Latest From Macau As Tom Dwan Loses $1.2m Heads-Up Against Chinese Billionaire

The poker wars between Chinese super wealthy businessmen and some of the world’s most accomplished pros continues to rage in Macau.
Although the “big game”  is a private affair, poker fans are being treated with up to date snippets of information from such reliable sources as Poker King Club manager Winfred Yu, StarWorld Casino manager Stella Yeh, and interactive gaming expert and CEO of Asianlogic Tom Hall.
While some of the other pros have been battling it out against rich Chinese businessmen at stakes of up to HK$30k/$60k (US$3.9k/$7.7k), Tom “durrr” Dwan has started his heads-up HK$10k/20k (US$1.3k/$2.6k) match, after initially buying-in for HK$18 million (US$2.32 million).
Tom Dwan is proving quite a hit amongst the affluent Chinese high-rollers, who have enjoyed having one of the world’s top action givers at their game. However, in order to get his latest heads-up challenge going, Dwan had to agree to both players showing their hole cards at the end of each hand.
Unfortunately, Tom’s effectiveness in causing doubt and frustration in his opponent’s mind has been severely curtailed by this open-handed approach and he currently finds himself in the hole by more than HK$10 million (US$1.2 million).
Commenting on Dwan’s opponent, Winfred Yu said:
“This guy (the Chinese businessman) has been playing poker in Macau for two years and has lost around HK$100 million [US$12.9 million] in total. But playing against these guys isn’t easy. They can really do serious damage to you. They overbet every pot and really put you under a lot of pressure.”
As well as being the Poker King Club manager, Winfred Yu is also a respected cash game player himself and was playing in the HK$5,000/10,000 NL game last week against such competition as Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Tom Dwan, Chau Giang and Tom Hall.
Yu managed to walk away with a HK$1.1 million (US$142k) profit then but recounted an earlier game when he was challenged at the Venetian by one of the Chinese businessman.
“I am probably ten times a better player than he is, but I ended up losing a lot of money…  It is a question of whether you have the guts to put your chips into the pot and take a chance against them…They have a lot of money, and to them, losing HK$5 million or HK$10 million is nothing – they treat this money as ‘tuition fees”
As Tom Dwan continues his marathon heads-up battle in Macau, we look forward to finding out if the US pro manages to redress his initial deficit.


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