Takarabe earns the Red Dragon Crown
Japanese poker player Kenichi Takarabe bested a field of 296 players to take down the July 2010 PokerStars.net Macau Poker Cup (MPC) Red Dragon Main Event, hosted at the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino in Macau. The tournament, with a HK$10,000 buy-in, was the second MPC event of the year.
Takarabe went about accumulating chips steadily throughout the tournament, although he remained in the shadows of erstwhile chip leader Bryan Huang prior to the final table. Huang put in a dominant performance, riding on the momentum of his Emperor Series success last month and making amends for his disappointing performance at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau, during which he suffered a high fever and had to be hospitalised.
Although the PokerStars Team Asia Pro from Singapore was favourite to win the tournament, Takarabe swiftly gained the advantage when he eliminated Victor Chen and Chen Feng Li in the same hand to dramatically increase his stack size heading into the heads-up match with Huang. The duo began the showdown roughly even in chips, but Takarabe gradually wore Huang down with a series of raises and re-raises before the flop. Finally, on a flop of 10♠ 8♦ 9♠, the two got into a raising war and Kenichi ended up moving all-in, with Huang deciding to make the call for his tournament life.
Takarabe tabled the A♥ 9♥ for middle pair with top kicker while Huang turned over J♣ 3♠ for an open-ended straight draw and one over card. Unfortunately for Huang, there was to be no miracle, and the 8♠ turn and 5♥ river meant that Takarabe’s pair of Nines were good enough to win the hand and tournament. For his victory, Takarabe took home HK$620,100 in prize money (US$79,770) and the Red Dragon crown. Huang, despite the disappointment of missing out on a major title, had the consolation of taking home HK$424,600.
In addition, Huang also moves up to second place on PokerStars’ Asia Player of the Year leader board, behind March Red Dragon winner Raymond Wu. Takarabe moves up to third in the standings following his win.
The complete results from the final table are as follows:
1st – Kenichi Takarabe (HK $620,100)
2nd – Bryan Huang (HK $424,600)
3rd – Chen Feng Li (HK $256,100)
4th – Victor Chen (HK $202,200)
5th – Eric Stanley (HK $161,800)
6th – Che Wei Chao (HK $134,800)
7th – Kenji Kurashina (HK $107,800)
8th – Ricky Foo (HK $80,900)
9th – Tomoki Yasuda (HK $67,568)
10th – Anthony Hughes (HK $53,900)
