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Congratulations to our new ACOP Main Event champion Jimmy Zhou!
It's been an action-packed week here at PokerStars LIVE Macau and after five days of play another Main Event is in the books. The Chinese American overcame New Zealand's Thomas Ward in a back and forth heads up match to emerge as champion and take home HK$5,885,000 (~$792,000).
Heads up began almost dead even with Zhou slightly ahead on 4,025,000 to Ward's 3,775,000 in chips. Ward came out swinging and before long reclaimed the chip leader back from the eventual champion, but chips ebbed and flowed as the lead changed hands several times.
An hour into the match the two went on a 50-minute dinner break and it was when they returned that Zhou started to really apply the pressure. He chipped away at Ward but the New Zealander was proving tough to finish off.
They got back to almost even when the final hand presented itself around three-and-a-half hours after heads up play had begun. Ward limped the button before Zhou jammed all in and Ward snap-called it off.
Zhou: [5s][5d]
Ward: [Ah][Jc]
It was a coinflip and the [tc][8h][6h][kc][7h] rolled out to see Zhou river a straight and lock up the victory.
Before the heads up clash though there were five other players who hit the rail. The first was Xixiang Luo when he pushed all in with ten-nine suited and ran into Ward's pocket aces. Luo would flop a pair and turn a straight draw but ultimately brick off to lose the remainder of his chips and finish in seventh spot.
Next to go was Qi Luo who lost his stack to a bad beat. Holding [ad][kc] Luo got the money in preflop and looked good to scoop a big pot against the [ac][qd] of eventual champion Zhou. He faded danger through the turn but the river left him wondering 'what if?' when the board ran out [3d][2h][2d][8h][qh].
And following Luo out the door was Connor Drinan in fifth place. He took a few hits early and found himself down to 10 big blinds. He would move them all in with jack-ten but failed to improve when Zhou called it off with ace-nine. Drinan collects HK$1,519,000 (~$196,000) for his showing here this week.
It was Hsien Yuan Yang who would be the next to come up short. Despite flopping top set with [kc][kh] on a [ks][7c][6h] flop, Ward would get the money in and turn a straight holding [5c][4h] to send Yang packing. For his fifth place finish Yang scores HK$1,928,000 (~$249,000).
The following elimination of Nan Tu would mark the beginning of heads up play. Tu had top two-pair when all the money went in but again Ward would find a straight to send his opponent to the rail. Tu received HK$2,411,000 (~$311,000) for his third place finish.
And that brought us to the heads up match where Zhou would prove too good for Ward. In the post-match interview Zhou went on to thank his supportive rail that included Connor Drinan, Jason Mo, Pratyush Buddiga and Kitty Kuo.
"I want to thank my friends for their support. They were cheering me all day!" Zhou said.
ACOP Main Event Final Table Payouts
1st: Jimmy Zhou (China) - HK$5,885,000
2nd: Thomas Ward (New Zealand) - HK$3,736,000
3rd: Nan Tu (China) - HK$2,411,000
4th: Hsien Yuan Yang (Taiwan) - HK$1,928,000
5th: Connor Drinan (Mexico) - HK$1,519,000
6th: Qi Luo (China) - HK$1,205,000
7th: Xixiang Luo (China) - HK$964,000
That's all we have for you tonight here in Macau. We hope you can join us tomorrow for our coverage of the HK$500,000 Super High Roller!
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Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Asia Pacific Poker Tour]
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