Day 1c of the MPC20 Red Dragon Main Event was all about the numbers.
You see, for the last few days the team at PokerStars LIVE Macau and us here in the media have been hoping the MPC20 would be able to set a new record field size. The current record was set last January when 891 players hit the felt.
So, with 285 entrants on Day 1a, and 294 on Day 1b, we would need 313 players on Day 1c. Well, that number was easily reached around half an hour before the start of play!
So there you have it, a new record was set!
The PokerStars LIVE Macau team celebrated for only a few moments before turning their attention to the elusive number of 1,000 entrants. There would need to be a huge influx of players to make that number, so it was certainly no easy task.
Well, there was a huge influx of players, but five too few as 416 total players on Day 1c would see the total field size weigh in at 995 players. That’s still nothing to be unhappy about and truly shows how big this market is and how much work the PokerStars team here in Macau has done to help poker grow.
Before we tell you about the Day 1c chip leader and all the other exciting final Day 1 flight happenings, it’s probably best to chat about the all-important prize pool. The 995 players created a total prize pool of HK$9,651,500. The top 117 players will take home at least HK$19,100 of that amount, while HK$2.01 million is reserved for the eventual champion.
That’s not too much less than US$300,000 for our western readers. Below is what the final table players will be receiving, while you can also click here for full prize pool and payout information.
1st – HK$2,010,000
2nd – HK$1,337,000
3rd – HK$802,000
4th – HK$597,000
5th – HK$430,000
6th – HK$334,000
7th – HK$263,000
8th – HK$191,000
9th – HK$143,000
With the money out of the way, we can now tell you that it was Lante Zhang who finished as the Day 1c chip leader. Zhang steadily accumulated chips throughout the afternoon and capped off a big day when he sent an opponent home during one of the last three hands of the night.
Zhang held J♣ Jâ™ against the at-risk player’s K♥ 7♣ . Zhang had a bit of a sweat for a heart on the turn of a 5♥ A♥ 9♦ J♥ 10â™ board, but ended up getting there and ultimately finished with a stack of 188,700.
Zhang will be joined by 95 other Day 1c survivors, including Michael Mariakis, Alvan Zheng, Paul Richardson and Lacey Jones. Richardson, who qualified for this event through a special PokerPro table promotion in Toronto, Canada, was apparently down to just three big blinds and managed to run it up to 114,900 during the last level of the night. Jones’ day was a little different as she steadily accumulated chips, eventually finishing on a healthy 60,500.
While they would rather forget, we have to mention a few of the players who weren’t able to survive Day 1c. This includes players such as Bobo Chen, Raiden Kan, Reigning ANZ Player of the Year Ioiri Yogo, Winfred Yu and former Red Dragon champions Yoshitaka Okawa and Nicky Jin.
The 96 total players who did survive Day 1c, added with the survivors from the other Day 1 flights, means that 223 total players will be at the felt for Day 2 action. Day 1c’s Zhang will be second in chips overall, while Lei Gao is the overall chip leader with 245,100.
Click here for full Day 2 Seating and Table draw
We will back at from 3:00pm on Sunday providing live updates for Day 2 of the MPC2- Red Dragon Main Event. The player’s party is being held tonight at the infamous D2 night club, so hopefully all the players make it back to PokerStars LIVE Macau in one piece.
Return Sunday to find out!
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