Friday, 29th March 2024 07:03
Home / Uncategorized / 2014 ACOP Main Event Day 3: Feel the energy

Saying “you can really feel the energy in the room” can seem like a cliché to readers who can’t actually experience what you are talking about. It’s the kind of sentence that has perhaps been used too flippantly and has lost some of its meaning.

I’ve been guilty of using that sentence to describe a poker tournament in a situation where you couldn’t actually feel any energy at all. I guess the idea was to hype up an event and promote it as best as possible.

It’s important to explain this so when I say that you can really feel the energy in the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room, you understand I’m telling the truth.

To be honest, more often than anywhere else, it is the Macau poker tournaments that have this energy I’m eluding to. If I had to pin it down to something I would say it’s because the local players are still so enthusiastic about what is a relatively new game to them.

There is even more energy in the room than usual too. Not just because the Main Event is getting very close to the money bubble, or because there are two turbo side events taking place.

Actually, in this instance, I’m talking about literal energy in the form of new official PokerStars LIVE Macau sponsor Red Bull.

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The Red Bull fridges at PokerStars LIVE Macau can’t be filled fast enough

The drink has been a welcomed edition to the poker room. Not only because it allows players to pep up and stay focused at the table, but also because it’s free and poker players, like lots of people, love free things.

Amazingly (and maybe alarmingly depending on your stance on energy drinks) there were more than 1,000 red bull cans consumed in the first two days of the ACOP schedule. Since then, thousands more have been consumed. Players will take any help they can get, so if sipping on a drink might keep you just that little bit sharper when you need to make those big decision, then so be it.

There are quite a few Red Bull’s being consumed today and not just because of the weary eyes of those who attended the ACOP player’s party last night. More because there is HK$27,092,100 on the line in the Main Event and the money bubble is looming as Day 3 nears the dinner break.

One player who we haven’t noticed with a red bull, but has clearly been energised at the tables today is Terrence Chan. The prominent Canadian is currently the chip leader a few spots off the money. He’s joined at the top of the counts by a couple of other big names in start-of-day chip leader Sorel Mizzi and Joseph Cheong.

A developing story is that last year’s ACOP Main Event champion Sunny Jung is still alive and making a deep run. Jung outlasted a 203-player field to win HK$4,352,000 in 2013 and has now already outlasted more players than that here in 2014.

Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin is also still alive nearing the money, though is one of the short stacks. Lin has won or final tabled just about every event at PokerStars LIVE Macau, except the ACOP Main Event. Lin will be hoping to change that and the first step in that process will be manoeuvring her short stack into the money.

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Celina Lin has plenty of energy to grind the short stack

Once the dinner break is over on Day 3, there will be two more 90-minute levels before the surviving players pack up and return for the penultimate day tomorrow. Be sure to follow the action and find out who makes the money in the live reports section at the top of the 2014 ACOP page.

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