The Red Dragon once again established itself as the biggest ever freezeout tournament in Asia with a record 1,216 runners and after a week of exciting action it was 2015 Asia Player of the Year Alan Lau who emerged triumphant.
Ultimately Lau overcame Chien Fa Chou in the heads up clash to pocket HK$3,265,000 and the best looking trophy in poker!
Lau began heads up as a better than 4:1 chip favourite and maintained the lead throughout before eliminating Chou and hoisting the trophy. The battle lasted only 10 hands where the final one saw Chou jam on the button for 20 big blinds. Lau gave the decision considerable thought before announcing a call to see he had the dominant hand.
Lau: Kâ™ Jâ™
Chou: K♥ 8♦
Lau was ahead preflop and things stayed that way by the river as the cards fell Q♠2♦ 7♣ 9♠K♦ . As the river landed, Lau cheered so hard that his glasses fell off as his supporters on the rail all joined him with screams of excitement and applause.
Before all of that when the day commenced there were nine left in contention and things got off to a slow start. Finally after almost three hours we saw Jun Liu be the first the fall. He was all in preflop with 5â™ 5♥ against the A♥ 10♦ of Yang Zhang but failed to hold when Zhang made an ace on the river. Liu’s Red Dragon hopes were over, and he departed in ninth place.
Following Liu to the rail was Zhen Wen who managed to get it in good but couldn’t hold versus Apoorva Goel. Wen held A♣ J♣ to Goel’s Kâ™ 10♣ and while he spiked top pair on the Jâ™ Aâ™ 3♣ flop, the Q♦ turn made Goel a Broadway straight and left Wen drawing dead. He collected HK$300,500 for his efforts.
Bobby Zhang was knocked out in seventh place after moving all in preflop with A♥ 9♥ and running into the 10â™ 10♥ of Yang Zhang. Bobby Zhang paired his nine on the end but it wasn’t enough to save him with the cards falling 3â™ Q♣ 6♦ 2â™ 9♣ .
Sixth place went to Liang Xu after his A♦ 10♣ came up short against Edwin Gerard’s Jâ™ J♦ following a preflop confrontation. The board landed 6♣ Q♥ 6♦ K♣ 8♥ and with that Xu’s tournament was done.
Despite sending Xu home, Gerard himself was next to go after running 6â™ 6♥ into Lau’s 10♥ 10♦ preflop. Gerard couldn’t find a six on the J♥ 9♥ 5â™ 2â™ 10â™ board with Lau spiking a set on the end to rub salt in the wound.
Not long after it was Yang Zhang’s turn to exit. He danced with the chip lead only levels before but after running pocket fours into Lau’s pocket aces he then moved the last of it in preflop with K♥ Qâ™ . It was runner-up Chou who called it off with just enough to cover in the big blind holding 9â™ 9♥ and the pocket nines held to see Zhang eliminated in fourth place.
Hitting the rail next was Apoorva Goel after a battle of the blinds went the way of Lau. Goel moved all in from the big blind with A♦ 2♥ and was snapped off by Lau with Aâ™ Qâ™ . Unfortunately for Goel he couldn’t improve and that took us down to the heads up battle where Lau overcome Chou in the final showdown.
| Place | Last Name | First Name | Country | PokerStars Status | Prize (HKD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lau | Alan | Hong Kong | $3,265,000 | |
| 2 | Chou | Chien Fa | Taiwan | $1,954,000 | |
| 3 | Goel | Apoorva | India | $1,163,000 | |
| 4 | Zhang | Yang | China | PokerStars Player | $840,000 |
| 5 | Gerard | Edwin | USA | $570,000 | |
| 6 | Xu | Liang | China | $411,500 | |
| 7 | Zhang | Bobby | Australia | $348,000 | |
| 8 | Zhen | Chou | China | $300,500 | |
| 9 | Liu | Jun | China | $253,720 |
Congratulations to Alan!
That’s all from us here tonight. We’ll be back again tomorrow to pick up coverage of the HK$80,000 High Roller Event. We hope you can join us then! — BK
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