This article first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue of World Gaming magazine.
German Julian Hasse outlasted a record field of 254 to take down the Macau Poker Cup Championship and over HK$1 million in the process.
The PokerStars Macau poker room at the Grand Lisboa hosted its last major tournament for 2010 with the Macau Poker Cup Championship. This poker room is the most recognised and respected tournament venue in the region. Not that long ago, if you’d said that a tournament like this would attract a field of over 250 players you may have been laughed at. Just over 150 players played this tournament last year and the massive increase is testament to PokerStars high calibre venue and organisation, and a seemingly never-ending increase in the popularity of poker in the region. The world-class field included Australian poker legend Jeff Lisandro and Team PokerStars pros Celina Lin, Raymond Wu, Bryan Huang and Tae Joon Noh.
Not only was the field large it also saw players from all four corners of the world competing. The final table featured players from China, Singapore, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom and Australia. It is wonderful that a tournament such as this had such an international flavour.
The final table had some incredible poker talent with local businessman Kelly Flynn leading the way as chip leader when the final nine sat down to battle it out. Singaporean whiz-kid Nathanael Seet is not only one of the biggest and best cash players in the region, he is also a fearless tournament player. The field were noticeably relieved to see him go out in sixth position.
His fellow countryman, Wee Yee Tan finished in third spot, leaving Flynn and the German pro Hasse to battle it out for the cash and the title. Finally it was the speechless Hasse who outlasted Flynn. The only thing he could think of buying was a new iPhone4 but he will undoubtedly be able to afford a more expensive present for himself after his million dollar win.
Flynn was a worthy runner up and at the end of the tournament he lamented that his heads up play was one of the weaker parts to his game. The American, an iconic figure in the Asian poker scene, still had a smile on his face at the end of the day saying, “any day you pocket US$100,000 can’t be a bad one”.
To discover the latest happenings at PokerStars Macau visit www.pokerstarsmacau.com.
