Jiajun Liu Wins 2014 PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event (HK$2,776,000)!
The 2014 PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event completed on Sunday after a long five days of action. Jiajun Liu topped the field and took home the title for a payday worth an impressive HK$2,776,000.
Nine players returned for the final table with Thomas Mcgarrity in the front seat. He wouldn’t be able to go all the way, though, and eventually busted in fourth place. Let's see how it all happened, shall we?
The first player to be eliminated at the final table was Sailesh Verma. Not even an orbit into play, Verma moved all in after Mcgarrity had opened the pot. Mcgarrity called, and Verma was in great shape holding pocket jacks against Mcgarrity's 
. Unfortunately for Verma, the flop brought an ace and he was the first man out.
Towards the end of the first level, Yat Wai Cheng and Jean-Marie Peyron would both be eliminated. Cheng moved all in with the 
, but he couldn’t improve against Cyril Andre’s 
. Peyron would move all in with the 
against Billy "The Croc" Argyros’ pocket tens, but he'd have no luck improving either.
From there, everyone had to wait an hour before Carlos Kuo Chang moved all in with pocket nines and busted to Andre’s pocket queens. The board of 
saw Chang's day end in sixth place.
Shortly after, Yen Han Chen hit the rail when he moved all in from the small blind with the 
and ran into Andre’s 
in the big blind. Chen flopped a six, but couldn’t improve catch anything else with the remaining two cards.
Next to fall was the start-of-day chip leader. Mcgarrity had led for most of the part, until his eventual demise in fourth place. Mcgarrity thought he had a winner when he opened to 120,000 from under the gun holding the 
. Argyros then raised it up to 400,000, triggering Mcgarrity to move all in over the top. Argyros snap-called and tabled his . It was all over from there.
Almost two and a half hours of three-handed play ended with the most experienced player at the final table hitting the rail in third. Argyros started the day as the shortest stack, and not many people gave him a chance. He proved all the doubters wrong, as he picked all the right spots to double and even held the chip lead with four players remaining. In the end, though, a few hands went against the long-time Australian pro. His final hand saw him try his luck with a flush draw against pocket aces after the flop. The turn and river brought no help, and "The Croc" was on his way.
It was then time for heads-up play, and the very first hand could’ve crowned Liu the champion. Andre opened to 200,000 before Liu made it 400,000 to go. The bet was called and both players watched the flop come 
. Another bet of 400,000 followed from Liu ,which was called by Andre, and the fell on the turn. Both players opted to check and the 
completed the board. Liu bet out 500,000 only to have Andre raise it up to 1,500,000 million. Liu didn’t waste any time, moving all in and that threw Andre off. A moment passed before Andre open folded the 
for a full house, before Liu showed him the 
to slightly ease his mind.
The seesaw battle went on for hours, with the chip lead changing hands throughout play. Andre almost had the chance to end it all when he called with the 
after Liu shoved with the 
. Andre flopped two pair and had one hand on the trophy, but what happened next was unbelievable — Liu caught running three's to give him trips and snatched the victory away from Andre.
The final hand of the night pretty much summed up how Liu’s tournament went. He called off Andre’s shove with pocket sevens and was up against the 
. The flop brought Andre two queens to race to the lead, only to have it snatched away again when a seven fell on the turn. With a meaningless nine completing the board, Liu was crowned champion.
A fantastic effort from the Chinese player who made it back-to-back titles for his country after Alexandre Chieng won this event last year. Congratulations to Liu, whose aggression and patience mixed in with a little luck took him all the way. A worthy winner.
| Place | Winner | Prize (HKD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jiajun Liu | 2,776,000 |
| 2 | Cyril Andre | 1,693,000 |
| 3 | Billy "The Croc" Argyros | 940,000 |
| 4 | Thomas Mcgarrity | 737,000 |
| 5 | Yen Han Chen | 575,000 |
| 6 | Carlos Kuo Chang | 464,000 |
| 7 | Jean-Marie Peyron | 355,000 |
| 8 | Yat Wai Cheng | 273,000 |
| 9 | Sailesh Verma | 198,140 |
That’s it for us here at the City of Dreams. Make sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as we bring you all the live coverage from the next stop on the APPT, which will be from Manilla in the Philippines.