Pokerstars’ big investment in this year’s Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) continued to pay off handsomely this week in several events where buy-ins topped the guarantees. Hosted at the Pokerstars Live poker room at the City of Dreams in Macau, several tournament events paid well for many of the game’s top names..
The HK$100,000 buy-in ACOP Main Event was an example, with players like Dominik Nitsche, Stephen Chidwick and Brian Altman among the 309 registrations and making it through to the final table.
Nitsche fell at third for US$347,795; Chidwick at fourth for US$274,596 and Altman at fifth for US$201,411.
Pros Daniel Dvoress and Dan Smith were also in the field but failed to make the final nine.
In the heads up Alan Lau faced Aaron Been, with the two immediately negotiating a chop that gave Been the biggest prize money at US$704,881 despite Lau actually winning the event.
Lau took home US$692,066…his second big win this year following a prize of US$420,802 in February at a Red Dragon event.
In the HK$80,000 Mini High Roller event Spanish ace and Winamax ambassador Adrian Mateos emerged victorious, winning US$297,927 after besting 123 opponents, adding to a string of deep runs in several events at this year’s ACOP that has seen him bank around US$1.2 million.
The field included formidable professional players like Nick Petrangelo, David Peters, Timothy Adams and Jason Koon, none of whom made the final table.
Mateos and Yan Tsang confronted each other in the heads up, with Tsang finishing at second for US$201,181.
Russian poker pro Dmitry Yurasov added to his list of triumphs at ACOP’s HK$250,000 buy-in High Roller event, which attracted 48 registrations (including 8 re-entries) and offered a prize pool worth US$11.29 million.
Big names in the field included John Juanda, Dario Sammartino, Simon Burns, Manig Loeser and John Andres, who were all on the final table.
Yurasov started the heads up against Hong Kong pro Devan Tang with a slight lead, rejecting any suggestion of a chop, but the finale was strongly contested and exciting despite only lasting for five hands as Tang pushed every hand to the limit and very large pots featured.
Yurasov prevailed in the end to claim the US$456,270 main prize, sending Tang home with a well-deserved runner-up cash of US$329,386.