UK's Tom Alner Wins Macau Poker Red Dragon For $106k

England’s Tom Alner has just won the 2013 Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon main event, after besting a field of 645 players over three days on his way to capturing the prestigious Asian title, as well as the HK$823,000 ($106,103) top prize. With his latest victory in Macau, Tom Alner now boasts $734,709 in winnings since his first cash back in 2010.
The HK$ 11,000 (US$1,420) Red Dragon Event attracted a good-sized field of amateurs and pros alike to create a prize pool worth HK$ 6,331,578. Amongst the notable names cashing in at the tournament included Daniel Laidlaw in 51st (US$2,862), Daoxing “Bobo” Chen in 33rd ($3,674), and Kai Paulsen in 23rd ($4,486 ).
Tom Alner then entered the last day of play in 6th place out of the remaining 21 players, and eventually made it all the way to four-handed play, where a deal was subsequently agreed after 20 minutes of discussion.
Shortly after, Tom Alner (7-7) eliminated Russia’s Victor Sheerman (A-3) in 4th, before being dealt A-J and doing likewise to China’s Wilson Fu (A-8) in 3rd to force heads-up against play Singaporean Jason Chong. At this stage, Alner enjoyed a huge chip advantage and just two hands later it was all over with the Englishman’s 7-7 hitting a set on a 9-8-7-A-2 board against Chong’s Q-10.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Tom Alner (UK)            HK$823,000*
2 Jason Chong (Singapore)   HK$758,000*
3 Wilson Fu (China)    HK$827,000*
4 Victor Sheerman (Russia)      HK$853,000*
5 Thomas Ward (New Zealand) HK$317,000
6 Brian Yip (Hong Kong)   HK$253,000
7 Frank Maley (Australia)   HK$206,000
8 Joao de Castro (Portugal)    HK$158,000
9 Takenouchi (Japan)       HK$126,578