A record-setting tournament in Beijing and a surprisingly busy event in Tasmania highlighted another week of tournament poker.
We’ll take a close look at both events below as well as the Italian Poker Tour’s most recent stop in Saint Vincent.
1) Beijing Millions Becomes Biggest Tournament Outside USA
The inaugural edition of the Beijing Millions, which ran from July 18-27, smashed all poker records in the city and may be a sign of things to come in China.
The main event attracted a massive field of 2,732 players who paid the €362 buy-in and produced the biggest field ever in a live poker tournament outside the USA.
Until last week the record was held by the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour where 2,570 players came to Coventry last year and participated in the GUKPT main event.
The tournament in Beijing shows the big potential for poker in the Asian market. Not surprisingly, the president of the APPT, Danny McDonagh, was very satisfied with the first stop of the APPT in China:
"It's been a historical week. Not just the record itself but how it may change the future landscape for poker in China."
Winner Chen Qin took home more than €80,000 for the first place after he chopped with three other players.
Here are the final table results for the Beijing Millions:
- 1. Chen Qin - $109,411
- 2. Yang Zhang - $113,463
- 3. Shen Tong - $105,359
- 4. Bai Feng - $95,228
- 5. Liu Jing - $50,653
- 6. Hao Chen - $40,522
- 7. Liu Qiang - $33,228
- 8. Xu Hui - $26,364
2) Massimo Pellegrino Prevails at IPT Saint Vincent
In the beautiful Valle D’Aosta region near the French border Massimo Pellegrino outlasted all opponents to win the last stop on the Italian Poker Tour.
A total of 363 players came to Saint Vincent, a small city with a population of less than 5,000 people and a famous casino.
Most players were Italians so it wasn’t a surprise that the local players finished in the first seven places. The only non-Italian at the final table was Norwegian Thomas Valard who finished in eighth place.
After the exit of Italian wonder-kid Federico Piroddi, who recently won the IPT Sanremo for a €125,000 score, the last three players decided to make a deal.
While Gianni Paolo Bussolino and Dario Nittolo took home €48,000 each for second and third place, Massimo Pellegrino was the official winner of the IPT Saint Vincent with a prize money of €65,000. In total the prize pool was just over €350,000.
Final result of the IPT Saint Vincent (*3-way deal):
- 1. Massimo Pellegrino - €65,000*
- 2. Gianni Bussolino - €48,000*
- 3. Dario Nittolo - €48,000*
- 4. Federico Piroddi - €24,000
- 5. Francesco Cordua - €19,000
- 6. Massimiliano Forti - €15,000
- 7. Marcello Re - €10,660
- 8. Thomas Valard - €8,300
3) Full House at Tasmanian Poker Championship
Finally way down in the isolated city of Hobart, Tasmania, the Tasmanian Poker Championship managed to draw 100 players.
Tasmania is an island located 240 kilometers to the south of Australia. The biggest town of the island is Hobart where about half of the 500,000 Tasmanians lives.
Since 2013 the Tasmanian Poker Championship takes place in the Wrest Point Casino of Hobart, and just like last year, the tournament was completely sold out.
On the two starting days 100 players with 28 re-entries produced a prize pool of A$32,000 or about €22,000.
Not much you think? Only 0.0002% of the population, you say? Well, if you had the same in the US, it would equal a starting field of 63,400 players!
Last year’s winner Gavin Hanlon delivered a great performance and made it to the final table again, with the second-biggest chip stack.
Hanlon actually made it all the way to heads-up but Dallas Joiner finally ended his dreams of a back-to-back victory.
In the last hand of the tournament Joiner produced the nut flush with A♣ K♣ and took home the winner prize of A$9,600.
Here are the complete final-table results for the Tasmanian Poker Championship:
- 1. Dallas Joiner - $9,600
- 2. Gavin Hanlon - $6,500
- 3. Sam Perkins - $4,800
- 4. Kyle Dolbel - $2,560
- 5. Michael Cannon - $2,240
- 6. David Bowen - $1,920
- 7. Patricia Gehrig - $1,600
- 8. David Phillips - $1,280
