Chinese high-roller regular Quan Zhou emerged victorious at the HK$206,000 Single-Day High Roller at the PokerStars Championship in Macau. The 32-year old Chinese player prevailed over nemesis Nick Petrangelo in a 14-hour heads-up battle for the first-place prize of HK$3,645,000. In addition to the impressive payout, the local player went home with the PokerStars Championship trophy.
The single-day tournament took place at the PokerStars Live poker room at the City of Dreams Resort & Casino, located on the Cotai Strip in Macau. The field attracted as many as 62 players, who contributed to the accumulation of a huge prize pool of HK$12, 152,000.
The single-day event attracted some of the biggest names in the poker world, including notable players the likes of Fedor Holz, Daniel Neilson, Mustapha Kanit, and Isaac Haxton. Steve O’Dwyer, who claimed the HK$400,000 Super High Roller champion title the previous night, also partook in the single-day event only to join the rail shortly after.
The field dwindled down to 16 hopefuls, following the elimination of players Vladimir Troyanovskiy and Zhao Hongjun before the dinner break. After the elimination of Oliver Price, Daniel Dvoress, and Artem Metalidi, it was all down to nine survivors who joined the event’s final table.
It was German poker pro Fabian Quoss, who became the final table’s bubble boy. Mikita Badziakouski from Belarus came in eighth, followed by the short-stacked Shuo Li, who settled for the seventh place and 620,000 in chips. American poker pro David Peters shoved 15 big blinds with a queen-jack against opponent Jack Salters’ pocket eights. As the ten-high board did nothing to improve Peters’ hand, he had to settle for the sixth place and 778,000 in chips.
Chinese player Zuo Wang came in fifth, followed by Davidi Kitai, who held king-seven against Nick Petrangelo’s ace-ten. The board did nothing for either players leading to Kitai’s elimination in fourth place, with a total of 1,290,000 in chips. Jack Salter held ten-seven suited and shoved the small blind for 15 big blinds. Quan Zhou called from the big blind and succeeded in completing a straight with his pocket nines as the river showed a ten. This lead to the elimination of Jack Salter in third place, with 1,700,000 in chips.
At this point, it was all down to heads-up opponents Zhou and Nick Petrangelo. The event’s champion was crowned after a single hand only. Zhou called his opponent’s shove with ace-seven and Petrangelo showed ace-jack. The Chinese flipped over an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw. As the river showed a jack, Zhou prevailed over Petrangelo with back-to-back straights to claim the champion title, the trophy, and a payback of HK$3,645,000. Petrangelo settled for the runner-up position and went home with 2,639,000 in chips.
This is a first champion title for Quan Zhou, who frequented the final tables at the former Asia Pacific Poker Tour and emerged victorious in two smaller tournaments. Back in 2014, Zhou claimed the runner-up position at the HK$100,000 High Roller in Macau and currently occupies the fifth place on the Chinese all-time money list.
- Author
Harry Evans
