Home / Poker News September 2012 / Macau High Stakes Challenge – Stanley Choi Wins
Macau High Stakes Challenge – Stanley Choi Wins
Posted by: Randy Williams - Sat, 2012-09-01 15:52
While the HKD $2 million Macau High Stakes Challenge failed to live up to the hype generated by initial reports according to which 80 players had already pre-registered for the
poker tournament a few days before its kick-off, it turned out to be quite an event for the ages. When the line was drawn, 73 players had coughed up the buy-in, which was the equivalent of $250k. Of these guys, 21 took advantage of the re-buy option, so the total prize-pool shot well past the $23 million mark. What that meant was that the winner would walk away with more than $6 million.
Interestingly enough, the starting field took a single day to play down to a winner. That winner was Stanley Choi, who took home a massive $6,465,746 for his efforts.
Obviously, the starting field consisted almost exclusively of ‘name’ competitors. Gus Hansen, John Juanda, Sam Trickett and Tom Dwan all played, together with Phil Ivey and Erik Seidel.
Andrew Robl was among the first victims, biting the dust shortly after kick-off. He was joined on the rail by Joe Hachem and Brian Powell. Brian Rast failed to make the money too.
The blinds were going up lightning-fast, and players had problems trying to keep up with them. The money bubble was set for 13th place, and before anyone knew it, it came and went. The official bubble-boy of the event was Du Yi Chen, who locked horns with Di Dang on the bubble. Dang had pocket rockets against Chen’s pocket 10s, but the latter caught another 10 on the flop to turn the tables on him. Another A on the turn put an end to the hand though.
JP Kelly was eliminated in 12th, followed by Di Dang in 11th.
The heads-up stage of the action saw Choi defeat Zhu Guan Fai. Fai picked up $4.3 million for his efforts. Phil Ivey finished the event in 8th place for an $822k reward.
