Raiden Kan Wins Macau Poker Cup

Raiden Kan has won the Macau Poker Cup Championship (MPCC), after overcoming a field of 308 players over five days to lift the trophy, and collect the HK$1.25 million (US$160,000) first place prize.
As Day 3 of the MPCC got underway, the 27-year old Malaysian player was one of 43 hopefuls hoping to carve out the lion’s share of the HK$5.55 million prize pool. That hope soon took a step closer to reality after Kan picked up pocket queens then pocket aces within the first few minutes of play to propel himself to the position of tournament chip leader.
From then on, Raiden Kan never relinquished his chip advantage until the last day of play, even managing to dispatch 5 of his eight final table opponents to the rail in the process.
Raiden Kan’s first victim was Seijiro Machi (Japan) in 9th after a pocket eights versus pocket kings match-up, followed by Sunny Jung (Korea) in 8th, after an all-in pre-flop blind-on-blind battle with pocket twos against Kan’s K-7. The board then ran out Q-Q-J-3-3 to win Kan the hand.
Next, was the turn of Hung-sheng Lin (Chinese Taipei) to exit in 6th, after pushing all-in holding A-K into Raiden Kan’spocket queens, who then made a set on the flop. He was followed soon after by Seng Yong Lee in 4th, who chose to shove holding As-10d on a 5d-7d-3d flop, only to see the bad news when Kan flipped over his Ad-8d nut flush.
Victor Chong then dispatched Hau Hang Chang (Taiwan) in 3rd thus heralding in the heads-up battle between the two Malaysian players. Nevertheless, Chong lagged in chips behind Raiden Kan by 3 to 1 and despite a brave comeback couldn’t match the skill or luck of his formidable opponent.
Eventually, on the final hand of the tournament Victor Chong (Q-6) went all-in on a 6d-9d-Qd flop, but soon realised he had walked into yet another monster hand of Raiden Kan, this time the Jd-7d flopped flush. With no help on the remaining streets, Victor Chong finished the runner-up for HK$860,800 (US$110,698), while Raiden Kan became the first Malaysian player to win a major tournament on the Asian poker circuit.
The 27-year cashed in at his first live poker competition on May 15, 2010, and now already has $227,368 in earnings to his credit.