Macau is the arena where the challenging poker action is currently taking place as the inaugural edition of the Oriental Poker Championship is in progress at the moment. Over the span of the last several days, players have had the chance to participate in the HK$16,500 Main Event and the skillful winner at the end of the Final Table was Xiaobo Zhou.
The most exciting tournament during the first edition of the Oriental Poker Championship is most certainly the HK$16,500 Buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Main Event. Players who make it to the money will cash out their share of the massive guaranteed prize pool of HK$5 million. The tournament kicks off with two starting flights on May 24 and May 25, and all those who survive the competition qualified for Day 2 on Saturday, May 26. There were also three HK$2,000 buy-in Main Event Satellites, the first of which started early in the evening before the official start of Day 1a.
This provided the event with enough registered players willing to give their luck a try and make their way to the final table of eight. There were some 517 registered participants in the second flagship event of this first edition of the Oriental Poker Championship. The third day of action brought a fast-paced action and everyone seemed to enjoy the steady tempo of poker everyone was keeping up. The chip leader at the end of the day was no other than Ivan Leow from Malaysia who is not a new name on the rank list of this poker championship.
Rapid Poker Action on the Felt
It could be recalled that he managed to claim the first-place and the generous prize coming with it at the previous event of the Oriental Poker Championship, namely the High Roller one. There he deserved a payout of HK$1,442,300 which is a significant boost to his total live earnings.
At the end of the third day of action of this culminating event, he managed to generate some 3,940,000 in chips which reserved him a spot on Day 4 of the Main Event. However, Lady Luck was not working in his favor this time as this Monday saw the official Final Table bringing a second place for him. The runner-up position of Leow will go down in history, as he was so determined to outplay the eventual winner Xiaobo Zhou.
Even though the runner-up position is still quite the accomplishment, Leow was still disappointed by the turn of events. Zhou himself was the chip leader with his 12,790,000 in chips prior to the win. Due to his convincing performance, he claimed the first-place prize of the culminating event which amounts to some HK$1,451,000, slightly more than what Leow bagged at the end of the High Roller one.
As for the heads-up duel, it was one of the shorter ones and it denied Leow the chance to win another major tournament in this first edition of the poker championship. He claimed the consolation prize of HK$1,016,700. The third place was reserved for another previous chip leader from China called Chang Bo Feng who bagged a total of HK$653,900.
