2018 Macau Millions: Team India Invades Macau; Gokul Krishna Makes Day 2 of Main Event, Young Gun Iyer & S Saravanan Score

2018 Macau Millions
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  • PG News April 20, 2018
  • 3 Minutes Read

What do you get when you combine seven days of poker action at a world class poker venue with some of the top tournament poker pros from around the world, all fighting it out for millions in prize money? That’s the 2018 Macau Millions for you!

The 7-day extravaganza at the PokerStars Live Macau features 15 official Asia Player of the Year (APOY) events headlined by the $3 Million guaranteed Main Event along with the $500,000 guaranteed Warm-up, and the $500,000 guaranteed Megastack event. The series also awards two coveted PSPC Platinum Passes worth $30,000 each.

PokerStars Live Macau poker room has grown in popularity immensely over the past few years. The fact remains that 15 years ago, the idea of Macau becoming the center of the gambling in the eastern hemisphere would have been unimaginable but cut to 2018 and Macau is far from booming and has established itself as one of the hottest gambling destinations in the world.

As has been the norm, this time around too a huge Indian contingent is in attendance at the series including the likes of India’s first WSOP bracelet winner Aditya Sushant, PSPC Platinum Pass winner Sumit Sapra, Young Guns Sahil Chutani and Abhinav Iyer, Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament April ’18 High Roller champion and runner up finishers Saravanan S and Gokul Krishna, MadOverPoker pro Zarvan Tumboli, Arjjun Singh, Meherzad Munsaf, Ankit Wadhawan, Imran Mohd, Randeep Lather, Saurabh Arora, and Jason Robert Pereira.

This sure promises to be a cracker of a series and with such talent representing India, railbirds are guaranteed of some high-octane action and plenty of sweats.

The opening flight of the most significant event on the schedule – HK$3M GTD Main Event is already over and attracted a full house of 486 runners (including 95 re-entries). The event features a unique structure allowing for unlimited re-entries in the first six levels of each Day 1.

Notably, each Day 1 of the Main Event has been divided into two versions — standard and turbo. Each starting flight (Day 1A, 1B, 1C) will play down till the top 7% of the field remain and those survivors are assured a min-cash of HK$9,000 in addition to advancing to Day 2.

The question now remains whether this edition of Macau Millions can once again break its own record as the largest poker tournament field in Macau history. The record currently stands at 2,343 entrants that was set in 2016.

In side events, the series has already crowned five worthy champions in Abao Shi, Adalsteinn Petur Karlsson, Xin Jin, Po Yin Leung, and Navid Mirzaei Alvari.

For our Indian challengers, it has been a decent start with Gokul Krishna bagging one of the top three stacks after Day 1A (standard) of Main Event with two more deep runs by other players.

Young Gun Abhinav Iyer has played three events till now – the Warm Up, the 6-max and the HK$8,000 NLH. Iyer managed to make it to the final table in the HK$8,000 NLH event and eventually finished fourth for HK$95,324 (~₹8.02 Lakhs).

Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament April ’18 High Roller champion S Saravanan seems to be riding high on good form and was the sole Indian to cash in the opening Warm-Up event. Saravanan pocketed HK$6,000 (~₹50,489) for his 41st place finish.

 

Macau Millions Main Event

The standard heat of the Main Event attracted a field of 355 entries (including 68 re-entries) while the turbo heat fetched 131 entries (including 27 re-entries).

By the end of the day, Korea’s Seung Taek Yi bagged the biggest stack from the standard flight (424,000), followed by China’s Yuanlong Sheng (324,500), and rounding up the top three stacks was India’s Gokul Krishna (322,000) – the runner up finisher in the Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament April ’18 High Roller event.

Gokul Krishna
Gokul Krishna

Nine other Indian challengers were seen in attendance namely, Saurabh Arora, Sahil Chutani, Randeep Lather, Imran Mohd, Gokul Krishna, Jason Pereira, Saravanan S, Sumit Sapra, Zarvan Tumboli and Ankit Wadhawan, but apart from Krishna, none of the other Indian`s made Day 2.

Top 10 Chip Counts After Day 1A [Standard]

1. Seung Taek Yi – 424,000
2. Yuanlong Sheng – 324,500
3. Gokul Krishna – 322,000
4. Victor Chong – 268,000
5. Tong Tan – 250,000
6. Xujun Huang – 245,000
7. Lei Chen – 221,000
8. Chi Zhang – 213,000
9. Qinrong Gao – 205,000
10. A Yu – 182,000

The Day 1A [turbo] flight attracted 131 runners and once the bags were brought out, China’s Hao Chen emerged as the top dog, bagging 285,000 in chips. All 10 who survived the day hail from China with Zhikui Chi (266,000), and Ye Wang (235,000) rounding out the top three stacks.

Chip Counts at the End of Day 1A [Turbo]

1. Hao Chen – 385,000
2. Zhikui Shi – 266,000
3. Ye Wang – 235,000
4. Bin Huang – 181,000
5. Junfeng Wang – 156,000
6. Xiaosheng Zheng – 109,000
7. Yazhou Chen – 101,000
8. Deding Xu – 60,500
9. Qiao Chi – 53,500
10. Xingbiao Zhu – 30,500

 

Event 1: Warm-up (HK$500,000 Guarantee, Unlimited Re-Entries)

The opening event of the series was the HK$500,000 guaranteed Warm-up tournament that allowed for unlimited re-entries. When the late registration period ended, a total of 619 entries had ponied up the HK$2,000 buy-in to double the advertised guarantee with a staggering HK$1,080,774 collected in prize money.

China`s Abao Shi defeated Hong Kong native Hong Tai Tang heads-up to win the HK$140,000 top prize and the PSPC Platinum Pass worth $30,000

The only Indian to cash at the event was Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament High Roller champion – Chennai’s Saravanan S who pocketed HK$6,000 (~₹50,489) for his 41st place finish.

Abao Shi
Abao Shi

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Abao Shi – HK$215,000

2. Hong Tai Tang – HK$140,000

3. Liu Yang – HK$101,674

4. Fuk On Wong – HK$81,200

5. Keng Lon Cheong – HK$64,000

6. Peng Wan – HK$49,000

7. Po Jui Wang – HK$36,000

8. Hiroki Ishigaki – HK$26,500

9. Xin Liu – HK$21,600

 

Event 2: 6-Handed

The HK$3,000 buy-in 6-Handed event drew in 90 participants with the top 11 sharing from the HK$235,710 prize pool. Iceland`s Adalsteinn Petur Karlsson was the last player standing and collected the top prize worth HK$68,400 after defeating China’s Wei Zhao in the heads-up duel.

Adalsteinn Petur Karlsson
Adalsteinn Petur Karlsson

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Adalsteinn Petur Karlsson – HK$68,400

2. Wei Zhao – HK$45,400

3. Joshua Morse Zimmerman – HK$29,500

4. Xiaoyin He – HK$22,310

5. Chun Yin Wong – HK$15,900

6. Hung Sheng Lin – HK$13,000

7. Xingwei Tong – HK$10,600

8. Preston Lee – HK$8,200

9. Xin Wang – HK$8,200

 

Event 3: HK$8,000 NLH Event

The HK$8,000 NLH event brought in 161 runners to make for a HK$1,124,424 prize pool with the top 18 players cashing. The lion’s share went to China’s Xin Jin who defeated fellow countryman Meng Wang in the heads-up match to claim the HK$286,700 top prize, the trophy, and his second PokerStars LIVE Macau title.

The final table was indeed a tough one with the like of inaugural Baby Dragon champion Bobby Zhang (6th for HK$64,700), and Australia’s Phachara Wongwichit (8th for HK$42,100) in attendance.

Both Zhang and Wongwichit are back in familiar territory at the Macau felts after their recent vacation in India where they were invited by Team PokerStars pro Aditya Agarwal. The gang had attended the Baadshah Gaming Live Tournament April ’18 edition in Goa where Zhang won the Main Event, while both Agarwal and Wongwichit final tabled an event each!

Young Gun Abhinav Iyer picked up his best live score as he juggernauted his way to the final table, eventually finishing fourth for HK$95,324 (~₹8.02 Lakhs).

Xin Jin
Xin Jin

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Xin Jin – HK$286,700

2. Meng Wang – HK$191,200

3. Chi Han Hsieh – HK$123,700

4. Abhinav Iyer – HK$95,324

5. Dominik Andre Renner – HK$78,700

6. Bobby Zhang – $64,700

7. Wei Liu – HK$53,400

8. Phachara Wongwichit – HK$42,100

9. Weiping Chen – HK$30,800

 

Event 4: HK$2,000 NLH Turbo

The HK$2,000 NLH Turbo event registered a total 74 entries, generating a HK$129,204 prize pool with the top seven places getting paid. Hong Kong’s Po Yin Leung emerged on top post a heads-up deal with China`s Feng Liu.

Po Yin Leung
Po Yin Leung

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Po Yin Leung – HK$34,850*

2. Feng Liu – HK$34,850*

3. Canlin Chen – HK$18,100

4. Vincent Lai – HK$14,200

5. Geoffrey Mooney – HK$10,404

6. Jia Tang – HK$9,000

7. Yan Liu – HK$7,800

*denotes heads-up deal

 

Event 5: HK$5,000 NLH-PLO Event

Another side event to find a champion was the HK$5,000 NLH-PLO that fetched a modest yet strong field of 38 entrants, with the top five players collecting a piece of the HK$165,870 prize pool.

Iran’s Navid Alvari topped the field post a heads-up deal with his final opponent – Russia’s Oleg Timashev. With the win, Alvari claimed his first PokerStars LIVE Macau title, in addition to the trophy and the HK$55,100 top prize. Timashev took home HK$51,000 for his runner-up finish.

Navid Alvari
Navid Alvari

Final Table Results (HKD)

1. Navid Mirzaei Alvari – HK$$55,100*

2. Oleg Timashev – HK$51,000*

3. Che Li Lin – HK$26,570

4. Xiang Tang – HK$19,900

5. Shengliang Kong – HK$13,300

*denotes heads-up deal

Keep following all the updates from 2018 Macau Millions right here on PokerGuru!

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