Welcome to the 2013 APPT Macau Asia Championship of Poker HKD$250,000 (approximately $32,000 USD) High Roller. For the past week the Main Event has dominated the headlines, but today the biggest buy-in event of the series will kick off.
Needless to say, a rich tournament in Macau tends to attract some of the biggest names in the game, and this tournament is no exception. We're expecting a few dozen players or so including numerous Chinese businessmen, Team PokerStars Pros Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov, Macau high-stakes legend Winfred Yu, Australian Jeff Rossiter, and the UK's Jack Salter, who just finished runner-up in a side event here at the ACOP.
Players will start with 250,000 in chips, and blinds will last one hour. Players are allowed a single re-entry during the first four levels, and registration will come to a close after four hours. It's a two-day event, so action should be fast and furious straight out of the gate.
Play is set to kick off in about an hour, so join us then as we look to bring you some photos, videos and hands from Day 1 of the High Roller. Until then, check out Sarah Grant taking the leap off the world's highest bungee jump, which is located right here in Macau:
Jonathan Karamalikis opened for 9,000 from the hijack and was met by a three-bet to 19,500 by Tom Alner in the cutoff. The button and both blinds folded, and then Karamalikis pushed back with a four-bet to 30,500. Alner then shoved all in for roughly 100,000 and his Australian opponent snap-called.
Alner:
Karamalikis:
Alner was in dire straits up against Karamalikis' kings, but the flop gave him some extra outs to Broadway. Unfortunately for Alner, who has had quite a bit of success here in Macau, he failed to catch as the blanked on the turn followed by the on the river.
As we were returning from our last round of chip counts, we noticed Mikael Thuritz had the all-in "triangle of death out in front of him and Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov was contemplating what to do. There was about 300,000 in the pot on a board reading , and Katchalov had 276,000 behind.
A couple of minutes ticked by, but eventually Katchalov dropped in some chips to signify a call. Thuritz's face dropped and Katchalov must have known he was good as he tabled the for a pair of jacks. Indeed it was good as Thuritz mucked his hand and sent the majority of his chips over to the Team PokerStars Pro.
A big hand happened shortly after the players returned from the break. Unfortunately it happened too quick for us to grab all the details.
What we do know is that a short-stacked Joel Feldman got his last 120,000 or so all in holding , while Jonathan Karamalikis had his stack of 617,000 in with . Yu Liang, who had both players covered, was also in with .
The board ran out clean, and that meant Feldman was eliminated while Karamalikis doubled big through Liang in the side pot.
While the 2013 PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) HK$100,000 Main Event nearly came to a close at the PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams on Saturday, the HKD$250,000 High Roller was just getting started.
That tournament attracted 34 players that accounted for nine rebuys, creating a prize pool of HKD$10,216,800. By the end of the night, only 15 players remained in contention for the HKD$4,086,700 (~$572,000 USD) first-place prize with Brandon Meyers and his stack of 1.748 million leading the way.
Meyers managed to double in the last hand of the evening to finish with the chip lead. Meyers had moved all in over the top of a big bet by Vladimir Troyanovskiy on a board reading . Predrag Lekovic had been involved in the action too, but had folded what he later claimed was a set. Eventually Troyanovskiy made the call and seemed a bit tilted when Meyers rolled over the to beat his own straight.
The High Roller was a turbo of sorts, and as such it didn’t take long for the eliminations to mount. Jian Yang, who topped a field of 338 earlier this week to win the PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) HK$25,000 Warm-Up Event for HK$1,700,000, was the first to go, but he wouldn’t be the last. John O’Shea, Shashank Rathi, Tom Alner, and Michael Tureniec all joined him on the rail before the dinner break.
Tureniec was crippled after doubling Winfred Yu in Level 4 (2,000/4,000/500). The former held on a board, but it was no good as Wu had the for a full house.
Two hands later, Tureniec was in the big blind and he was facing an all-in raise from Tom "hitthehole" Middleton in the small blind. Tureniec only had around 20,000 remaining and he called it off.
Tureniec:
Middleton:
Middleton was surprised to discover that he was ahead, and he solidified that lead when the flop delivered him trips. The turn made that quads, and after the meaningless completed the board on the river, Tureniec took his leave from the tournament (Middleton would join him on the rail a short time later).
While many fell, plenty of other notables remain. Jonathan Karamalikis, who if you recall won the ACOP High Roller event in 2012, looks to defend and has a good chance of doing so with a stack of 876,000. That said, he'll have to contend with some stiff competition that includes Jeff Rossiter (1.247 million), Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov (838,000), Aidan Tam (698,000) and Paul Newey (382,000), just to name a few.
Here's a look at the Day 2 draw with counts:
2013 ACOP High Roller Final Two Tables
Seat
Player
Counts
1
Mikael Thuritz
286,000
2
Predrag Lekovic
682,000
3
Winfred Yu
362,000
4
Brandon Meyers
1,748,000
5
Jeff Rossiter
1,247,000
6
Jonathan Karamalikis
876,000
7
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
1,398,000
8
-empty-
N/A
1
Eugene Katchalov
838,000
2
Kyle Cheong
373,000
3
Paul Newey
382,000
4
Chunlei Zhou
759,000
5
James McCarty
571,000
6
Aidan Tam
698,000
7
Yan Tsang
231,000
8
Senh Ung
305,000
Day 2 of the [B]2013 ACOP HK$250,000 High Roller will kick off at 2 p.m. local time on Sunday. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team then as they bring you all the latest and greatest from the PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams.
Until then, check out Sarah Grant's jump from the world’s tallest bungee jump: