Master Poker Series Main Event Final 9 and Day 2 recap

The inaugural Master Poker Series was on its third day at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association (CTP) poker room. This new series was created by the Global Poker Index China (GPIC) Masterboard – a localized version of the more well-known GPI leaderboard. For players that cash in any of the events, they also receive points to boost their standing in the GPIC Masterboard under the CTP listing.

The past two days attracted 108 entrants for the Main Event. Most of them locals. With the buy-in set at NTD 15,000 (US$485), the prize pool came to a decent NTD 1,414,260 (US$45,900). Returning for Day 2 were 32 players, all of them looking to reach the money of 15 places and secure a final 9 seat. After seven hours at the felt, the finalists were determined.

Final 9 chip counts

• Seat 1: Huang Chang Hau – 440,000 (chip leader)
• Seat 2: Vincent Li – 169,000
• Seat 3: Cheli Lin – 164,000
• Seat 4: Po Hao Liao – 298,000
• Seat 5: Chen Wei Hsun – 111,000
• Seat 6: Tzu Wei Wang – 77,000
• Seat 7: Jun Zhou – 258,000
• Seat 8: Luke Lee – 384,000
• Seat 9: Hsiao Tsui Han – 275,000

Recapping Day 2 starting at two spots to the money, the day’s entering chip leader Mark Gruendemann (Day 1B leader) found himself among the shortest at his table. He opted to gamble with and caught a break against when the board produced a few spades for the nut flush.

This led to the bubble round. Several short stacks avoided the rail. Vincent Li was first to double up followed by a triple up at the other table by the lone lady Hsiao Tsui Han. Luke Lee was next; his dominated Tzu Wei Wang’s throughout. In turn, this sent Tzu’s stack plummeting to 4 bbs. Impressively, Tzu bounced back to a healthy stack on a triple up with set and a double up with over .

On the flip side, Xiao Yin He was not as fortunate. Xiao saw his stack dwindle. He risked it all holding and fell to Yu En Kuo with on a board that ran . Xiao bubbled and with no protection, he left empty-handed.

Day 2 ended with Huang Chang Hau eliminating Gruendemann (10th) to form the Final 9 players. The final hand was over . This awarded Huang a nice hefty pile to drive his stack to 440,000. He will enter the final day as chip leader.

The final 9 players return on Monday, December 24 at 6pm (local time) for the race to the first-ever MPS Main Event title and the NTD 364,560 first prize. Blinds open at 3000-6000 ante 6000. Average stack is 240,000 with 2,160,000 total chips in play.

Final 9 payouts

• 1st NTD 364,560
• 2nd NTD 250,000
• 3rd NTD 164,000
• 4th NTD 133,000
• 5th NTD 106,800
• 6th NTD 83,500
• 7th NTD 65,800
• 8th NTD 50,200
• 9th NTD 36,800

Payouts

• 10th Mark Gruendemann – NTD 29,700
• 11th Ding Siang Lin – NTD 29,700
• 12th Chien Jen-Yen – NTD 26,100
• 13th Chen Yen Po – NTD 26,100
• 14th UNKNOWN – NTD 24,000
• 15th Chun Ho Yam (Edward) – NTD 24,000

Santa plays HO-HO-HO-ld’em

To bring in the holiday spirit to the tables, a Special Event was held with Santa making an appearance. Actually, there were three Santas livening up the felt each one with bounties on their heads.

Kevin Tse, Yu En Kuo, and another player all knocked out Santa Claus at their respective tables and were awarded a special prize of one free ticket to the Taiwan Millions Tournament – Warm Up event.

Somuchpoker is onsite and will continue to bring you recaps on the MPS Main Event and results on the other events.