James Chen has become the first-ever two-time Macau Poker Cup High Roller champion! This impressive feat has seen him take home another PokerStars Spadie trophy and a whopping HK$2,273,000.

Chen won the similar event this time last year at MPC23 and has backed it up tonight after two impeccable days on the felt. He didn't wish to utilize the optional single re-entry but including the 12 players who did, Chen bests this field with a complete of 109 runners to emerge victorious.

Before hoisting the trophy Chen needed to overcome Xuming Qi in 45-minute heads up battle. Chen started the heads up match with a slight chip advantage and while at point Qi picked up pocket aces to bring things almost level again, Chen rallied hard before ultimately closing it out.

The final hand saw numerous action at the turn with the board reading 2♠3♠2♣9♠. After a raising war all of the chips were within the middle and Chen was the overpowering favourite to secure the title. He had 8♠6♠ for a flush while Qi held T♦9♦ for 2 pair. Chen had to fade a nine or a deuce at the river and succeeded when the J♠ rolled off at the river to finish the tournament.

Seven others were eliminated from the general table before the heads up match.

Of those, Yuki Ko was the primary to leave. It was an ordinary race with Q♠Q♣ against Li's A♠K♦ and when Li spiked a king at the K♣9♦2♦ flop and ran a flush with the T♦ arriving at the turn and J♦ at the river Ko's tournament run was over. He collected HK$304,120 because the first final table casualty.

Not long after Ko's exit Aaron Lim joined him at the rail. With A♣9♦ the Australian got all of it in preflop against Chen's 8♠8♣ and couldn't improve when the cards fell 3♥Q♠K♦Q♣4♠. Lim emerged because the APPT Seoul High Roller champion earlier this year but came up in need of another title tonight.

Japan's Takashi Ogura was the following evictee. He moved all in preflop with T♣9♠ and was looked up by Andrew Graham who held Q♦J♦. The 6♦Q♠A♠ flop left Ogura chasing running cards to circumvent elimination and the deck wouldn't oblige when the 3♦ turn and 9♥ river made his bust out official.

The 6th place spot went to Shengyu Li. He was the fourth final table elimination within 45 minutes and his tournament came to an end on a coinflip against Graham. Holding A♠K♥ Li called off for his life but couldn't hit the board against Graham's T♠T♥. Li earned himself HK$467,000.

Jordan Kaplan departed after Li. He moved all in blind from the small blind and was called off by Xuming Qi within the big blind. Kaplan flipped up T♣3♠ and was behind Qi's Q♣J♥. The K♥2♠9♣ flop killed Kaplan's outs to a 10 and unable to search out a 3 at the 6♣ turn or J♦ river he left us in 5th place.

Just 10 minutes later Nan Hong was eliminated in 4th place after a bluff gone wrong. The board read 7♦A♥5♣6♥5♠ when Hong moved all in over a gamble from Chen. The latter called it off with A♣9♥ and Hong couldn't beat it with T♣8♣ for a busted straight draw.

It was Andrew Graham who took home the third place prize. Graham was the start-of-day chip leader and extended it further throughout Day 2. Ultimately he would arise two in need of a victory, however, after becoming short stacked and losing with 5♣4♣ to Chen's A♦8♦ on a runout of Q♠9♠7♥J♣3♣. And his elimination took us to the heads up match when Chen overcame Qi to win his unprecedented second MPC High Roller title.

MPC25 High Roller Final Table Results

1st: James Chen (Taiwan) - $2,273,0002nd: Xuming Qi (China) - $1,542,2003rd: Andrew Graham (USA) - $974,0004th: Nan Hong (China) - $751,0005th: Jordan Kaplan (USA) - $548,0006th: Shengyu Li (China) - $467,0007th: Takashi Ogura (Japan) - $386,0008th: Aaron Lim (Australian) - $345,0009th: Yuki Ko (Korea) - 304,120

All payouts in HK$

Congratulations to James Chen!

We'll be back again tomorrow for live coverage of the HK$100,000 High Roller event. We are hoping to look you again for all of the action direct from the tournament floor here at PokerStars Macau!

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars Macau]