Tao Jin slays the MPC Red Dragon, Team India Pro – Abhishek Goindi finishes a close 2nd

PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa hosted the biggest and richest ever Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon from February 18-26 and set several new records for poker in Asia. In total, the 9 Official Asia Player of the Year events drew 2,153 players and awarded HKD $12,857,863 (US $1,660,000) in prize money — beating the previous records of 1,652 players and HKD $9,553,323 (USD $1,225,000) for Asia’s premiere poker series.

“It was a fitting tribute as our last major poker event at the Grand Lisboa.” said Danny McDonagh, PokerStars Director of Live Operations for the Asia-Pacific. “Nothing about the success of PokerStars Macau is based on luck or magic.”

“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.” McDonagh added. “We’ll have further announcements about the future of PokerStars Macau coming soon.”

Headlining the 9-day week was China’s Nicky Jin (cover image) who won the Red Dragon main event after beating an Asia-record 635 players and was awarded the HKD $1,192,500 for his victory. After 3 grueling days — where 81 players cashed for a piece of the HKD $6,297,676 prize pool — the 23-year old poker pro’s win also included an entry into the HKD $10,000,000 guarantee ACOP event in November.

“I was the shortest stack with 300k when we started the final table so I was looking for any plus EV play to double up.” recalled Jin, an online tournament specialist. “The hand where I had AQ versus AJ to build my stack was probably the key hand. But there were lots of key hands. I’m just very happy right now…I can’t even believe it!”

In the opening hour, the casualty list included the likes of July 2008 winner Denny Yu (16th) and 2010 Macau Poker Cup Championship winner Julian Hasse (13th). As the last remaining title holders, the main event was assured of crowning a first-time champion.

Jay Tay entered the Day 3 finale as the chip leader but the last female standing fell in 5th place at the hand of India’s Abhishek Goindi.

Goindi and Jin then took turns eliminating Russia’s David Martirosyan (4th) and UK’s Craig Eichmeier (3rd) respectively to set up heads up play.

This is how the final hand played out as described by PokerStars blogger TassieDevil

“After a deal was struck we were expecting some fast play, so we weren’t that surprised to see a big hand develop on just the third hand of heads-up play. However when the cards were tabled we realized there was nothing fast about it. It was just a good old fashioned cooler.

Nicky Tao Jin had the button and opened with a min-raise. Abhishek Goindi made the call with the flop came down a baby . It looked innocent enough but it was the trigger for fireworks!

Goindi checked and Jin continued for 260,000. Goindi came back with a check-raise of an additional 400,000 as a massive pot was brewing. Jin didn’t slow down as he added another 800,000 to the bet. Goindi moved all in and Jin insta-called”!

Goindi:

Jin:

“What a cooler! It was top two pair for Goindi but incredibly Jin had flopped bottom set! Jin would need to fade a three or four and the title was his. The turn brought the J♠ and the river was the T♦ as Jin embraced good friend Bryan Huang as they roared in delight at winning the title”!

Red Dragon – Final Table Results

Nicky Jin (China) — $1,192,500
Abhishek Goindi (India) — $1,056,500
Craig Eichmeier (UK) — $554,000
David Martirosyan (Russia) — $409,000
Jennette “Jay” Tan (Hong Kong) — $315,000
Zuo “ST” Wang (China) — $252,000
Chen Ke (China) — $205,000
Po En Ho (China) — $157,000
Shao-hung Lee (Chinese Taipei) — $126,000

Notable Cashes by Team India

Abhishek Goindi

2nd in Red Dragon Main Event (HKD $1,056,500)

Gaurav Law

31st in Red Dragon Main Event (HKD $28,500)

Kunal Chandra

5th in Event 4: $4,000 NLH (HKD $44,900)

Anju Abrol

8th in Event 8: High Rollers (HKD $109,500)

Luchi Veljee

8th in Event 9: KO Bounty (HKD $12,100)

Dhaval Mudgal

9th in Event 9: KO Bounty (HKD $10,100)