Record Breaking Poker Cup Draws To A Close In Macau

The PokerStars sponsored ‘Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon’ drew to a close  Sunday after yet another highly successful tournament series.
In total, nine official events were played at the Casino Grand Lisboa between February 18th and February 26th, with 2,153 players turning out to create a prize pool worth HK$12.86 million (US$1.66 million). This figure is a new record for the 4 year-old Red Dragon series, up from the previous one of 1,652 players and a HK$9.55 million prize pool.
The end of the series also marked the completion of a PokerStars agreement to hold events at the Casino Grand Lisboa, with PokerStars director of live operations for the Asia-Pacific Danny McDonagh, then commenting:
“It was a fitting tribute as our last major poker event at the Grand Lisboa. SJM and the entire Grand Lisboa hotel and casino team has been a first class organization and our time here will always have a special place in our hearts.”
Seeing out this year’s ‘Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon’ was the HK$11,000 (US$1,420) buy-in event, which managed to attract a field of 635 players and create a first prize worth HK$1,092,500 (US$140,873).
Eventually, China’s Nicky Tao Jin (pictured right) won the event after three days, having first overcome the obstacle of starting the final table as the small stack (194k), behind chip leader David Martirosyan on 2.2 million.
Soon after, Jin managed to double up three times first with A-Q versus his opponent’s A-J; followed by A-9 against A-10 on a 7-5-9-K-5 board; and finally with 5-5 versus A-Q with the board then falling A-4-3-6-7.
Continuing his rally, Jin eventually went heads-up against India’s Abhishek Goindi, with the tournament decided after Jin was dealt pocket two’s to his opponent’s 3-4. Unsurprisingly, all the chips went in on the 2-3-4 flop, with the ensuing J and 10 doing nothing to alter the result.