The first ever PokerStars Championship Main Event in Macau concluded on Sunday evening after one of the longest heads-up matches in history!
Now, the final day started with 6 players and it only took two hours before the field had been narrowed down to the final two contenders: Elliot Smith (Canada) and Tianyuan Tang (China).
Despite the fact that they agreed to a deal that "only" left HKD$300,000 to play for, the heads-up battle lasted for almost 11 hours, which made it the longest heads-up in PokerStars tournament history! In the final hand of the marathon one-on-one battle, Tang went all in with pocket sixes and Smith called with AK. Tang hit a set on the flop but still lost the hand to a runner-runner flush.
"The last hand was pretty ridiculous," Smith said. That goes for the many thousands before it too. It was just a gruelling, gruelling battle. Hats off to my opponent, who played fantastic."
PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event
Dates: April 3-9, 2017
Buy in: HKD $40,000 + $2,400
Players: 536
Prize pool: HKD $20,796,800
Final table results
1 Elliot Smith Canada HK$2,877,500*
2 Tianyuan Tang China HK$2,577,500*
3 Daniel Laidlaw Australia HK$1,724,000
4 Avraham Oziel Canada HK$1,280,000
5 Aymon Hata UK HK$950,000
6 Yen ‘Pete' Chen Taiwan HK$705,000
*reflects a heads-up deal