Irishman Wins Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau

On the other side of the world an Irishman has done his country proud. Dermot Blain is the 2009 Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau champion after beating a tough field of 429 players over a six-day period.

The 25-year-old Dubliner won his way to the event by playing a PokerStars Macau satellite, but things weren’t always rosey as he went into the final table in seventh place with 507,000 in chips. However, it was meant to be as he came out of it HKD$4,194,000 (€378,818) richer.

His final opponent Mike Kim had 920,000 in chips going into the heads up, but Blain had him dominated with a monstrous 7,390,000 in chips.

After just four hands it was all over. Blain pushed all in from the small blind and Kim made the call. Blain had K 10 and Kim held 10 9. The flop came A 10 3 bringing a pair of tens for both players. The turn was the J, and the river was the 8 meaning Blain’s king kicker was enough to give him the edge and take down the event. Kim went home with HKD $2,984,100 (€269,516) for his runner-up finish.

The next leg of the Tour is at the 7-Luck Casino in Seoul but further details are yet to be released as the stop has been postponed due to renovations at the casino.

Blain now takes over as champion from Edward Sabat who won the event last year.

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