Only a day after the Baby Dragon spread its wings, China’s Deng Jiwei stepped up and slayed it, having overcome a record-breaking field of 793. Jiwei’s impressive feat sees him take home the title, the trophy, and HK$942,000 (~$120,000) after a heads-up deal.

Jiwei jostled himself to the middle of the pack by the time the final table commenced and when he reached heads up with Xiangling He their stacks were separated only by a single chip. The two of them agreed to split the money and the rest of the action played out in quick succession.

The final hand saw all the chips go in on the turn with the board reading 8♠ 2♠ 7♥ Q♥ and Jiwei holding A♥ 8♥ for a pair and the nut flush draw. That was way the best of it against He’s 9♥ 5♥ for a gut shot and an inferior flush draw that was already dead. The 10♥ rolled off on the end to complete their flushes but Jiwei had the nuts to lock up the tournament.

Jiwei navigated through a solid final table to make that heads up appearance. Let’s take a look at how things unfolded earlier in the night.

The first to hit the rail after the final table began was Mike Huang who copped a sick beat to send him home in ninth place. He three-bet jammed with little fold equity over Qicheng Du’s open but Huang was in great shape holding K♠ 6♣ to Du’s 6♦ 4♦ . Sometimes in poker, however, having your opponent dominated and subsequently flopping top pair when the dealer fans out K♦ 3♣ A♠ isn’t enough, and things quickly took a turn for the worst for Huang as the 10♦ turn and 7♦ river appeared to give Du a flush.

Eighth spot went to Bobby Zhang, and while the Australian took down the first-ever Baby Dragon event back in 2014, he couldn’t pull off a two-time victory. Zhang was shortstacked and when Xiangling He moved all in from the small blind to cover Zhang in the big blind the latter called it off. He’s 9♠ 9♦ proved too good for Zhang’s A♥ 7♥ on the 3♥ K♦ J♦ 10♣ 4♥ runout and Zhang was eliminated seven short of another title.

He was ready to thin the field further as just minutes later it was Jun Li’s time to go. Li cold-four bet for just a few chips more over the three-bet from He who called it off holding A♥ K♦ . It was a fair fight versus Li’s J♠ J♥ but He again ended up with the best of it as the community cards came down 6♦ Q♠ 9♥ K♥ 6♥ .

Fang Xing took sixth place after back-to-back blows from Deng Jiwei dusted off his stack. The first saw Xing’s A♦ K♥ lose to Jiwei’s A♠ Q♠ before the very next hand saw Xing run K♣ 10♣ into Jiwei’s A♥ J♦ . The 4♠ J♠ Q♣ flop gave Xing an open ended straight draw and a glimmer of hope but the 5♠ turn and 4♣ refused to save him.

Just ten minutes after that Chun Hung Chan was relegated to the rail. He was all in preflop and called in two spots but by the turn only he and Xinagling He were still active. With the board showing 10♥ 6♠ 9♠ A♥ Chan’s J♥ J♣ was in rough shape against He’s A♣ Q♦ . Chan failed to find the two outer on the Q♠ river and we were left with just four in contention.

After a few payjumps Danny Tang decided it was time to get his short stack in with 9♠ 2♣ and he ended up being live against Jiwei’s Q♠ 6♠ . That was until the 3♣ 10♠ Q♥ flop all but ended it for Tang and the 4♦ turn card made it official. The inconsequential A♠ completed the board and Tang was sent to the payout desk to collect $321,812.

And third place went to Qicheng Du after a frosty deck saw him run 8♥ 8♦ into Jiwei’s 10♠ 10♥ . It was an eightless 3♦ 6♣ 6♦ 4♥ K♦ runout and Du was done and dusted to take us to the lightning fast heads up match where Jiwei overcame He.

MPC27 Baby Dragon Final Table Payouts

That concludes our coverage of the MPC27 Baby Dragon. We’ll be back tomorrow right here at PokerStars LIVE Macau as the HK$15,000 Red Dragon fires up. We hope you can join us then!

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