Abercio De Mello, fresh from his Main Event triumph at the DR Cup in Casino Deltin Royale, Goa in February 2014 had his first outing at the Asia Championship of Poker(ACOP) Platinum Series III. While he enjoyed the poker experience at the PokerStars LIVE Macau Poker Room, continues to discuss what ails poker at this level. Read on about his recent Macau visit to be one of 3 Indians in the just concluded ACOP Series in end of February 2014.
“I was one of the 3 Indians that took part in the tourney. The Tournament was organised well except that they are not strict with the players to talk only English on the table especially when they are in hand. A Lot of the Chinese and Korean poker players keep talking in their language. Far eastern Asian players are very aggressive compared to the other nationalities I have played around the world now and also experienced it in Jeju, Korea as well for the APT last year. The trick to keep them under control is to hit a few big hands and then dominate them. If they know you have a stack that’s the only thing that puts them in control.
This time I played in the following events and also list out my finishes:
ACOP Deepstack! Buy in HK$ 1500. Starting stack 10,000.
Came in 44th position from a field of 260 players.
Payout was till 28th position.
Lost to pocket 8’s when I had AK.
I started out good and also had a smooth run in the middle but later was just not hitting cards.
Main event HK$ 5500 buy in.
Came in 148 out of a field of 305.
This tourney did not go well for me as I was not running good at all. i started out well but somehow the flops were never on my side. One point I noted for this tournament was that while the buy-in was a big amount but the starting stack was 7500 only. I felt this stack was too small for the main event and there should have been a starting stack of atleast 15K or 20K to keep the excitement for a main event.
Overall playing in the ACOP and the PokerStars LIVE Macau Poker Room was a good experience. I would definitely go back to try and win that title next time. The people are nice but English is a problem in Macau. Not just in the poker scene but outside in the city. While the organizers are well versed with English but managing within the city was a little difficult. “
Text Written in Italics is contributed by Abercio De Mello. Thanks to Abercio De Mello for sharing his ACOP Macau experience with OPN. We wish him all the best for future endeavors.
We also list out the final table results of the ACOP Platinum Series III for you:
| Place | First Name | Last Name | Country | Prize (HKD) |
| 1 | Yongjun | Ma | China | $305,500 |
| 2 | Jixue | Yin | China | $210,400 |
| 3 | Chunsan | Fan | China | $124,900 |
| 4 | Yen Han | Chen | Chinese Taipei | $98,400 |
| 5 | Yun | Jiang | China | $78,100 |
| 6 | Saehoon | Lee | Korea | $64,500 |
| 7 | Anders Betten | Pedersen | Norway | $50,900 |
| 8 | Katsuhiro | Muto | Japan | $37,300 |
| 9 | Seungworl | No | Korea | $30,500 |