MPC20: Buyanjargal Bold slays the Red Dragon, Akash Malik is 5th

Buyanjargal Bold wins the Red DRagon Trophy of MPC20
Buyanjargal Bold wins the Red DRagon Trophy of MPC20. Image credit: PokerStars Blog

The Final Table of the Red Dragon event had all the drama that goes about making a poker tournament a huge success. Dreams broken, records set and memories sealed! This FT had someone or the other sweating at one point or another. From Terry Fan aspiring to slay the dragon a second time to Akash Malik fighting to become the first Indian to ship it home to Percy Yung trying to headline a male dominating table. In the end, one man who played his way to the top quietly prevailed. Buyanjargal Bold overcame a field of 995 poker players to win the 20th anniversary edition of the Macau Poker Cups’ showcase event of Red Dragon and the big prize of more than HK $ 2 Million.

He beat Percy Yung who was looking to become only the third female poker player after Celina Lin and Kitty Kuo to slay the dragon. The final hand of the tournament saw the short-stacked Percy Yung move all in from the button. Buyanjargal Bold made the call and with that Yung was at risk. 

Yung:hkc9
Bold: dkd9

The board came as s1s6c4s4s2 to get the victory mark for Bold. Earlier,a three way deal was struck between Yung, Teng and Buyanjargal Bold which enabled Yung to take home HK$1,159,000 – the largest tournament result of her career.

Another man who headlined the day’s action and also dominated through the Red Dragon Event was Victor Teng who unfortunately went out in 3rd place. Teng was chip leader on Day 1c and also on Day 3; his lead was sustained through the final table except during the unfortunate times when he exit. The 22 year old Australian was the youngest player on the FT but was never short of experience and skill. 

The final table also featured Terry Fan who was the only player to have slayed the dragon before. His previous win at the Red Dragon had come in April 2013 where he beat a field of 891 players. But this record beating playing field of 995 created the largest ever MPC20. The guarantee of HK $8 Million was crossed but Fan fell short exiting in 8th place winning HK $191,000.

The man India was watching was Akash Malik who started the FT as 3rd in chip lead and was bettering his previous best of 8th place finish. He consolidated chips all day and was cheered on by a huge Indian rail. In the end, he exit in 5th place when his flopped set fell short off the turned flush of Teng. Teng opened from the button and Malik called from big blind. On the h2h5s1 flop, Malik checked and Teng put out a continuation bet of 150,000. Malik then check-raised to 325,000 and Teng called. The turn was hj and Malik raised with 550,000 and Teng snap called. The river was c6, Malik’s ‘all in’ was promptly called by Teng who turned over his h8 h4flush. Malik showed his c5s5 which fell short after the turn. He exit with HK $430,000 and memories of an excellent performance.

The final payouts of the Red Dragon Event of MPC 20 are:

1 Buyanjargal Bold-$2,010,000 
2 Percy Yung  $1,159,000 
3 – Victor Teng – HK$1,498,000
4 – Richard Hu – $597,000 
5 – Akash Malik – $430,000 
6 – Fei Xie – $334,000 
7 – Xiao Lin – $263,000 
8 – Terry Fan – $191,000 
9 – Jianhong Liu – $143,000

10 – Pan Jim Sue – $119400

This wraps up a memorable MPC20 where many records were set and history was made. Indians had a good run as well. We will be highlighting all the Indian poker players achievements at MPC20 in a separate article soon.