The poker room at the City of Dreams Macau casino resort has become a favorite spot for poker action for players from the Asian-Pacific region. What is more, the facility has grown accustomed to hosting major poker festivals. The Macau Poker Cup 27 has become the latest such festival.
The major event is currently taking place at the gambling venue, attracting professionals and poker enthusiasts from around the world. The 27th edition of the Macau Poker Cup included the legendary Red Dragon, among a myriad of poker tournaments.
The Red Dragon, a HK$15,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event with a guaranteed prize pool of HK$10 million, took place from September 3 through September 8. The tournament broke attendance records and became the largest one to have ever taken place within the Macau Poker Cup festival format, attracting as many as 1,308 entries.
The latest Red Dragon edition attracted a number of poker stars from the region, including defending champion Alan Lau. However, it was Qiuming Qin, a poker regular from China, to scoop the title after an action-packed final day of play.
Congratulations to China's Qiuming Qin who slays the Red Dragon for the iconic trophy and HK$3.1 million! #MPC27 pic.twitter.com/EIiI5MbnNh
— PokerStarsLIVE Macau (@PokerStarsMacau) 8 September 2017
Qin’s Road to Victory
Poker is a game defined by unexpected twists and turns. And Qin’s march to the title was, too, full of twists and turns that eventually secured him with a hefty first-place prize of HK$3.14 million. The Red Dragon winner said that he has always dreamt of winning a major poker event and a big payout. The player was equally appreciative of the title and the first-place prize going along with it.
However, as mentioned above, it was not an easy win. Qin had quite challenging few days that culminated in a tough official eight-handed final table. That final stage of play kicked off with Malaysia’s Kian Weng Choong as the chip leader. The player had 7.19 million in chips at that point. As for Qin, he was seventh in chips or one of the short stacks.
It took quite a while before the first elimination occurred and it took even longer before another player left the table. Action quickened after the dinner break, when two players hit the rail simultaneously.
Potential deals, which would have seen the prize pool split in a manner different from what had initially been determined, were discussed on several occasions over the course of final table play. However, no such deals were agreed upon until there were just two players left at the table.
Qin dueled against Hong Kong’s Terrence Wu heads-up. The last two men standing agreed to split the remaining money ahead of their heads-up battle. Being the chip leader at the time, Qin secured HK$2.6 million and Wu locked HK$2.4 million. They left HK$441,000, the trophy and a seat into the Asia Championship of Poker HK$100,000 Main Event for the champion.
Although Qin entered the closing stage of the Red Dragon tournament holding the majority of chips at the table, winning the title did not prove to be an easy task. Wu was quite an opponent who even managed to take the lead at some point. Chips switched ownership for hours before the final hand for the evening and the tournament was dealt.
It saw Qin bet 650,000 and Wu three-bet to 1.7 million. Qin called in anticipation for the [Ah][3s][9s] flop. Wu bet 2.2 million, throwing his opponent into deep consideration of his next move. Qin eventually moved all in. Wu made the call for his last 5 million chips, tabling [As][7c] for top pair. Qin was all smiles when turning his [Ac][3c] for two pair. The [Jd] on the turn and [4d] on the river were of no help to Wu and the player had to eventually settle for the runner-up finish after putting up excellent fight.
