Macau High Stakes Challenge Goes to China’s Choi

Massive win scooped in tough competition This has been a great week for China's Stanley Choi who turned his first big live tournament appearance into a lucrative venture, outplaying the other 72 entrants into the US$ 260,000 buy-in Macau High Stakes Challenge and taking home an impressive first placing paycheck for US$ 6,465,560. The total prize pool was US$ 23,511,128, and fighting for a lion's share in it were the likes of Andrew Robl, Gus Hansen, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Philipp Gruissem, John Juanda, Sam Trickett, JP Kelly, Joe Hachem and Brian Rast. However, few of them made it to the final table, which comprised Choi and Zhu Guan Fai, Nicholas Wong, Tang Zheng, John Juanda, Lap Key Chan, Sam Trickett, Phil Ivey, Alan Sass, Philipp Gruissem, Di Van Hoang Dang and JP Kelly. All of these players won at least a half million US dollars, while Zhu Guan Fai who faced and was defeated by Choi in the heads up, ended up with a second placing prize of US$ 4,349,735.