Song sets stage for Macau Poker Cup
16 May 2011
Macau's Ion Sang Song won the Main Event taking home HKD $115,800 after outlasting a field of 100 players in the 2-day event.
“It’s my lucky day today.” says Song through a translator. “I’m so proud to win this tournament as a Macanese because poker is just beginning to become popular here."
"I want to continue this success at the next tournament in the PokerStars Macau poker room.” added the 50-year old regular.
For MPC May Special results please click here.
It certainly won't be a long wait for Song as the buzz is already building for the Macau Poker Cup (MPC) which takes place from May 28 to June 5. Asia's premiere poker series will be showing off its newly expanded 9-day schedule with 8 Official Asia Player of Year events in the line-up. The main event, as always, is the lengendary Red Dragon event boasting a HKD $3,000,000 Guarantee.
"In Macau Poker Cup's early days it was just 3 days of tournaments on Friday, Saturday and Sunday." says Danny McDonagh, PokerStars Director of Live Operations for Asia-Pacific. "It's been an amazing journey to see it now expanded to a 9-day schedule. It just shows how much we've progressed and grown. The MPC has a wide variety of buy-ins and this schedule appeals to poker players of every bankroll with the introduction of the High Rollers and $6,000 events.
Sunday's Main Event final table had three of the top six players on the Asia Player of the Year (APOY) rankings including Song (6th), Hung-Sheng "Shaq" Lin (1st) from Chinese Taipei, and Brice Renaud (5th) from France.
However, both Lin and Renaud made early exits placing seventh and ninth respectively. The turning point came with four players remaining. Hong Kong's Ho Yin Tai and Norway's Mikal Blomlie both moved all-in only to hear "call" by chip leader Song who held pocket kings. Tai had QJ and Blomlie had AJ. The double knockout came quickly as a king came on the flop with no miracle finish.
Singapore's Syed Ubhaidilla was ecstatic to be in heads up play with his severe short stack but was eliminated in 2nd place after only 1 hand.
This was Song's first title and third final table in 2011. He is the top ranked player from Macau and moves from sixth to third on the APOY leaderboard. Lin retains his dominant no. 1 rank while Renaud slips to no. 5.
"I'm happy for Mr. Song." says Fred Leung, PokerStars Country Manager. "I was there when he was first introduced to the game of poker in 2007 and he obviously had lots to learn at that time. The thing that separated him from other new local players was that he understood that poker was a game of skill and not just luck. Mr. Song has worked hard to improve his game and his results are showing that the hard work is literally paying off."
Renaud, who was the runner up for Macau Millions 2011, said “I will come back for Macau Poker Cup as I’m now top 5 on the APOY and I want to make it to the top.”
The Frenchman will be joined by a strong list of competitors including Team PokerStars Pros Celina Lin, Raymond Wu, and defending APOY winner Bryan Huang.
Former no. 1, and defending Red Dragon champion, Mark Benasa has already confirmed his attendance and warned his APOY competitors, "I will play all 8 events!"