The Railbird Report

This article first appeared in the May/Jun 2014 issue of World Gaming magazine.

After a busy start to the year that saw Railbird Ronny flapping his wings halfway across the globe and back again, it was nice to spend a bit of time back at home for the return of the Macau Millions.

PokerStars Macau were forced to cancel the tournament in 2012 as they were leaving their home at Grand Lisboa and with no time to schedule it in 2013, the team were excited by the return of this unique event with high hopes it could better the 1,329 entries it saw when the Macau Millions was last held (back in 2011).

That wasn’t necessarily going to be an easy task given it still held the record as the biggest tournament field ever seen in Asia, but any misgivings were quickly allayed as the previous mark wasn’t just broken but completely obliterated by the 2014 field.

Over the course of six Day 1 flights, an enormous field of 1,804 entries took part to beat the previous Asian tournament record by 475 entries. The signs were looking good as early as Day 1d when the previous largest single-day field in the PokerStars LIVE Macau room (270 entries) was smashed with 335 taking their seat. The next day another 457 entries brought the field to 1,222 and then 582 filed in for the final flight to set the new record.

The Macau Millions boasts a unique format whereby players can buy into as many as they wish of the six Day 1 flights. The top seven percent of players each day progress to Day 2, but if a player makes it through more than once they take only their biggest stack with them. Any other stacks they have managed to nurse through are removed from play and they are paid out HK$11,000 for each one – a tidy profit on the HK$2,200 entry fee.

Only four players achieved the feat of progressing twice, while the fast format meant just 121 players made it through to Day 2, all with a min cash of HK$8,000 locked up but with desires of the much more attractive HK$550,000 first prize.

Leading the way was Singapore’s Tai Tan Zheng with 364,500 chips – just ahead of former Red Dragon winner Terry Fan. Neither would last out the day with Fan finishing in 52nd place and Zheng busting in 18th, although another former Red Dragon champion in Kenny Leong continued his good form in Macau by reaching the final table sitting third in chips.

In the end Leong maintained that position with a third-place finish. China’s Hao “HoHo” Chen went on to score the win ahead of countryman Sheng Chang.

The 27-year-old Hao Chen became the first Chinese player to win the Macau Millions and now holds a special place in history as winner of the biggest tournament (in terms of entries) ever held in Asia.

The other big event this bird recently attended was the ANZPT Sydney which saw 458 players head to The Star in pursuit of one of the more prestigious events in Australia outside the Aussie Millions.

As expected, the sixth running of this event saw a who’s who of the local poker scene take part including 2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem, WSOP bracelet winners Mel Judah, Andrew Hinrichsen, Gary Benson and Jim Collopy as well as Tom Grigg, Liam O’Rourke, Daniel Neilson, Brendon Rubie and Billy Argyros.

A total of 168 players made it to Day 2 and this number was cut to just 37 heading into Day 3 including the likes of Neilson, Judah, Anthony Aston and Nick Polias. Although none would reach the final table, there were still some familiar faces among the final nine. They included the popular Oliver Gill, an always consistent Milan Gurung and Peco Stojanovski who finished fourth at APPT Sydney in 2010 on a final table that also featured Daniel Negreanu, Roland de Wolfe and eventual winner Jonathan Karamalikis.

Stojanovski came even closer to a breakthrough win this time around reaching heads up play with fellow Sydneysider Josh Redhouse but in the end it was the latter who would prevail and take home AU$133,360 following a deal struck by the remaining players when play was four-handed.