When the words 'high stakes' are uttered in the contemporary poker context, thoughts tend to turn to Macau. For the past five years or so, the biggest cash poker games in the world have been held in the Special Administrative Region off the south coast of China, which has overtaken even Las Vegas as the gambling capital of the world.

Peter Chan's Results, Stats. Date Country Place Prize GPI Points; 27-Jul-2019: United States: $ 200 + 30 No Limit Hold'em - Saturday 2019 Parx Casino Recurring Tournaments, Bensalem. Peter Chan poker results, stats, photos, videos, news, magazine columns, blogs, Twitter, and more.

The poker action tends to be driven by an elite group of million/billionaire businessmen, who like to play and like to play big. Much of the top north American and European poker talent has been drawn to the Far East in search of the perceived riches on offer, but they don't always get it their own way.

Peter Chan Okc

All things considered, the skills are probably still higher among those from the established poker nations, but the Asian players can really put them to the test. They are playing with a seemingly infinite bankroll, are utterly unafraid to put their chips in any pot, and have a sense of risk and adventure that can captivate and bamboozle. When things are running well for the Asian players, things run very well indeed.

So it is that in Monaco today, at the €100,000 Super High Roller event at the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final, the Asian businessmen have blurred the lines between the sharks and the prey. A select group of the best and highest High Rollers from Macau were lured to this Principality for their first shot at EPT glory, and the old guard of Ivey, Negreanu, Gruissem, Haxton, Esfandiari, Altergott, Bonomo and Smith (among others) licked their lips.

But when play ceased tonight, with only eight players remaining from the 50 who started (there were 12 re-entries too), none of the above were still involved. Even Gus Hansen had only played a cameo. Instead, we are looking at a final table tomorrow headed by a man named Lo Shing Fung (better known as Rono Lo), and also featuring his friends Paul Phua and Richard Yong.

The Asian contingent in Monaco numbered only seven, of whom three made the money. Take that, poker old guard.

Lo was a short-ish stack for the early stages of the day, but enjoyed a spectacular surge from about half way through to tear up the leader board. He eliminated Mike Watson, Daniel Negreanu ('He had better cards than me,' Negreanu explained), Peter Chan in a massive cooler (a set of tens against top two pair), then Fabian Quoss (the Super High Roller champion from the PCA).

Then when Dan Colman knocked out Mike McDonald to burst the controversial €240,000+ bubble, our final table was set. Here are the eight that will go looking for the €1,804,000 first prize tomorrow. (Full payouts are at the bottom of the page.)

Lo Shing Fung, aka Rono Lo, (Canada), 4,558,000
Ole Schemion (Germany), 2,818,000
Dan Cates (United States), 2,341,000
Paul Phua (Malaysia), 1,785,000
Daniel Colman (United States), 1,398,000
Richard Yong (Hong Kong), 1,301,000
Olivier Busquet (United States), 1,038,000
Igor Kurganov (Russia), 261,000

You'll notice that no one should take anything for granted because there are some impossibly good players still in that little group.

Ole Schemion's name had pretty much been inked on to the final table line-up from the very moment he suggested he might enter, such is his recent form. The German youngster, who is only just old enough to play poker in the United States, won the High Roller event in Sanremo last week, then made the final table of the Super Tuesday. He then won the super satellite for this event (like he needed to) and soared into the chip lead on Day 1.

He knocked out Jason Mercier and Talal Shakerchi today and will be second in chips. Schemion already has more than $4.7m in tournament winnings and has now locked up another €241,000 at least. Can anybody stop him?

Dan Cates is accustomed to seeing those kinds of sums too, albeit mostly in his online account. But Cates has brought his A-game to this tournament in the bricks and mortar world and is going to be a huge threat tomorrow.

Olivier Busquet has all the momentum from a late charge tonight; Daniel Colman has also been on the ropes but bounced back. As for Igor Kurganov, he's hardly a stranger to this kind of thing and his short stack means nothing at all.

Peter Chan Poker Games

Play begins at 1pm tomorrow, but coverage starts an hour after as the action will be screened 'as live' on EPTLive, with hole cards exposed. In the meantime, flick through all today's action on the main Super High Roller page.

Full payout schedule:

1 - €1,804,000
2 - €1,305,000
3 - €842,300
4 - €637,600
5 - €493,340
6 - €385,000
7 - €307,000
8 - €241,000

Peter Chan emerged from Day 1B of the APPT Macau Main Event with the biggest stack of chips, but not enough to give him the overall lead in the tournament.

Peter Chan emerged from Day 1B of the APPT Macau Main Event with the biggest stack of chips, but not enough to give him the overall lead in the tournament.

A further 7½ levels of play in the APPT Macau Main Event took place yesterday at PokerStars Live Poker Room in Macau´s City of Dreams, with a further 282 players ponying up the HK$25,000 ($3,225) buy-in to swell the prize pool to HK$11,021,140 ($1,421,000).

Of those 282 players, only 119 survived another hard day at the tables, and they will join the 87 players who safely negotiated Day 1A when play resumes this afternoon mid-way through Level 8 (blinds 500/1,000 – ante 100) with the average chip stack a modest 47,960.

Peter Chan Okc Dr

Chan Leads on Day Marred by Controversy

Add the end of the night, high-stakes cash game player Peter Chan bagged up the biggest stack – 141,000 chips – fifteen big blinds ahead of Shivan Abdine (124,800 chips) and Haifeng Xue (121,000), but significantly behind Day 1A chip leader Bo Xie (166,000 chips) and only good enough for fifth place overall.

Sadly much of the action on the tables was overshadowed by accusations of cheating between the players for chip stealing and card marking, and Tournament DirectorDanny McDonagh was kept busy throughout the day – at one point checking each players´ fingernails to identify who had been tampering with the cards.

In respect of the card marking accusations, the review of a security tape is still ongoing and we could see the field reduced by one or two players when Day 2 gets underway this afternoon.

Famous Names Fail to Leave a Mark

Amid all the allegations of card marking, three very successful poker players made their entrances but failed to leave a mark on the tournament. APPT Seoul champion Chane Kampanatsanyakorn, 2013 WSOP ACOP bracelet winner Aaron Lim and reigning APPT Macau champion Alexandre Chieng all entered the APPT Macau Main Event with high hopes of a deep run, but all three were to depart before the end of the day.

Those who did perform a little better, but who failed to make it into the top ten chip counts (below) included PokerStars Team Pros Raymond Wu (28,600 chips) and Celina Lin (25,900 chips), ANZPT Pert High Roller Champion Michael Kanaan (54,000 chips), Ivan Zalac (49,700 chips), and top Malaysian poker player Darian Tan (45,700 chips).

Looking Ahead to Day 2 of the APPT Macau Main Event

With 206 players returning to the City of Dreams, and only 60 players scheduled to get paid, Day 2 of the APPT Macau Main Event is likely to be another tough one. A further 7½ levels are scheduled to be played after which we will have a better idea of who the primary contenders will be for the APPT title. Hopefully the action will be more focused on the poker skills of the players rather than their less savoury skills!