After 9 side events including the Baby Dragon in the on-going 24th edition of Macau Poker Cup at PokerStars LIVE, City of Dreams, Macau, it was time for the Red Dragon Main Event on Sunday. 205 players ponied up HK$12,000 to join the first flight of the Main Event and at the end of day’s play only 49 could survive. China’s Chao Yang rose to the top of the survivors with 168,700 chips followed by Koen Breed in second spot with 152,300 and another Chinese player Shuang Hu in 3rd position with 137,300.
India’s Aditya Agarwal joined the Flight 1A of MPC24 Red Dragon Main Event late but couldn’t survive hitting the rails in half an hour of play. Another Indian player Kartik Ved entered the tournament on Day 1A and unfortunately got eliminated when an opponent sucked out on him. Kartik’s didn’t held up against the opponent who hit runner-runner straight with hole cards and the board running A Q 7, 6, 10.
Among the notable survivors is Celina Lin (50,000), Japan’s second-ever WSOP bracelet winner Takahiro Nakai (51,400) and reigning Asia Player of the Year Alan King Lun Lau (49,700). MPC22 champion Yuguang Li and APOY runner-up KC Wong and 2014 APOY Pete Chen were among the notables who got eliminated on Day 1A.
Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
Chao Yang (China) – 168,700
Koen Breed (Netherlands) – 152,300
Shaung Hu (China) – 137,300
Yiu Wah Kwok (Hong Kong) – 136,100
Gang Wang (China) – 119,600
Yan Li (China) – 91,200
Takashi Ogura (Japan) – 88,900
Weichun Jiang (China) – 86,100
Soon Ann Gan (Malaysia) – 85,900
Yuexin Wang (China) – 79,200
With a strong Indian contingent reaching Macau for the MPC24, the Indian dream of Red Dragon title has good odds to be realized this season. Adda52 Pros Kunal Patni & Madan Kumar, Team Thrill pros Dhaval Mudgal, Nikita Luther & Shravan Chhabria, Rajeev Raut and a few others will strengthen the Team India with Kartik Ved, Pranay Kapoor, Raghav Bansal and Aditya Agarwal already in the MPC battle.
There are 2 more flight days remaining – Day 1B on Feb 29 and Day 1C on Mar 1 which brings good opportunity fro Indian players to set off their MPC campaign and slay the dragon.
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