"I can't even believe it... it hasn't sunk in yet."

They were the words of the second-ever two-time Red Dragon champion Tom Alner.

He's played a great game at PokerStars LIVE Macau this week to triumph over a record-breaking 1,145-player field and secure his second Red Dragon title and HK$2509,000!

Alner entered heads up play with a 2:1 chip deficit but against the chances he fought his as far back as emerge victorious over Wenxiang Chen. The battle waged for nearly three hours until Chen attempted to set a trap and it backfired when the brand new champion flopped a straight.

Chen limped at the button and Alner checked to look the 3♣6♣5♠ flop. After a check from Alner, Chen fired for 300,000, only to be raised by Alner to fifteen. million. Chen desired to play for more and installed another raise to 4 million before Alner shoved all in with enough to hide Chen's 2.85 million behind.

With a defeated look Chen still committed the chips and saw his K♣K♦ was drawing super thin against Alner's 7♠4♠. A brick at the Q♠ turn meant it was official and Alner had locked up the championship before the inconsequential 6♥ arrived at the end.

Before that heads up clash though Alner needed to navigate his way through a difficult final table.

Surprisingly it was our start-of-day chip leader Shuiyang Qiu who was the primary evictee. After losing a large pot to Chen the latter soon finished him off when he picked up pocket aces against Qiu's pocket kings. Qiu five-bet jammed preflop and couldn't improve after being snapped off.

Our 8th place finisher was Xiao Bo Zhou. He fell into Jack Salter's trap and got all his money in with A♦Q♣ on a flop of 9♣3♠Q♠. Salter had him covered, however, together with his stack and his cards holding K♥K♣ for the overpair. The 9♥ turn and 3♥ river couldn't save Zhou and he headed to the payout desk to assemble HK$237,970.

Following Zhou to the rail in 7th place was Jingxuan Zhu. He jammed preflop from the cutoff with pocket nines but if Chen awoke with pocket tens within the small blind it was in every single place for Zhou. He did not improve when the community cards fell and Chen was sent packing.

Liang Song was our 6th place finisher. It was a straight draw that got him in trouble against Salter's two pair. With the board showing 2♠6♥8♣4♣ Song got all of it in with 9♦7♥ against Salter's 8♥6♦. The A♥ river bricked off to signal the top of Song's tournament run.

The next to fall was Daniel Lee after he received a foul beat from Benjamin Hamnet. Lee got his money in good holding pocket sevens but didn't hold against Hamnet's pocket sixes when a six fell at the turn. Lee collected HK$440,000 for his 5th place finish.

After two hours of four-handed play it was Hamnet you was eliminated next. He ended up at the wrong end of a flip versus Alner. Hamnet had 4♥4♣ but couldn't hold against Alner's Q♦J♥ when the cards came down 9♦J♣5♠K♦T♦.

It can be another four hours of play before heads up began. Salter took home the 3rd place prize after his luck ran out against Chen. Salter got his short stack all in with A♦6♣ but was behind versus Chen's 6♠6♥. Failing to search out an ace Salter departed and took us to the heads up match where Alner triumphed over Chen.

MPC25 Red Dragon Final Table Payouts

1st: Tom Alner (UK) - HK$2,509,0002nd: Wenxiang Chen (China) - HK$1,487,0003rd: Jack Salter (UK) - HK$892,0004th: Benjamin Hamnet (USA) - HK$650,0005th: Daniel Lee (USA) - HK$440,0006th: Liang Song (China) - HK$321,0007th: JingXuan Zhu (China) - HK$274,0008th: Xiao Bo Zhou (China) - HK$237,9709th: Shuiyang Qiu (China) - HK$202,000

Full payout list

Congratulations to Tom!

That's all from us here in Macau tonight. We'll pick up coverage of the HK$80,000 High Roller event tomorrow. We are hoping you'll join us then.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Asia Pacific Poker Tour]