Tom Alner Wins Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon for HK$823,000
Donnie Peters
England's Tom Alner has recorded a few nice results from the Asia-Pacific region, and more specifically from Macau. On Sunday, Alner won the third installment of the 2013 Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon for HK$823,000 (approximately $106,000) after defeating a field of 645 entrants, locking up his best result ever from the region.
After a four-handed deal was made between Alner, Jason Chong, Wilson Fu, and Victor Sheerman, Alner walked away with the title. Alner has scores of $78,189, $38,543, and 5,491 from the home of Asia's largest gaming market, but those have all taken a backseat to this result he just earned.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | Shinichi Takenouchi | Japan | HK$126,578 |
*Denotes four-handed deal.
The final day’s play began with 21 players vying for the title, but they dropped like proverbial flies in the excellent PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dream cardroom. Genie Li, Mei Ngok and Fanny Li were the first three players eliminated and they were followed to the cashier’s desk by Chen Chin Wu, Kelvin Ka Wing Wong, Chong Hwee Tan, Wee Yee Tan, Akira Ohyama, Fan Cao and Lap Kay Chan.
LK Chan’s exit meant the final table of nine was set, a final table that lined up as follows:
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joao Pedro de Castro | 590,000 |
| 2 | Victor Sheerman | 1,280,000 |
| 3 | Frank Maley | 185,000 |
| 4 | Shinichi Takenouchi | 1,550,000 |
| 5 | Brian Yip | 2,065,000 |
| 6 | Tom Alner | 1,420,000 |
| 7 | Jason Chong | 655,000 |
| 8 | Chuanyu “Wilson” Fu | 965,000 |
| 9 | Thomas Ward | 845,000 |
Shinichi Takenouchi was the first casualty of the final table; Takenouchi made a move with 
on a 
board only to run slap-bang into the pocket aces of Thomas Ward. Takenouchi couldn’t find any of his outs and he exited in ninth place.
Within 30-minutes of Takenouchi’s elimination, two other players lost their stacks and aw their tournaments end. Joao Pedro de Castro open-shoved his relatively short stack with 
and fell foul of the 
of Frank Maley, then Maley lost his new found chips – and the rest of his stack –when he committed his stack with 
on a 
board, only to discover Ward had flopped a full house with his 
. The river bricked and Maley busted.
Two more hours passed before another exit occurred. Brian Yip had dominated proceedings since his opening flight, but he fell short of a deserved win when he crashed in sixth place. First, Yip was caught with his fingers in the cookie jar when his 
was snapped off by the 
on a 
flop, then he moved his last 175,000 chips (blinds 40,000/80,000) with what turned out to be 
and ran into Jason Chong’s 
. Yip found no help from the 
board and it was game over for the talented player.
The final five players locked horns for the best part of 90-minutes before something finally gave and one of the busted. New Zealand’s Ward first shipped his stack in with 
and was called by Alner’s 
. The Brit caught a queen on the flop, which improved to a straight by the river. That hand left Ward extremely short of chips and in the need of a double up. He attempted to get that double up when Wilson Fu put him all in from the small blind. Ward called and showed and was behind to Fu’s 
. Neither player improved by the river, Ward’s exit was confirmed.
With Ward out of the way, the four surviving players paused the clock and discussed a potential deal. Twenty minutes of discussions and a deal based on ICM was agreed on that left the $100,000 ACOP Main Event seat up for grabs for the eventual winner.
Despite a deal being agreed upon, it took more than two hours for the tournament to be completed. Victor Sheerman was the chip leader at the time of the deal, but was the first of the quartet eliminated.
Sheerman tried his luck with 
but did not bank on Alner calling with 
. Sheerman caught a trey on the flop, but couldn’t find any more outs and was busted from the tournament.
Fu then moved all in with 
and Alner’s mini-heater continued when he called with the dominating . The board ran out 
to bring Alner’s jack-kicker into play and leave Fu wondering what could have been.
Alner went into the heads-up match with a 7,900,000 to 1,600,000 lead over Chong and it only took two hands to press home that advantage. Chong moved all in on the first hand and won the blinds and antes. The second hand saw Alner ship his stack in with 
and Chong call with . The 
flop gifted Alner a set of sevens and Chong an open-ended straight draw. That draw failed to come in as the turn and river were the and respectively to send the title to Alner.
Photo courtesy of Kenneth Lim and the PokerStars Blog.
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