All-China Final Table Set at Poker King Cup Macau Main Event
The penultimate day of the Poker King Cup Main Event has come to a close, and the official eight-handed final table is now set.
The pace of play on Day 3 was relentless throughout. Elimination after elimination, big pot after big pot. By the time the tournament got down to a final table of 10, it was Li Yu who topped the counts for an all-China affair going into the final day.
Yu’s hot streak began just before the last two tables were reached, waking up with pocket aces after the tournament’s last female player, Lin Zhe Chen, moved all-in with ace-king. The case ace hit the flop to lock up the hand for Yu, shooting him into pole position with a stack of 2.7 million – a million more chips than next closest rival Jeho Lee — and sending Chen to the rail in 21st for an HKD 65,600 payday.
While the rest of the field had caught up by the time play reached 10-handed, Yu still held the lead, though it looked like he might come unstuck after having a big bluff picked off by Yang Wang, with the pot putting the latter in the lead.
However, some canny play and a little bit of cunning saw Yu, holding pocket aces, set a trap for Qi Cheng Du, who walked right into it with pocket jacks to put Yu back atop the counts with over 4 million in chips.
Yu would end the day with 3,445,000. However, this is only just over one and a half big blinds better than second-place Wang, so Yu still has some way to go to close out the tournament.
Poker King Cup Macau 2018 Main Event Official Final Table
| Seat | Player Name | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yang Wang | China | 3,340,000 |
| 2 | Jun Fang | China | 2,170,000 |
| 3 | Wei Ran Pu | China | 2,415,000 |
| 4 | Cang Sheng Ni | China | 710,000 |
| 5 | Liang Song | China | 740,000 |
| 6 | Qi Cheng Du | China | 605,000 |
| 7 | Jian Dong Yu | China | 2,080,000 |
| 8 | Li Yu | China | 3,445,000 |
The day began with 62 remaining players out of a field of 518, all already in the money and guaranteed a payday of HK$27,900 (~$3,570), but none of them were aiming for that.
The busts outs began immediately and did not stop until play concluded. Notables who ran deep, but came up short of the last two tables included Portugal’s Antonio Martins (51st for HK$33,200), Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung (46th for HK$33,200), China’s Sun Bin (36th for HK$45,200) and Day 1c and 1b frontrunners Ke Fei Na (34th for HK$45,200) and Zhang Chao (30th for HK$45,200) to name but a few.
The man who began the day with the chip lead, Day 2 frontrunner Shi Qiang Lin, enjoyed a deep run but ultimately came up short after getting pocket kings cracked by the ace-king of Du to hit the rail in 14th place for an HK$87,400 payday.
Hong Kong’s Chi Fu Sze (12th for HK$107,800) and China’s Ke Wang (11th for HK$107,800) both came agonizingly close to making the last ten, but fell at the last hurdle.
It was Taiwanese player Chi Hi Fang who became the first final table casualty, running queen-nine suited into the pocket tens of Wei Ran Pu to depart in 10th place for HK$107,800.
However, it was Korea’s Lee who became the last casualty of the day. Lee had flirted with the chip lead himself for a large portion of the day but came to the final table as the second shortest stack.
Unfortunately for Lee, after the table short stack Liang Song cracked Du’s pocket kings with ace-jack to double, Lee was left as the man under pressure. The Korean eventually made his last stand with king-ten, but ran into the ace-jack suited of Wang to bring play to a close.
All remaining players are guaranteed a payday of at least HKD$195,200 (~$25,000) when play resumes for the final day at 1 p.m. local time, with blinds recommencing on Level 28 and will be 30,000/60,000 with a 10,000 running ante. The PokerNews live reporting team will be on the tournament floor until a champion is crowned, so join us for updates.
