The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macau Festival wrapped up on Monday with 18 year old Zhang Dan Peng winning the Main Event for HKD $1.68 million (US $215,000). But the biggest story surrounding the series was the side action that developed after some of the big-name pros busted out of the tournament and created one of the largest cash games Macau has ever seen.
The nosebleed game at Starworld’s Poker King Club, which has been taking place regularly for more than a year, mostly consists of businessmen from China and Macau who have converted their gambling passion from baccarat to poker. With several pros in town for the APT event, the regulars welcomed the chance to play against some of poker’s top superstars like Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, and Chau Giang.
APT tournament director Matt Savage was the first to break the news about the game in a thread on TwoPlusTwo: “Despite the light turnout at the Asian Poker Tour Macau, the cash games are some of the biggest in history as Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, Chau Giang, and John Juanda are playing HKD $5,000-10,000 with some Chinese businessmen. The game plays much bigger and there was about $40 million on the table last night when I saw the game.”
Savage continued, “Tom Dwan made it through day one in the HKD $5K main event, but only came downstairs to play one hand, 10-4 offsuit, in an attempt to bust and get back to the cash game, but instead he doubled up and asked me to call him as soon as he was under 20 BBs. We are down to 35 players and paying 18.”
Dwan was eliminated from the tournament in 25th place and the cash game paused while the players moved from the Hard Rock Casino to Starworld. Dwan quickly got involved in a big pot with Ivey, as the two Full Tilt Poker pros faced off in a pre-flop raising war that ended with Dwan’s pocket sevens besting Ivey’s ace-ten for a HDK $4 million pot. It is assumed that Dwan and Ivey shared a piece of each other for the game, making the loss more sustainable for Ivey. Dwan also reportedly won a pot worth somewhere between HDK $16-20 million after a three-way all-in in which his ace-king came out a winner against pocket queens and pockets tens.
The biggest pot so far, though, came between Giang and a Chinese businessman. According to the Marketing Director at the Poker King Club, the game was No Limit Hold’em HKD $10,000/$20,000 blinds with a $10,000 ante. With a HKD $40,000 straddle in front of him, the Chinese player raised to $100,000 with ace-jack and Giang re-raised to HKD $500,000 with pocket aces. His opponent called and the two players saw a flop of J-J-10, giving the businessman trip jacks. Giang check-called a bet of HKD $1.2 million and the turn brought an ace, giving both players a full house. Giang checked his aces-full, and the businessman moved all-in for HKD $9 million. Giang called, creating a pot worth more than HKD $20 million. The river was a three and Giang scooped the massive bounty.
APT Chairman Tom Hall, who won close to US $1 million during four sessions in the game and reported some of the happenings shortly after they took place, posted some of the game’s results on TwoPlusTwo: “For (Monday’s) session, Phil is up HKD $15m (almost $2m USD), Tom up HKD $4m, table regulars up HKD $2m, Chau up HKD $300k, Johnny Chan down HKD $800k, John Juanda down HKD $1.5m (but up big for the week overall and has left town for a trip), and two Beijing visitors down HKD $10m each. Currently, the main game is four-handed with Phil, Tom, and two regulars playing HKD $10/20k. Second game features Jeff Lisandro, Ted Forrest, and others playing either HKD $2k/4k or $5k/10k.”
Overall, Ivey is around even for the week (minus sports betting losses, which were substantial). Like Juanda, Dwan and Giang are big winners, while the visitors from Beijing have taken a beating.
Hall also posted a quote from Poker King Room manager Winfred Yu, who has been on the sidelines throughout the week, but shared on Tuesday, “The game was regulars only last night (plus Uncle Chau Giang) and usual Asian visitors with Phil and Durrrr getting some sleep. Visitors dropped HKD $30 million last night, regulars won most of it with Chau picking up a nice win too. Second table played a mix of HKD $100/200 Limit and $200/400 No Limit with Jeff Lisandro, Ted Forrest amongst the players.”
Yu also mentioned that Dwan had accepted a challenge from a Beijing businessman, who was reportedly en route to the casino at the time of writing. The blinds will be HKD$50,000/100,000 – the largest blinds ever played at the Poker King Club. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest updates from Macau.