Yuguang Li Becomes Latest Red Dragon Owner

Arguably the best looking trophy in all of poker, the Red Dragon, has found yet another owner whose mantel it will decorate. His name is Yuguang Li, and apart from the really cool trophy, the Chinese player also took home HK$1,848,000 (including an ACOP Main Event seat), which equals about $240k.

Nine hopefuls returned today for the final chase after the red monster, knowing full well that it would accept no more than one single master. Four had their dreams quickly crushed as they were sent to the rail within the first level of play.

David Steicke was the one to open the holiday season on the rail when his Ace–King was cracked by q9 of Takuya Yamashitsa. Xiaodong Lin followed quickly, as he ran into pocket Aces of the eventual winner and the dealer failed to produce any help for his pair of Eights.

Fan Xu was on a short stack and looking for something to happen. It looked like it would when he found 99 in the hole, but the illusion was quickly dispelled when Yunye Lu turned over pocket Jacks. By the time the turn was dealt, Xu’s fate was sealed and he was sent home HK$235,000 richer.

Eileen Wang was the only lady at the final table and although she came in with the short stack, she did well to outlast three players. Unfortunately, she could go no further than sixth as her aj failed to improve against Yi Won Lee’s pocket Nines. Wang’s finish secured her a prize of HK$281,612.

The next player to go, Takuya Yamashita, was an unlikely casualty. Sitting on a stack of 65 blinds, he made it disappear in one hand when his six-bet bluff failed to produce the desired result as he ran into the pocket rockets of Yunye Lu. Five cards later, he was making his way to the rail, his bankroll invigorated with HK$384,000.

This gave Lu the ammo he needed to really put pressure on his opponents and it looked like the matter of the winner was pretty much resolved. Yuguang Li, however, had different ideas and started to pick up the pace. He won a coin flip against Yi Won Lee to send him packing in 4th with HK$563,000 for his efforts, while adding chips to Li’s stack.

Lu claimed the scalp and the stack of Yifan Zhang, whose third place finish brought him HK$783,000 and the stage was set for the final battle to begin. Although Li had picked up some chips, Yunye Lu was holding a huge lead of almost three-to-one and Li had a mountain to climb if he was to win.

This did not discourage Yuguang Li, however, as he kept chipping away at his opponent and after a while the stacks were just about even. That is when the two decided to make a deal, leaving HK$150,000 on the side for the winner.

Not long after the deal-making, the match was over. Lu tried to pull a big bluff on the turn but ran his total air into Li’s full house and the couple of blinds he had left were gone on the very next hand. Thanks to the deal, Yunye Lu took home HK$1,645,000 for his runner-up finish.

Yuguang Li of China claimed the title, the prize of HK$1,848,000 in total, and he gets to have his own Red Dragon right in his living room. You can hardly have a better day than that, right?

Photo: Kenneth Lim, PokerStars Blog