For most of the players at the PokerStars Macau tournament room, Thursday was all about Day 1A of the Red Dragon — the Macau Poker Cup (MPC) main event.
However, for 20 others it represented the Day 2 Final of the $5,000 KO Bountyside event.
The eventual victor would be Singaporean Gerald Foo who bested a field of 188 players and went on to win HKD $156,400 along with another HKD $8,000 for his 8 knock outs.
In total, 22 players made the money in the Official Asia Player of the Year Event for a share of the HKD $826,260 prize money (including bounties).
The 20 competitors on Thursday afternoon were quickly whittled down to just 10 in little over an hour.
Russian Georgiy Belyanin and Iranian Mansour Khorramshahi were both making their second final table appearance this week at the MPC but fell in 6th and 8th place respectively.
Heads up would pit Jacky Wang from China — not the Singaporean of the same name — against Foo.
With roughly half as many chips as Foo, Wang moved all-in with K♣ 6♣ and was quickly called by his opponent who held a dominating K♦ 8♦ .
The flop of 6♠9♠2♦ gave the Chinese player a pair of sixes and looked poised to double-up.
However, the turn and river ran 7♥ 10♦ to give the 37-year old Foo the straight for his first ever poker title.
Event 5: $5,000 KO Bounty – Final Table Results
1. Gerald Foo (Singapore) — $156,400
2. Jacky Wang (China) — $105,300
3. Bin Li (China) — $63,800
4. Ji Xue Yin (China) — $51,000
5. Norberto Korn (Argentina) — $41,500
6. Georgiy Belyanin (Russia) — $35,100
7. Jean Philippe Burck (France) — $28,700
8. Mansour Khorramshahi (Iran) — $22,300
9. Guanfu Ye (China) — $15800
10. Jinghua Liang (China) — $12,760
