Nicky Jin 
Reigning Red Dragon Main Event champion Nicky Jin has just had the perfect start to his title defence campaign at the Macau Poker Cup (MPC) after winning Event 4 at the Grand Waldo Entertainment Complex last night. China’s Jin dominated the 152-player field in the HKD $3,000 buy-in NLH event and took home HKD $97,500 in first place prize money.
Jin’s background as a professional online player has proved to transition well to the live arena. His victory yesterday seemed to come relatively easily for him after captaining much of the short-handed play on the final table. In the last hand against Germany’s Jan Zeuschner, the two players went to a flop of 9♠ J♠ 3♥ and got all their money in. Zeuschner’s J♥ 5♥ top pair was in a world of pain against the J♣ 3♣ two-pair of his opponent and the turn K♠ and river 4♦ saw Jin stay in front till the end.
The win sailed Jin’s current season earnings up over the HKD $1.2 million mark and rocketed him to 960-point lead in the Asia Player of the Year Race (APOY). The online pro had been tied in the top spot with India’s Abhishek Goindi, who came runner-up in the last Red Dragon Main Event, but Jin is now confident he can maintain his lead.
“I think I pretty much locked up the APOY after this win,” said Jin, who was also among the chip leaders in yesterday’s Event 5: HKD $5,000 KO Bounty tournament. “I’m playing tomorrow in Day 1A. I hope to defend my Red Dragon title and even think I can final table this (Event 5) event.”
Event 4: $3,000 NLH Final Table Payouts
1. Nicky Jin (China) – $97,500
2. Jan Zeuschner (Germany) – $65,700
3. Xing Jin (China) – $41,800
4. Longchu Lu (China) – $33,800
5. Jia Juen Tse (Hong Kong) – $26,900
6. Akira Ohyama (Japan) – $21,900
7. Eng Hwee Soh (Singapore) – $17,900
8. Hossein Shabannezhad (Malaysia) – $13,900
9. Jeonyeob Song (Korea) – $11,900
10. Roy Wan (Hong Kong) – $9,788
The Red Dragon Main Event Day 1A starts tonight at 8.10pm local time.
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