastwards for the world’s largest ever one-day poker tournament – the Macau High Stakes Challenge.

Poker King Club’s chief executive officer, Winfred Yu, is keenly aware of Macau’s presence on the world poker stage. “We are keen to promote Macau as a hub of poker tournaments in Asia – we are already home to the largest cash game in the world, and now one of the richest high roller tournaments ever. [The] Macau High Stakes Challenge will be a milestone of poker development in Macau,” said Yu.

Boasting a monstrous HK$2 million (US$260,000) buy-in with a HK$2 million re-buy this was the richest poker tournament in Asian poker history. In total 73 participants – a mixture of the world’s top poker professionals and wealthy Asian businessmen – coughed up the hefty entry fee, 21 of whom chose to re-buy ballooning the already considerable prize pool to an eyewatering HK$182,360,000 (US$23.5 million).

After a 14-hour action-packed day it proved to be Stanley Choi who had what it took to go the distance. Choi saw off challenges from a star-studded final table featuring Phil Ivey, Sam Trickett and John Juanda, outlasting 72 other players to take down the HK$50,149,000 first prize, defeating Zhu Guan Fai in just one hand of heads up play.

Several of poker’s best and brightest were in attendance, including notables like Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen and Joe Hachem, all lured by the promise of the juicy tournament purse on offer, but the fast-paced structure saw several big names bow out early. Andrew Robl was one of the first to fall with Joe Hachem, Nam Le, Devin Tang, Elton Tsang, Winfred Yu, Brian Rast and Gus Hansen all unable to go the distance.

As players were whittled down to two eight-handed tables the aggressive structure saw the blinds rise to 15,000/30,000/3,000 with the average stack shrinking to 587,000 – less than 20 big blinds. At this point China’s Tang Zheng was leading with over a million in chips, though Lap Key Chen, Alan Sass and Zhu Guan Fai all had healthy stacks. Erik Seidel finished agonizingly short of the money, busting in 16th place at the hands of Stanley Choi. Lo Shing Fung and Lo Yih Hei Issac departed shortly afterwards to bring the remaining 13 players to the money bubble.

With blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000 highstakes online cash game specialist Di “Urindanger” Dang and Du Yi Chen became involved in a preflop raising war that saw all the chips go in. Di Dang guaranteed the tournament’s 12 remaining competitors a payday of at least HK$4.5 million when his pocket aces held against Du Yi Chen’s pocket tens with both players spiking a set, Du Yi Chen on the flop, Di Dang on the turn.

After the bubble burst there was a flurry of action with the UK’s JP Kelly busting in 12th place when his ace-five lost out to John Juanda’s jack-ten. Di Dang departed shortly afterwards and after Philipp Gruissem and Alan Sass bowed out in 10th and 9th respectively the final table was set.

Several notable players survived the tournament crucible to make the final eight with Phil Ivey, John Juanda and Sam Trickett all making it through, though both Ivey and Trickett came in as two of the shorter stacks. Unfortunately for Ivey he was unable to gain any traction and became the final table’s first casualty, busting after running his K♥ 6♥ into Tang Zheng’s K♣ 9♣.

While he has prior form in high-stakes tournaments, recently finishing second in the Big One for One Drop, Trickett did not fare much better. After twice doubling up the short-stacked Nick Wong the UK poker pro moved all-in pre-flop with A♠ J♠ and lost a race to Stanley Choi’s pocket fives when the Chinese player flopped a full house and then rivered quads to send Trickett to the rail in 7th. Lap Key Chen followed Trickett out when his aceten was outdrawn by the king-jack of Zhu Guan Fai who rivered a gutshot to bust Lap Key Chen in 6th. John Juanda was crippled when his A♣ T♠ lost a race to Nick Wong’s pocket nines and despite doubling through Tang Zheng a few hands later, Juanda failed to mount a comeback. Tang Zheng took back all his chips with interest when his pocket nines held to beat Juanda’s jack-ten and the tournament’s last remaining high profile professional hit the rail in 5th.

Despite coming to the final table as chip leader some speculative calls saw Tang Zheng bleed chips and he eventually moved all-in pre-flop with J♣ 2♣ and busted at the hands of Stanley Choi’s K♥ 5♦ to exit in 4th. This gave Choi nearly half of the chips in play and he extended this lead still further when Nick Wong opted to defend his big blind with Q♣ T♣. Wong open shoved the A♠ 2♠ T♠ flop, Choi made the call with A♣ 4♥ and the A♥ turn saw Wong drawing dead and he departed in 3rd place.

With a commanding 3 to 1 chip lead Choi looked poised for victory and it was all over after just one hand of heads-up play. Zhu Guan Fai raised from the button with 6♦ 6♠, Choi moved all-in with T♥ T♣, Zhu Guan Fai snap called and when the board came down 4♠ 8♦ 9♠ 4♦ 7♦ the tournament room erupted in a storm of cheers and applause. Zhu Guan Fai bowed out in 2nd for a HK$33,737,000 payday while Stanley Choi took the lion’s share of the spoils, winning Asia’s largest-ever tournament first prize – a jaw-dropping HK$50,149,000.

Speaking after the event Neptune Group Limited CEO, Mr Nick Niglio said, “We had an extremely positive response from all the participants. It certainly was the largest prize pool ever in Asia. We at Neptune are proud to sponsor such an event. We look forward to possibly an even bigger one in the near future”.

While this has set the precedent for the largest-ever Asian tournament poker prize pool it might not be long before even that record is broken.