Tsang Leads Poker King Cup Macau Main Event as Bubble Bursts
With Day 2 of the Poker King Cup Macau Main Event now in the books just 63 players remain in contention for the trophy, title, and lion��s share of the HK$7,129,000 (~$915,295) prize pool. With the bubble bursting to end play for the day the remaining players are all guaranteed a payday of at least HK$26,000 ($3,338).
Just 231 of the 490-strong field returned for the Day 2, 168 of whom departed empty handed with India��s Bobbie Suri, Hong Kong��s Raiden Kan, and China��s Guo Dong just some of those who failed to make the cut.
Notables who did make it through included Day 1A frontrunner Alex Lee (96,000), High Roller Quan Zhou (177,000) and Hong Kong��sJustin Chan (286,000).
However, the man best positioned to scoop the HK$1,389,500 (~$178,333) first prize is Hong Kong��s Anson Tsang, who bagged up over a monstrous 1.1 million in chips when play concluded a little after 9:30pm local time (GMT+7) on Wednesday 24 May.
Tsang was the only player to hit the seven-figure chip mark with China��s Weizhou Zha, who held the lead for much of the day, finishing on 893,000 after winning a big pot from Quan Zhou shortly before play halted.
Denmark��s Frederik Farrington (704,000), Korea��s Lim Yohwan (687,000) and China��s Yang Song (557,000) round out the top five.
Tsang began the day as one of the shorter stacks with 27,600 �C a little over 17 big blinds �C but enjoyed a sterling day at the felt, powering his way into position as one of the top three stacks midway through the day.
Tsang was tied with China��s Weizhou Zha for much of the last two levels but wielded his massive stack like a club to beat his table into submission as the bubble approached to edge into the chip lead.
Shortly afterward, Korea��s Yohwan Lim won a race with ace-queen against an unfortunate opponent��s pocket tens to bring in the bubble and take play hand-for-hand at the close of level 17. It was here that Tsang really ran away with it, hoovering up any chips not nailed down and his table seemed powerless to stop him.
At one point it looked like China��s Qiang Liu would win the unenviable title of bubble boy, moving all-in for his last 80,000 with ace-ten offsuit and running into the pocket queens of Liu Lifu at the close of level 18.
While Qiang paired his ten on the flop, Liu had flopped an open-ended straight draw and flush draw to go with his queens but the timely appearance of another ten on the turn saw Liu double and keep play hand-for-hand.
The tension in the Poker King card room ratcheted up to almost unbearable levels as play dragged on past the scheduled level 18 end of day and halfway through level 19 before the bubble finally burst.
When it did so it was in spectacular fashion with China��s Yang Song getting all the chips in on the turn holding pocket queens on a 
board with an unlucky opponent making the call drawing dead holding 
for the second nut flush.
All that excitement concludes Day 2 but the PokerNews live reporting team will be returning for Day 3 on Thursday, May 25 at 1pm and the 63 remaining entrants will be playing down to the final table so join us then as we see who��s got what it takes to be the Poker King Macau Main Event Champion.