Macau Poker Cup 23: James Chen Wins High Roller for HK $1,704,000; Dhaval Mudgal Makes 4th Place in Event 13

Now on its last leg, the Macau Poker Cup (MPC) 23 crowned James Chen (cover image) as the champion in the HK $80,000 High Roller event. Chen collected HK $1,704,000 in prize money. Events 13 and 14 also played out to an end, with Day 2 of Event 16 currently underway.

The few remaining players from the Indian contingent continue to blaze forth, and chief among them is Dhaval Mudgal who has been the star of this series. Dhaval has made three final tables this series for a total of HK $474,252 in cashes. Just a day after making a 3rd place finish in the Midnight MTT event for HK $40,960, he followed it up with a convincing victory in the Teams Event for HK $98,092, and continued the heater by steamrolling his way to take 4^th place in Event 13 – HK $20,000 NLH for HK $335,200.

In the same event, Kunal Patni made an 11^th place finish for HK $71,200. Kunal has already made two final tables, a 6^th place finish in the opening event for $24,120 and 7^th place in Event 3 – HK $2,500 KO Bounty for HK $14,690, at the start of the series.

Anju Abrol has also been busy, as she made a 14^th place finish in Event 14 – HK $3,000 NLH for HK $7,150. She too has become one of the most consistent Indian players on the Macau circuit since her Spadie win last year. Her biggest cash this series came in Event 8 – HK $5,000 Megastack where she fnished 5th for HK $75,600.

MPC has over the last few editions emerged as one of Asia`s biggest events, and this time too the series delivered both in terms of numbers and prizepools. The series saw a record 4,429 players take part across the series, creating a total prizepool of HK $29,449,018. The series is on its last event today i.e. Event 17 – HK $2,500 NLH that kicked off at 3.00 pm local time.

Event 15 – HK $80,000 HIGH ROLLER

James Ning Chen from Taiwan was the ultimate champion of the High Roller, and collected the top prize of HK $1,704,000. The event attracted 75 runners who shelled out the hefty HK $80,000 buy-in leading to a prize pool of HK $5,586,000. It took two full days to cut down to a nine-handed final table, but once it was reached, in just 75 minutes the winner was found.

Fast paced action saw Chen dominate most of the final table action, even as he started out with a good chip lead. By the time the first five eliminations were done with, Chen had almost half the chips in play.

In a short while, he was heads up with Japan’s Makoto Yoshimichi and the final hand came fast.

Yoshimichi opened from the button to 160,000. Chen three-bet to 420,000 and Yoshimichi called to find a flop of . Chen raised to 475,000 and Yoshimichi called. The turn revealed the and Chen bet 750,000. Yoshimichi paused and then moved all in for 1,650,000. Chen called.

Chen: s11]

Yoshimichi

The river with sealed Yoshimichi’s fate and he was runner up for HK $1,117,000. Chen was champion of the High Roller, collecting HK $1,704,000.

MPC23 High Roller – Final Results ‘(HKD)

1. James En Ning Chen – $1,704,000

2. Makoto Yoshimichi – $1,117,000

3. Tom Alner – $726,000

4. Liang Yu – $559,000

5. Wayne Wei Ye Zhang – $391,000

6. Yan Cai – $335,000

7. Scott Davies – $279,000

8. Xiang Zhu – $251,500

9. Huidong Gu – $223,500

Event 13 – HK $20,000 NLH

240 entries signed up for Event 13, leading to a prize pool of HK $4,190,400, China`s Tao Fang claimed the first place prize of HK $852,650, after a deal in heads up play with runner up Makato Fujibayashi who got HK $802,650.

India`s Dhaval Mudgal made his third final table finish in the series, taking 4^th place for HK $335,200. Kunal Patni who was the shortest stack on Day 3, missed the final table, finishing in 11^th place for HK $71,200.

Dhaval kept tweeting the developments,

Event 14 – $3,000 NLH

Christian Salvatore of Australia won Event 14 for HK $104,164. The event had 156 entries, with a prize pool of HK $408,564.

Anju Abrol made a 12^th place finish for $7,150.

Event 16 – 5,000 KO Bounty

Event 16 is a 2-day event and will play its final day today at 3:15 pm local time. 137 runners lead to a prize pool of HK $461,005 in this event.

Dhaval Mudgal was looking to make the most of his good form, jumped right into the event after busting Event 13 and tweeted:

Shravan Chabbria also joined the action, but was eliminated when he AxKx lost out against an opponents pocket Aces. He tweeted about his bustout hand,

Image Courtesy: Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau.