Friday, 29th March 2024 07:02
Home / Uncategorized / MPC22 High Roller: Yuguang Li makes it two titles in two days

Sometimes it’s a difficult task for a poker blogger to communicate the emotions and meaning behind a tournament victory. Honestly, there are simply tournaments where the conclusion isn’t all that riveting and even the victor isn’t all that excited.

Then there are those times when a result is so astonishing and the emotions so raw that the difficulty level switches to the other side of the spectrum and it becomes hard to do the moment justice.

Luckily, Yuguang Li’s victory of the MPC22 High Roller less than 24 hours after he won the Red Dragon Main Event can be summed up thusly:

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Champion Yuguang Li celebrates his victory

Thank goodness for photographers.

This is also one of those times when the results speaks for themselves:

On Friday, Li overcame a field of 987 total players to win HK$1,848,000 (~US$240,000) in the Red Dragon Main Event.

On Saturday, Li defeated a tough field of 67 runners to win the MPC22 High Roller for HK$1,647,000 (~US$212,000).

That’s two days of poker to be envious of and two days that will certainly go down in history as one of the Asia-Pacific’s all-time great poker achievements.

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Two trophies in two days for Yuguang Li

The final day of the MPC22 HK$80,000 High Roller began with 34 players hoping to make it to where Yugiang Li stands right now. However, it was only the top seven who would make the money and that meant 27 players would have to miss out.

In the end, it took just over five hours for the bubble to burst and it was New Zealand’s Thomas Ward who found the rail in an unfortunate eighth place. Ward got his chips in with Aâ™  Q♥ and couldn’t improve against the eventual champion’s 10♣ 10♦ .

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Bubble boy, Thomas Ward

Once the bubble burst, the seven players had locked up just under HK$300,000 and it was at this point that it was off to a dinner break.

When the cards were back in the air, it would take just half an hour to usher in four-handed play as Devan Tang (7th – HK$299,160), Ziyang Zhao (6th – HK$349,000) and Shashank Rathi (5th – HK$399,000) all hit the rail in quick succession.

All three of the above players were short stacked when they decided to get their chips in preflop, with Tang losing out with K♦ 9â™  against Q♣ Q♦ , Zhao’s A♥ Kâ™  falling to Rathi’s 7♣ 3♥ and Rathi’s Aâ™  K♥ ultimately hitting the muck against Huihan Wu’s 9â™  9♣ .

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Devan Tang – 7th place

Play slowed a little during four-handed play but it didn’t take too long for the action to kick back into gear as Huihan Wu was eliminated in 4th place for a HK$549,000 score.
Wu lost most of his chips to Yuguang Li when he moved all in on a 9♥ 10♦ 8♦ flop with 7♥ 6♣ for the straight and was outdrawn by Li’s J♣ 10♣ . From there Wu was down to just three antes and never recovered

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Huihan Wu – 4th place

Next out the door was Russia’s Andrey Kotelnikov in 3rd place for HK$699,000.
Kotelnikov’s final hand saw him all in preflop with 10â™  10♦ against Chidwick’s Aâ™  Q♥ . The board ran out with a queen on the turn and so it was on the rail for Kotelnikov and time for the heads-up battle.

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Andrey Kotelnikov – 3rd place

Chidwick had been dominating four-handed play and following the elimination of Kotelnikov he would begin heads-up with a more than two to one chip lead over Yuguang Li.

It really was looking like Chidwick was going to win, especially when he held 3♥ 3♦ and had a short-stacked Li all in with 10♠ 9♠ . However, Li found the cards that he needed to double up and it was back to business.

Chidwick chipped away again until he held A♦ 10♠ and had Li at risk with K♥ J♦ . Li was able to find the goods again, however, and now had the edge over Chidwick until the final hand of the tournament played out.

With blinds at 60,000/120,000, Yi opened the button to 250,000. Chidwick then shoved for around 25 big blinds and Yi made the call to put Chidwick at risk. It was a great spot for Chidwick as he held Kâ™  K♥ against Li’s Q♦ 3♦ . However, the A♦ 8â™  7♦ 2♦ 10â™  board gave Li a flush and it was all over

Sometimes when it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be.

For that effort, Li claimed HK$1,647,000 which added with his result from Friday’s Red Dragon Main Event brings his two-day total to a massive HK$3,495,000 (~US$450,000).

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Take a bow, Yuguang Li

There haven’t been many greater two-day stretches in poker and certainly not here at PokerStars LIVE Macau. There is no doubt this will go down in history as one of Asia’s most memorable poker moments.

MPC22 High Roller – Results (HKD)
1st: Yuguang Li – $1,647,000
2nd: Stephen Chidwick – $1,048,000
3rd: Andrey Kotelnikov – $699,000
4th: Huihan Wu – $549,000
5th: Shashank Rathi – $399,000
6th: Ziyang Zhao – $349,000
7th: Devan Tang – $299,160

Our congratulations go out to Yugaung Li on his incomparable results over the last two days.

We would also like to take this opportunity to once again thank the team at PokerStars LIVE Macau for hosting such a great event. The next time the PokerStarsBlog will be here is for APPT Macau which takes place May 20 -31. The next tournament to take place in Macau, however, is the ACOP Platinum Series which runs April 21 – 26. Check out all the details by clicking here.

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