![\"Asia-Millions-2013\"](\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Asia-Millions-2013.jpg\")
With the World Series of Poker in full swing, you might expect all of the world\u2019s top players to be converging on the Rio in Las Vegas in an attempt to win as many bracelets as they can. Why then, were John Juanda, Isaac Haxton, Sorel Mizzi, Bertrand \u201cElkY\u201d Grospellier, Gus Hansen and dozens of other top players in Macau recently instead?<\/p>\n
PokerStars Sponsored Event<\/strong><\/p>\n The answer was the $4.5 million first prize at the GaungDong Limited Asia Millions, a PokerStars-sponsored tournament taking place at the City of Dreams Entertainment Resort in Macau. The massive prizes being awarded dwarfed anything at the WSOP this week, so while some players stayed in Vegas for a chance to gain some prestige, many others followed the money to Asia in an attempt to pad their bankrolls instead.<\/p>\n Massive Prize Pool<\/strong><\/p>\n In total, 71 players entered into the high-roller event, each paying a HK$1 million ($130,000) entry fee to take part. Of those players, 54 chose to rebuy, which added up to a prize pool of HK$119 million ($15.4 million). That was good enough to be the second-largest prize pool ever for a tournament taking place outside Las Vegas.<\/p>\n Only eight players made the money, but several of them were among the biggest names to enter the tournament, as both Haxton and Mizzi were still in\u00a0the mix with just five players remaining. Haxton would ultimately go out in 5th<\/sup>\u00a0place to win a little over HK$10 million ($1.3 million), while Mizzi\u00a0survived longer before ultimately going out in 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0place to win just over HK$16 million ($2,077,419).<\/p>\n That left a heads-up battle between Australia\u2019s Jeff Rossiter and Germany\u2019s Niklas Heinecker. On the final hand, Heinecker got his money in good with A9 suited against the QT of Rossiter. Neither player was able to improve, and with Rossiter at risk, that meant that Heinecker was able to take down the first place prize of HK$34.6 million ($4,464,516), while Rossiter had to settle for \u201conly\u201d HK$24.5 million ($3,161,290).<\/p>\n Tough German Online Player Takes It Down<\/strong><\/p>\n Heinecker may not be a world-famous poker player, but among top pros, he\u2019s known as an extremely tough competitor. During the final table coverage commentary, Mike McDonald called him \u201cprobably one of the top five poker players in the world,\u201d as Heinecker has long been one of the top online cash game players under the name \u201cragen70.\u201d<\/p>\n Heinecker has had his share of success in live tournament poker: \u00a0along with his title this week, he\u2019s previously made a WSOP final table and finished 4th<\/sup> at a $25,000 tournament at the Aussie Millions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the World Series of Poker in full swing, you might expect all of the world\u2019s top players to be converging on the Rio in Las Vegas in an attempt to win as many bracelets as they can. Why then, were John Juanda, Isaac Haxton, Sorel Mizzi, Bertrand \u201cElkY\u201d Grospellier, Gus Hansen and dozens of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":6370,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10,19,18,20,14],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n