Alan Lau Wins 2017 ACOP Main Event for HK$5,4 Million

30-year old Hong Kong pro Alan Lau saw off a massively strong field this week to lift the Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) Main Event in Macau, scooping not only HK$5,400,500 (US$692,115) but also the Player of the Year trophy for the second time.

Although little-known outside of far-eastern poker circles, Lau came into the flagship event with a good pedigree, having won the Red Dragon event at the Macau Poker Cup this February for $420,802, but he was still far from being the favourite when the 308-player field kicked off play at the City of Dreams Casino in Cotai.

The HK$100,000 (US$12,500) buy-in event saw the likes of USA high-stakes pro Dan Smith, England’s Stephen Chidwick and Germany’s Dominik Nitsche all gunning for a share of the HK$28,674,800 (US$3,674,631) prizepool in a tournament which had one of the slowest structures outside of the WSOP.

When the final table was reached at the end of a long, hard week’s play, it was an international half-dozen who were vying for the Spadie trophy as well as the money, Lau, Chidwick and Nitsche joined by US online beast Aaron Been, his compatriot Brian Altman and Spain’s David Laka.

Nitsche was the man who disposed of the latter pair early on, trapping Laka with pocket tens in a blind-on-blind confrontation then dominating Altman in a big ace pre-flop all-in. His chip lead was no guarantee of victory though, as Lau and Been moved up a gear, combining to see off first Chidwick and then Nitsche himself succumbing to pocket tens.

This left Lau and Been to battle it out for the title, but at 300BB deep the casino might have had to apply for a late licence if they hadn’t decided to speed things up themselves, initially cutting the playing levels and then cutting a deal – as the PokerStars blog described it: ‘essentially chopping the prize money and leaving HK$100,000 on the side, plus trophy and 2018 ACOP seat.’

The battle finally came to a conclusion shortly after Lau had destroyed Been’s stack in another big ace vs bigger ace confrontation and when the ‘last of the chips went in’ it was Lau’s pocket 3’s which held up to secure him his biggest ever win.

Afterwards Lau told reporters:

"I feel unreal," and added: "I never thought it could happen. I played ACOP Main four years in a row and it's always such a tough field."

Final Table results