7:55pm - A champion is crowned
Level 17, Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000
Quan Zhou has been struggling to get any traction in this heads-up contest and there have been no more flops since the last hand we reported on.
Things start much as they did last time, only with Zhou limping the button this time around and Zheng appearing content to check his option in the big blind and we have our second flop of this heads up contest - a rather innocuous [2s][5s][tc].
Zheng leads out for 160,000 and this seems to spark a very quick combination of raises and re-raises with both players going from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1 in the blink of an eye.
Global thermonuclear war probably takes a little longer to escalate and would probably not be as fast as Zhou's four-bet shove and Zheng's instant call, though when the cards are flipped over it is easy to see why both players are eager to get all the chip in.
Quan Zhou: [2d][td]
Alvan Zheng: [5h][th]
Zhou's top and bottom pair is trailing to Zheng's top two pair and the[8s] brings one of our players closer to elimination and the other closer to victory.
The [3d] river is just one pip away from the deuce Zhou needs to stay alive meaning we finally have our 2016 Macau Millions champion.
A pleased Alvan Zheng rushes over to the rail to kiss his girlfriend before returning to the table to shake Quan Zhou by the hand and just like that, it's all over.
Zhou will take home a very respectable HK$700,000 for his second place finish while Alvan Zhang takes the HK$911,000 first prize, the prestige and the all-important trophy.
"I don't know what to say," admits an overwhelmed Zheng, "I'm excited and overwhelmed."
We can't say we blame him, it has been a tough four day slog but we finally have a champion. We hoped you enjoyed reading about all the tournament thrills and spills as much as we did writing about it.
7:45pm - Changing gears
Level 17, Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000
Both of our remaining protagonists are still reasonably stacked in comparison to the blinds - even as the shorter stack Zhou still has a playable 46 big blinds so has some room for manoeuvring.
Both players seem content to raise fold the next four hands before Zheng decides a change of pace is in order and limps from the button. Zhou seemed happy enough with this turn of events and we get to see our first flop of heads up play, which comes down a rather wet [9c][6h][qc] bringing checks from both players.
Zhou checks for a second time on the [3h] turn, but calls pretty swiftly when Zheng leads out for 225,000. The [5c] river brings in a possible club flush and brings a third check from Zhou.
Zheng reaches for chips, sliding out a tower of orange chips for a bet of 650,000. Zhou mulled things over for a minute or so before announcing the call but snap-mucks when Zheng rolls over [kd][kh].
Zhou dropped down to around 5.5 million and Zheng now has 17.6 million for just over a 3-1 chip lead.
7:30pm - Zheng applies pressure
Level 17, Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000
The first two hand of heads up play both result in a raise-fold from the button with Zhou winning the first pot and Zheng the second. While we don't get to see a flop on the third hand either it takes nearly as long to play out as if we had.
Playing his second button of the heads up contest Quan Zhou opens for 350,000 only to see Zheng re-pop the action up to 900,000. Zhou however is going nowhere and four-bets to 1.95 million in total.
Zheng quickly declares himself all-in, causing Zhou to slump back in his seat and eye his opponent speculatively. There is a little back and forth between the two, though it seems to be Zhou doing most of the talking as, once again, Zheng gives nothing away.
After tanking for a good 10-minutes Zhou grudgingly folds and taps the table leaving Zheng to rake in just under a million chips without showdown and he climbs to 15.7 million while Zhou drops to 7.4 million.
7:20pm - Head's up!
Level 17, Blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000
Wu's departure brings us head's up and play has been paused briefly allowing us to get the chip counts of our two remaining finalists as the trophy is brought out.
2016 Macau Millions chip counts:
Quan Zhou - 8,490,000
Alvan Zheng - 14,690,000
Zheng has the chip lead, something he has held for the majority of the tournament though victory is far from locked up. Both remaining players are guaranteed to take home at least HK$700,000 (~US$89,780) but with entry into the 2016 ACOP Main Event, more cash, the illustrious trophy and bragging rights on the line both players will be giving it their all.
7:10pm - Guancheng Wu finishes third for HK$530,000
Level 16, Blinds 60,000/120,000/20,000
While Alvan Zheng had the chip lead when we entered three-way play both Zhou and Wu were not far behind in chips and the blinds and antes were not getting any smaller.
There was a great deal of pre-flop raising, three-betting and folding going on from all remaining parties and our final three protagonists ended up very closely stacked, all without us getting to see a flop.
Zheng turtled up and went into his shell a little as both Wu and Zhou upped the aggression. With just three players left the blinds come around extremely quickly and it was Wu who managed to edge into the chip lead before a huge hand developed between him and Zheng right at the close of level 16.
Opting to play his button aggressively Wu announced a raise and made it 280,000 to go. Sitting in the small blind Zheng considered all his options before deciding that a re-raise was the best course of action and he re-popped it to 625,000 in total.
After Zhou got out of the way and folded his big blind we were rewarded with a rare flop, which came down [ad][jh][9h].
Zheng tanked before leading out for 550,000 into the already sizable 1.5 million-chip pot leaving himself with what looked to be around 6 million behind. Wu had slightly more than that, but not by much, having Zheng covered by 400,000 or so.
After thinking things over Wu made the call bringing the pot to 2.6 million and the dealer burned and turned [6c]. This is where things began to get a little odd.
First to act, Zheng now decided to check; Wu seemed unsure whether this was a trap or a sign of weakness and counted out six stacks of 25k orange chips totalling 3 million, trying to pick up a tell, Zheng however, was giving nothing away.
This is where Wu made a fatal mistake, declaring a bet of 6 million as oppose to the 3 million he had counted out - which was also more than Zheng had in front of him.
It looked like Zheng's check was indeed a trap judging by the speed of his call and both players cards were flipped over with Wu looking slightly sick at this unexpected turn of events.
Alvan Zheng: [as][8c]
Guancheng Wu: [9c][8d]
Zheng's top pair ahead and stayed that way when the [2h] came down on the river to grant him the double up and he climbed to 14.6 million while Wu was left crippled with just over three big blinds.
This found its way into the middle the very next hand with Quan Zhou administering the coup de grace after his [jh][5h] hit a back door straight to send Wu to the rail in third with HK$530,000 for his troubles.
6:20pm - Howard Ka Ho Sun finishes fourth for HK$383,000
Level 16, Blinds 60,000/120,000/20,000
Level 16 is still in its infancy when we lose yet another player in the form of Hong Kong's Howard Sun.
When the end came it was spread over three consecutive hands with all three remaining competitors taking it in turns to try their luck against the field's sole remaining Hong Kong player.
A battle between the two shortest stacks - Wu and Sun - was the spark that set the fuse burning. Sun opened the action with an under-the-gun raise to 260,000 and Wu elected to defend from the big blind.
Both players checked the [5c][ac][6s] flop and it was not until the [ts] that things began to get interesting.
Wu led for a half pot bet of 300,000 before Sun changed gears and rediscovered his aggression, raising to 800,000 in total. As he has done for much of the final table Wu took his time over the decision but did make the call, bringing the pot up to just over 2.2 million.
When the [qd] hit the river Wu led again, betting 1.5 million to leave himself with 500,000 behind. Sun did not look best pleased but grudgingly made the call to discover some bad news - his A-T had been outdrawn by Wu's K-J with the latter giving it the classic fist pump and a "yes!" when the cards were turned over, climbing to just over 5 million.
With the rest of the table circling like hungry sharks who can smell the blood Sun got his last 700,000 in from the big blind holding [ad][5d] when Quan Zhou shipped the button with [kh][5h].
Despite Sun's ace-high holding to bring him back up to 1.5 million when the board ran out [2s][jc][6c][jh][ts] he was unable to stage a comeback.
Sun busted the very next hand when he moved in from the small blind holding [jh][6c] and Alvan Zheng woke up in the big blind with [7c][7d].
There was no help for Sun on the [kc][5h][3c] flop, nor the [td] turn and the final nail in his coffin came when the [7s] landed on the river to give Zheng a set. This brought Zheng back up over the 10-million mark and Sun headed to the rail to collect his HK$383,000 winnings.
5:55pm - Chun Liang Pan busts in fifth for HK$272,000
Level 15, Blinds 50,000/100,000/5,000
The action slowed somewhat following Barausova's exit with the five remaining competitors playing a cagey game of cat and mouse. Chun Liang Pan managed to take down a few pots here and there from Alvan Zheng, but not enough to change the pecking order.
Stacksize-wise Zheng remained very much in command, dropping slightly to 9.1 million after paying off Pan's rivered nut flush.
Picking his spots carefully Zhou remained second with around 5.5 million while the three similarly stacked remaining players Wu, Sun and Pan were all sitting close to the 3-million mark.
It was not until the end of the level that we had fireworks with Pan and Zhou getting all the chips in pre-flop, Pan's [ks][qs] trailing to Zhou's [ad][th].
Having dropped down to a little over 1.5 million Pan was the at risk player and the [as][qc][kc] flop brought something for both protagonists.
Unfortunately for Pan running red nines on the turn and river gave Zhou a better two pair and he raked in the pot to climb to 7.9 million while Pan hit the rail in fifth for HK$272,000.
Players are now on a short 10-minute break with the remaining playing field looking like this:
Seat 1: Quan Zhou - 7,945,000
Seat 2: Guancheng Wu - 2,840,000
Seat 4: Howard Ka Ho Sun - 2,980,000
Seat 8: Alvan Zheng - 9,415,000
While there is still plenty of play left blinds will be a hefty 60,000/120,000/20,000 when play resumes and both Wu and Sun have their work cut out for them if they want to seriously challenge the top two stacks of Zhou and Zheng.
4:50pm - Tatiana Barausova departs in sixth place for HK$185,000
Level 14, Blinds 40,000/80,000/5,000
As yet another level draws to a close we lose another player - sole surviving female Tatiana Barausova.
The Russian player was left a little short after tangling in a hand with Guancheng Wu a little earlier, opting to turn ace-high into a bluff on the river on a board reading [4s][3d][kc][2s][jh] after checking the flop and leading the turn.
Wu made the call holding [ts][td], which was leading Barausova's [ac][ts] and she dropped to just under the 1-million mark.
The two tangled again shortly afterward. This time it was Wu who was the initial aggressor, opening under-the-gun for 160,000. Action folded around to Barausova in the small blind and she made the call while Zhou folded from the big blind to take play heads-up.
Barausova checked the [2s][8d][4h] flop and Wu chose to remain aggressive, overbetting the pot slightly to the tune of 400,000. With 800,000 behind Barausova did not have many options but did choose to make call.
The [3h] turn saw Barausova move all-in for her last remaining 400,000 and Wu called extremely quickly. Barausova's [kh][2h] was behind to Wu's [7h][7c] and the [3d] river saw her depart in sixth place for HK$185,000. Wu climbed to about 3.5 million in chips.
4:40pm - Wu makes tight fold
Level 14, Blinds 40,000/80,000/5,000
Quan Zhou seems determined not to let Alvan Zheng get too far in front and has just taken down a decent sized pot against Guancheng Wu.
After the action folded around to Zhou in the small blind he elected to limp, opening the door for Wu to get aggressive and he obliged by raising to 175,000.
Zhou called before checking the action over to Wu on on a flop of [5s][3h][8c]. Wu c-bet 350,000 and looked a little taken aback when Zhou reached for a large stack of 25k orange chips and check-raised to 850k in total.
Wu did not seem fully convinced of Zhou's integrity and made the call swelling the pot to over 2-million. Zhou though was not done and fired another hefty bet when the [kh] hit the turn.
Looking visibly pained Wu took his time mulling things over but after looking over the remaining stacks at the table he decided that discretion was the best policy, flashing Zhou [9h][9s]. Wu drops to 1.8 million after that tight fold while Zhou climbs to 6-million.
4:30pm - Jason Lo finishes in seventh place for HK$132,000
Level 14, Blinds 40,000/80,000/5,000
A short-stacked Jason Lo moved all-in from the cutoff for a little over 1.2 million with action folding around to Alvan Zheng in the big blind. Zheng doesn't think things over for too long before making the call and the cards go on their backs.
Jason Lo: [kd][qc]
Alvan Zheng: [as][8d]
As the at risk player Lo was looking for a little help, receiving some when the flop fell [2d][jd][td]. However, the poker gods were in a fickle mood and chose to deliver no more diamonds with the turn and river wunning out [5c] and [5s] respectively meaning Zheng's ace-high was enough to send Lo to the rail.
This pushes Zheng over the 10-million mark, over 4-million chips more than next closest rival Quan Zhou.
4:10pm - Zheng restarts play with fireworks
Level 14, Blinds 40,000/80,000/5,000
Revitalised by the short break our remaining seven players kick the action up a notch barely five minutes into the new level.
It was Russia's Tatiana Barausova - who has been fairly quiet so far - who instigated the action, opening for 160,000 from under-the-gun. Sitting utg+1 Quan Zhou chose to come along for the ride, as did small blind Chun Pan.
Opting to flex his chip lead Alvan Zheng then re-raised to 500,000 in total, though this did not appear to dissuade anyone with all three other players making the call.
Pan checked the rather dry looking [3c][3h][9d] flop over to Zheng who continuation bet 160,000. Barausova bowed out, Zhou made the call and Pan decided to dig into his bag of tricks and elected to check raise to 1.5 million.
Zheng looked slightly surprised by this turn of events, but this did not mean he was unwilling to continue and he quickly declared "all-in!"
It was a big call for his tournament life should Pan choose to make it, but after weighing up his options the Taiwanese player decided to wait for a better spot and pitched his cards into the muck.
Pan drops to 2.5 million and falls back down to fourth in chips while Zheng continues to boss the table, extending his chip lead still further and climbs to a little over 9 million - double that of next closest rival Quan Zhou.
3:40pm - Cheng departs in eighth place just before break
Level 13, Blinds 30,000/60,000/5,000
The tournament clock was just ticking over into the red to mark the first break of our final table. Before this can happen however, a classic coinflip occured between Tony Cheng and Alvan Zheng with the pair getting all of the chips in pre-flop.
Cheng opened the action with a raise and after peeking down at his cards Zheng counted out chips, then some more chips and fired out a sizable three-bet.
With the departure of Siong, Cheng was the shortest stack holding just under a million in chips and seemed quite happy to get the rest of his stack in the middle, with Zheng equally happy to make the call.
Tony Cheng: [qh][qd]
Alvan Zheng: [ac][ks]
Cheng was the at risk player and after the board ran out [8c][9d][kc][8d][9s] he exited in eighth place, taking home HK$100,117.
Players are now on a short 10-minute break with the remaining stacks as follows:
Seat 1: Quan Zhou - 4,745,000
Seat 2: Guancheng Wu - 2,980,000
Seat 3: Jason Lo - 1,340,000
Seat 4: Howard Ka Ho Sun - 1,220,000
Seat 7: Chun Liang Pan - 4,770,000
Seat 8: Alvan Zheng - 6,640,000
Seat 9: Tatiana Barausova - 1,850,000
Zheng is pushing further out in front of the rest of the pack while Pan and Zhou are jockeying between second and third with Sun trailing as the table short stack.
3:23pm - Boon Heng Siong finishes in ninth place
Level 13, Blinds 30,000/60,000/5,000
Singapore's Boon Heng Siong is our shortest stack and must be feeling the pressure after his previous misadventure against Alvan Zheng now that the blinds have risen once more.
Siong becomes the architect of his own demise after opening in middle position with a raise to 125,000. Sitting two seats to Siong's direct left Chun Pan reached for chips - but not for a call - and the player from Chinese Taipei three-bet to the tune of 275,000.
Looking pained at this turn of events, Siong counts out his remaining chips - he has 450,000 behind so does not have all that much room to manoeuvre.
However, call he did and after the dealer spread the flop of [jh][2s][8s] Siong swiftly moved his remaining chips over the line.
Pan snap called almost instantly rolling over [as][ah] which is ahead of Siong's [jd][tc]. The turn and river run out [5c] and [4s] meaning that our final table is now down to eight; Pan climbs to 4.2 million in chips, edging into third place while Siong departs in ninth place taking home HK$75,000.
2:25pm - Zheng extends lead, Lo takes a hit
Level 11, Blinds 25,000/50,000/5000
Alvan Zheng means business, displaying a steely edge that shows why he has made it this far and why he currently holds the chip lead.
The hand started off innocuously enough with a raise to 110,000 from Hong Kong's Jason Lo in middle position. Boon Siong made the call from the cutoff and both Chun Pan and Alvan Zheng made the call from the small and big blinds respectively meaning we head four-way to a flop of [4c][3h][6h].
Lo does not look too happy getting this many customers and after both Pan and Zheng checked their option Boon Siong opted to take a stab for 250,000.
Only Zheng made the call, everyone else getting out of the way taking us heads-up to the [7c] turn.
Zheng checked again opening the door for Siong to fire a second barrel of 375,000. Zheng tanks for a minute or two before again electing to make the call and the dealer peels off the [9c] river card.
This brings another check from Zheng and Siong does not take long to fire a third barrel of 550,000, leaving himself with 750,000 behind.
This sent Zheng deep into the tank and he pondered both the flop and his opponent carefully but did eventually elect to make the call.
Siong rolled over [kd][9h] for a rivered top pair, but it was not enough to beat Zheng's [6s][7h] and he edges further in front and climbs to over 6 million in chips while Siong drops down below the 1 million mark.
The next few hands are all raise-folded pre-flop before Tony Cheng wins a small pot off Quan Zhou, Cheng's rivered top pair holding [as][kh] on a [td][qs][3d][5d][as] board good enough to take down a 400k pot when both players check the hand down until the river before Cheng leads out for a small value bet of 75,000, which Zhou called.
The next sizable pot occurred shortly afterwards in a blind on blind confrontation between Guancheng Wu and Jason Lo.
Wu was the aggressor in the hand, leading into Lo for 110k from the SB, Lo made the call and we went heads-up to a flop of [3d][9h][as]. Continuing the aggression Wu led for 150,000 into the 265k pot and Lo called for a second time.
Wu kept his foot on the gas, firing a second barrel of 425,000 on the [6d] turn. Lo mulled it over but made the call causing Wu to shoot a suspicious glance his way.
The [2c] river brought a chunky third barrel from Wu and he led out for 600,000 - just under half of his remaining stack. Lo took his time chewing things over but did elect to make the call but could only pitch his cards into the muck when Wu turned over [ad][jh] for top pair.
Lo drops to 2 million after then hand while Wu climbs to just over 3 million.
2:00pm - Play restarts
Level 11, Blinds 25,000/50,000/5,000
After four gruelling days of play spread over three starting flights here at Pokerstars LIVE Macau the 2016 Macau Millions Main Event final table is good to go.
Officially Macau's most popular poker tournament attracting a massive 2,343 entries to generate the HK$6.1 million (~$782,000) prize pool, the remaining nine players are all in the hunt for the HK$911,000 (~US116,800) first prize that includes a ticket into the 2016 ACOP Main Event.
Leading the charge is 27-year old quantity surveyor Alvan Zheng who enjoyed a late night run of form to seize the chip lead. With over US$447,000 in career tournament live cashes Zheng is in a great position to add another big score to his poker resume and he comes in with a stack of 4,515,000.
Joining Zheng at the final table is fellow frontrunner and countryman Quan Zhou. The 2013 APPT Seoul High Roller champion has already tasted success here in Macau and will be looking to add yet another trophy to his cabinet.
Zhou was the first player to break the two million in chips yesterday and has remained one of the tournament frontrunners since.
2016 Macau Millions Final Table Draw
Seat 1: Quan Zhou (China) - 4,185,000
Seat 2: Guancheng Wu (China) - 1,580,000
Seat 3: Jason Lo (Hong Kong) - 3,570,000
Seat 4: Howard Ka Ho Sun (Hong Kong) - 1,675,000
Seat 5: Boon Heng Siong (Singapore) - 2,040,000
Seat 6: Tony Cheng (Hong Kong) - 1,055,000
Seat 7: Chun Liang Pan (Chinese Taipei) - 2,115,000
Seat 8: Alvan Zheng (China) - 4,515,000
Seat 9: Tatiana Barausova (Russia) - 2,445,000
You can read our player profiles for a more in-depth look at our final nine. Play has now begun with 36-minutes left at level 11 with blinds recommencing at 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 running ante. The average stack is a rather chunky 2 million making for a comfortable 40bb stack and with no set play-time we will be playing down until we have a 2016 Macau Millions champion.
Be sure to stay with us as we follow all the action here on the Pokerstars blog - just refresh the page for the most recent updates.
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