The weather in Hong Kong reads HOT and that's exactly how it's been so far at the
Macau Poker Cup Championship 2012 (MPCC).
One day after HK resident David Steicke captured the opening $8,800 NLH event, Hazel Chui -- who's also from HK -- won Event 2: $1,500 Deepstack. Chui was awarded HKD $57,428 after toppling the 179 player field in the 2-day event.
Sunday night's Day 1 ended once the field was whittled down to 22 runners who made it into the money for a piece of the HKD $234,400 prize pool.
Amongst those returning to the PokerStars Macau tournament room at the Grand Waldo Entertainment Complex were 2011 Asia Player of the Year Shaq Lin, Jennette "Jay" Tan, and Sparrow Cheung who were making Day 2 appearances in back-to-back tournaments.
Tan and Cheung weren't able to maintain their Day 1 form as they fell in 12th and 22nd place respectively.
Lin, however, earned his first APOY points this season by reaching the final table which now ties him with Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin on the All-time list for FTs at 16 each.
Shaq looked poised to win the side event when only 3 players remained. The Taiwanese poker pro had more chips than countryman Fu Bang Huang and Chui combined.
However, the last female standing would proceed to become the last person standing.
Chui got a much-needed double-up through Shaq but Huang would be the one to bust the reigning APOY and entered heads up play with a 5-to-1 chip lead.
Things turned around during the duel and Huang found himself short stacked where he'd slide his remaining stack with Qs-9h. Chui made the call with Ac-2d.
The board, which ran 6s-Kc-8d-Tc-3d, missed for both players but the Ace high was enough for victory. The former-model was playing her first ever tournament that had more than 100 players.
"I'm overjoyed to win this event." said a giddy Chui. "I have already booked a trip to Japan so now I have more shopping dollars!"
Event 2: $1,500 Deepstack - Final Table Results
1. Hazel Chui (Hong Kong) -- $57,400
2. Fu Bang Huang (Chinese Taipei) -- $38,700
3. Shaq Lin (Chinese Taipei) -- $23,400
4. Jack Lee (Australia) -- $18,800
5. Sam Ath Lor (Combodia) -- $15,200
6. Chien Wei Huang (Chinese Taipei) -- $12,900
7. David Goldberg (Australia) -- $10,500
8. Cheok Wa Lei (Macau) -- $8,200
9. Fan Fang (China) -- $5,900
10. Fu Man Tin (Hong Kong) -- $5,000