The inaugural PokerStars.net sponsored 2014 Beijing Millions concluded this past Sunday set a new record for the biggest live poker tournament outside the USA. The event was won by China’s Chen Qin who is a relatively unknown name in poker. Below are the excerpts of the Press Release from PokerStars sharing the information.
The poker tournament was the Asia Pacific Poker Tour’s (APPT) first ever event in mainland China. It was held at the Beijing Star Poker Club from July 18-27 and the Main Event drew a massive field of 2,732 entries.
The tournament field is the largest ever outside of America, breaking a record set by the GUKPT Goliath event in Coventry, England, in 2013. This new record sets a new PokerStars record — surpassing the previous PokerStars mark of 2,446 entries at the 2013 Brazilian Series of Poker tournament in Sao Paolo.
In a nice coincidence, the three largest poker tournaments to have taken place outside the USA were on three different continents, demonstrating the global appeal and growth of the game.
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Largest Poker Tournaments Outside USA (by number of entries) |
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| Rank | Event | Entries | Continent |
| 1. | 2014 Asia Pacific Poker Tour Beijing Millions | 2,732 | Asia |
| 2. | 2013 Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour Goliath | 2,570 | Europe |
| 3. | 2013 Brazilian Series of Poker Millions Sao Paolo | 2,446 | South America |
“We always believed that this would be a successful event but this result greatly exceeded our wildest expectations.” said APPT President Danny McDonagh.
The 10-day poker festival was organized by the Beijing Sports Competitions Administration Centre, a division of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Sports.
“It’s a great honour for PokerStars and the APPT team to be selected to support this tournament.” added McDonagh. “It’s been a historical week. Not just the record itself but how it may change the future landscape for poker in China.”
After six Day 1 flights, the monster field was reduced to 188 starters on Sunday’s Day 2. Those included Team PokerStars Pros Celina Lin, Bryan Huang, and Vivian Im. Lin was the last female standing and the Shanghai-born pro finished in 24th place. Huang and Im came in 50th and 151st place respectively. With nine players remaining, every player was Chinese, ensuring that the title would stay on home soil.
When heads up play began, Qin would carry a 17.1m-to-9.m chip stack advantage over Yang Zhang. That lead proved to be too much to overcome. With the blinds at a staggering 200k-400k, 50k ante the final hand would arrive. The players limped into the pot which produced a flop of 4♦-5♠-7♣. Qin check-called Zhang’s bet of 550k tournament chips.
The turn of 5♣ saw Qin check-raise Zhang’s 1m bet to 2.55m. Zhang would make the call. Qin would put Zhang all-in on the river 9♠ which was also called. Zhang (7♥-3♣) had a pair of sevens but Qin turned over 4♣-5♦ for a full house to seal the victory.
**FINAL TABLE RESULTS of the 2014 Beijing Millions**
1. Chen Qin (China)
2. Yang Zhang (China)
3. Tong Shen (China)
4. Feng Bai (China)
5. Jing Liu (China)
6. Chen Hao (China)
7. Qiang Liu (China)
8. Hui Xu (China)
9. Yuanye Chen (China)
APPT now continues with the Macau Poker Cup from August 1, 2014 where a good Indian contingent is also expected to go.