China's Alvan Zheng has emerged victorious, powering though Macau's largest-ever 2,343-strong field to take the title and lions share of the prize pool.

Banking an impressive HK$911,000 (~$116,000) for his first place finish, Zheng defeated fellow countryman Quan Zhou with a controlled display of canny play and poker finesse.

Zheng came into the final table in pole position with a stack of 4,515,000 - 500,000 more than closest rival Zhou - and relinquished the chip lead only once in his quest for victory.

On the final hand Zhou limped the button and Zheng checked from the big blind before an innocuous looking [2s][5s][tc] flop saw a betting war escalate into poker Armageddon with both players flopping two pair; Zheng's [th][5h] leading Zhou's [td][2d]. The [8s] turn and [3d] river saw Zheng's hand hold to award him the title and the illustrious trophy.

Playing his second final table of the series Singapore's Boon Heng Siong made a valiant showing but could not better his previous seventh place finish in the HK$2,000 Warm Up and became the first casualty of the day after running into the A-A of Chun Liang Pan early on, departing in ninth for HK$75,000 (~$9,600).

Zheng was responsible for the final table's second casualty, sending reigning APPT Macau champion Tony Cheng to the rail after his A-K won a race against Cheng's Q-Q to send the Hong Kong player to the ferry terminal with HK$100,117 (~$12,830) for his eighth place finish.

Despite coming into the day as the third largest stack, Hong Kong's Jason Lo struggling to make headway and exited in seventh for HK$132,000 (~$16,900) after shoving [kd][qc] and being looked up by Zheng, who was holding [as][8d].

The final table's sole female player - Russia's Tatiana Barausova - made a brave showing but eventually came up short after getting the last of her chips in with a turned king-high flush draw and missing to depart in sixth for HK$185,000 (~$23,700).

Quan Zhou saw off Chinese Taipei's Chun Liang Pan in fifth, the two players getting all the chips in pre-flop with [ad][th] and [ks][qs] respectively and despite the flop falling [as][qc][kc] running red nines saw Pan exit the tournament area for a payday of HK$272,000 (~$34,875).

It was Zheng wielding the executioner's axe once again to send Howard Ka Ho Sun to the rail in fourth. Zheng woke up with pocket sevens following Sun's short-stacked shove with [jh][6c] leaving Sun to head for the exit with HK$383,000 (~$49,100) for his troubles.

Third place finisher Guancheng Wu was the only player at the final table to briefly snatch the lead from Zheng, but the latter took back all his chips with interest after Wu made an ill-timed bluff and was left crippled, departing shortly afterwards for HK$530,000 (~$67,950) with Quan Zhou administering the coup de grace.

2016 Macau Millions Final Table Results

1. Alvan Zheng (China) - HK$911,000
2. Quan Zhou (China) - HK$700,000
3. Guancheng Wu (China) - HK$530,000
4. Howard Ka Ho Sun (Hong Kong) - HK$383,000
5. Chun Liang Pan (Chinese Taipei) - HK$272,000
6. Tatiana Barausova (Russia) - HK$185,000
7. Jason Lo (Hong Kong) - HK$132,000
8. Tony Cheng (Hong Kong) - HK$100,117
9. Boon Heng Siong (Singapore) - HK$75,000

Those interested in following all the action as it happened can check out the PokerStars blog.

With a massive 2,343 entries the 2016 Macau Millions is officially Macau's most popular poker tournament - awarding a monstrous HK$6,136,317 (~$782,000) in cash prizes - with 162 players successfully circumnavigating their way into the money spots. A complete Main Event Winners List can be found here.

Congratulations to Alvan Zheng for making history and beating what proved to be Macau's largest-ever tournament field.

Value shoppers, listen up, because this is your chance to turn a $27 buy-in into a chance at a $1.5 million prize pool.

The first event of this year's Turbo Championship of Online Poker is the first three-phase championship event in online poker history. You can start playing the first phase of the tournament right now if you want.

Want to see how it works? Keep reading below.

Phase 1 of TCOOP Event #1 costs $27 to enter, and you can start playing whenever you want. You will get 5,000 chips and a virtual chair. That will kick off the first 12 levels of turbo play. If you make it through that phase, you will get to carry those chips on to Phase 2. Again, you will get to choose when you play.

Phase 2 is another 12 levels. If you still have a stack at the end of Phase 2, that's when the big fun starts.

January 21 at 13:00 ET, everyone who has a stack at the end of Phase 2 will sit down to play for the $1.5 million prize pool.

It's as simple as that.

TCOOP kicks off on Thursday and will run 50 events with at least $15 million in guaranteed prize pools.

For more information, visit the TCOOP home page.

Need a PokerStars account to play TCOOP? Get one here right now.

Already have an account? Click here to register for TCOOP Event #1 right now.

Their faces may stay the same, but their social power rankings do not.

Once again, PokerStars has analyzed the reach and influence of some of its most popular personalities. Last year in the 2014 Social Power Table, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey sat at the top of the list. This year, that's changed, especially so for the man you know as ElkY.

How does the performance of the world's top poker pros relate to their social media success? We worked with social monitoring tool Followerwonk to find out.

Rank	Player	Twitter		Facebook		Social Channels	Social Score
		Followers	Social Authority	Likes	Like alyzer
1(+8)	Bertrand Grospellier	64.7K	64	28.8K	85		79(+23)
		@elkypoker
2(+1)	Liv Boeree	110K	67	88.2K	63		71(+3)
		@Liv_Boeree
3(-2)	Daniel Negreanu	378K	82	140K	40		68(-10)
		@realkidpoker
4(+7)	Vanessa Selbst	79.3K	62	8.4K	57		66(+14)
		@vanessaselbst
5NEW	Jason Somerville	48K	75	665	38		64NEW
		@JasonSomerville
6NEW	Fatima Moreira de Melo	35K	56	10K	55		63NEW
		@Fatimademelo
7(-4)	Phil Ivey	845K	71	241K	47		62(-11)
		@philivey
8(+2)	Phil Hellmuth	231K	63	91K	47		58(+3)
		@phil_hellmuth
9(-4)	Jason Mercier	110K	59	57K	34		55(-8)
		@jasonmercier
10-2	Sam Trickett	57K	58	9.7K	44		55(-2)
		@samtrickett1
11(-6)	Joe Hachem	34.2K	48	23.3K	50		53(-12)
		@josephhachem
12NEW	Chris Moneymaker	41.7K	55	3.7K	42		53NEW
		@CMONEYMAKER
13-7	Antonio Esfandiari	184K	57	85.6K	36		51(-7)
		@magicantonio
14-7	Jonathan Duhamel	59.6K	55	45K	35		50(-8)
		@jonathanduhamel
15NEW	Eugene Katchalov	32.8K	44	3.3K	46		46NEW
		@thegrinder44

* FollowerWonk's social authority is a 1 to 100 scale that describes the influence a profile has on Twitter. The influence of a profile is determined by the retweet rate of the users' last few hundred tweets and how recent those retweets are.

** Likealyzer Score: Uses more than 40 signals from facebook including the number of likes a page has, as well as the average number of shares, likes and comments per post.

*** The data for this table was collected on the 10/19/2015.

A look at all the major stories from this past weekend on PokerStars.

Weekend highlights

* After the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure concludes it's back to normal online
* darluna wins the Sunday Million
* Meanwhile PIPI tapis! wins the Sunday Warm-Up

Round up of latest results

After all the build-up and the festival itself, the PCA is now in the history books, inked in by a memorable performance by Michael Watson at the final table, as well as countless other winners who made PCA 2016 the success that it was. Now though, it's back to the business of weekend majors.

This week's big winner was darluna, of Colombia, who took down the Sunday Million. As reported by Martin Harris for the blog, the field of more than 6,051 easily toppled the $1 million guarantee. For their part darluna lead for much of the last two tables, which culminated in a four way deal. Read the full report here.

In the other highlight, PIPI tapis! of Malta came out best in the Sunday Warm-Up. As David Aydt reported there was a bumper field this week, with a prize pool in excess of half a million dollars. Read the full report of that event here.

Here are those two results in full:

Sunday Million results
Entrants: 6,051
Prize pool: $1,210,200
Places paid: 900

1. darluna (Colombia) $159,483.14*
2. Toroo13 (Costa Rica) $105,505.94*
3. untouchble10 (Moldova) $128,463.80*
4. dulek_jason (Poland) $90,147.18*
5. marjanko89 (Ukraine) $50,828.40
6. Eat_U_Up_ha (Canada) $38,726.40
7. Mpa3yka (Russia) $26,624.40
8. Allwill move (Russia) $14,522.40
9. doublefish87 (China) $9,379.05
* denotes a four-way deal leaving $20,000 for the winner

Sunday Warm-Up results
Entrants: 2,554
Places paid: 378
Prize pool: $510,800.00

1. PIPI tapis! (Malta) $80,706.69
2. Chapex (Peru) $60,274.40
3. 10Badboy10 (Russia) $42,907.20
4. MountainRo$e (Israel) $29,876.69
5. dimiangelako (Greece) $22,219.80
6. DixyDix (United Kingdom) $17,111.80
7. ileudo (Russia) $12,003.80
8. Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks (Canada) $7,406.60
9. Balazs "birs320" Botond (Hungary) $4,341.80

The weekend's top tournament winners

Click here for a complete list of major results on PokerStars for the weekend of January 16-17, 2016.

Don't have a PokerStars account? Now is the perfect opportunity to get one. Open your account here.

From the Bahamas to the Aussie Millions

As the PCA comes to an end in the Bahamas attention now turns towards the other side of the world, where the Aussie Millions is about to get started. What's more there's still time to win your place down under courtesy of PokerStars, with satellites running until January 24 at various buy-ins. That gives you a little more than six days to book your ticket. Check out all the details you'll need here.

TCOOP starts this week

'COOP season is upon us once more, the first of the year, starting with the Turbo format. The Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) begins this week, with TCOOP-01, the final phase, which already has more than 3,600 entries, kicking things off this Wednesday January 21, at 13:00 ET. That will be the first of 50 TCOOP events, culminating with the $700 buy-in Main Event on the last day of the series on January 31.

In between will be events of all shapes and sizes, formats and buy-ins, with something for everyone. And as you might expect there's no reason to pay the full buy in for any TCOOP event this year, with satellites running around the clock for every one of this year's tournaments, which you can find in the PokerStars lobby.

There's $15 million guaranteed across the 50 events - plenty of reasons to get involved. Find all the details you'll need about the series on the TCOOP homepage, and read reports of every TCOOP final table on the PokerStars Blog.

That wraps up another busy weekend on PokerStars. Plenty to look back on and look forward to. As always send your questions and comments to us on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.

The Sunday Million, the weekly $215 no-limit hold'em tournament that serves as the marquee event among the many Sunday tournament offerings on PokerStars, once again drew a big field of 6,051 this week, making for a $1,210,200 prize pool that easily bested the $1 million guarantee. It would take more than 11-and-a-half hours for those 6,051 to play down to just one, and it was Colombia's darluna who was the player claiming all of the chips and the biggest share of that prize pool.

darluna earned $159,483.14 for the win following a four-handed final table deal, having taken the lead once they were down to two tables and kept it for much of the final table on the way to the win. Here's the story of how darluna did it.

It took exactly five hours to play down to 900 players and the money bubble to burst, at which point Joakim2k of Norway was the one leading the counts.

Just under two-and-a-half hours later 100 players remained. By then Joakim2k had slipped in the counts to be eliminated in 439th for a cash of $435.67, while untouchble10 of Moldova had elevated to the top of the counts.

A little more than two hours after that they were down to 18, with untouchble10 still there with a below average stack and Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer among the players knocked out in the interim (57th, $1,924.21) after spending much of his Sunday on Twitch.

Meanwhile, by then darluna was leading the way with a stack of nearly 8.3 million.

madpete2 (18th), dinammo (17th), and Karakousis (16th) were the next players out, earning $3,388.56 apiece. isinm2006 (15th), CristiHot (14th), and Chirkov77 (13th) followed, taking away $5,082.84 each. thejoka59 (12th), Saitek00 (11th), and Ms/Phillmore (10th) then each were knocked out, with each of them cashing for $6,777.12.

With darluna still in front and the tournament having crossed the 10-hour mark, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: Nairam "marjanko89" Kim (Ukraine) -- 6,220,263
Seat 2: Allwill move (Russia) -- 2,568,962
Seat 3: Toroo13 (Costa Rica) -- 7,573,300
Seat 4: dulek_jason (Poland) -- 2,351,899
Seat 5: darluna (Colombia) -- 16,857,574
Seat 6: doublefish87 (China) -- 1,652,490
Seat 7: Eat_U_Up_ha (Canada) -- 12,958,648
Seat 8: untouchble10 (Moldova) -- 5,179,253
Seat 9: Mpa3yka (Russia) -- 5,147,611

On the very first hand of the final table, untouchble10 picked up pocket aces and managed to double through Eat_U_Up_ha's ace-king to jump up into second position. Then on the second hand of the final table came the next knockout.

The blinds were 125K/250K with a 25K ante, and after darluna raised to 525,000 from late position, doublefish87 three-bet all in for just over 1.6 million and darluna called. It was [Ad][Td] for doublefish87 and [Ac][Jc] for darluna. The flop came [As][Tc][Kc] to give doublefish87 two pair but also a flush draw for darluna. Then the [Jh] fell on the turn to give darluna the better two pair. The river was a blank -- the [2h] -- and doublefish87 was out in ninth.

Just a half-dozen hands after that, Allwill move open-raised all in from middle position for almost 1.6 million and Eat_U_Up_ha reraise-pushed from the small blind to isolate. Eat_U_Up_ha had [Qc][Qs] while Allwill move had [As][Td], and after the board rolled out [5h][Jc][5d][3c][9d], Allwill move was done in eighth.

A few minutes after that, darluna raised to 525,000 from early position, Mpa3kya called from the button, and the flop came [Kd][5s][7d]. darluna checked, Mpa3yka bet 608,000, darluna shoved, and Mpa3yka called all in with the almost 300,000 left. darluna had [8h][6d] and an open-ended straight draw while Mpa3yka had top pair with [Kc][Jc]. The [4s] then fell on fourth streeet to fill darluna's straight and make the [6h] river no matter, and Mpa3yka was out in seventh.

The last six players pushed on a bit longer, then came a couple more knockouts on consecutive hands.

The blinds were up to 200K/400K, and in the first Eat_U_Up_ha open-raised all in for about 3.7 million from UTG and got one caller in untouchble10 from the next seat. Eat_U_Up_ha had [2s][2c] and was hoping the small pair would hold against untouchble10's [As][Kh]. But the community cards came [9h][4s][4h][Kd][4c], giving untouchble10 a better full house and ending Eat_U_Up_ha's run in sixth.

The on the next hand it was Nairam "marjanko89" Kim open-raising all in for about 4.65 million from UTG with Toroo13 reraise-pushing from the next seat to clear the field. Kim had [Kd][Jc] and Toroo13 [Ts][Td]. The [5h][3d][2h] flop changed nothing, but the [Th] turn gave Toroo13 a set and left Kim drawing dead to finish fifth.

At that the final four soon stopped the tournament to talk about a possible deal, with darluna still on top (22.36 million), untouchable10 next (18.98 million), Toroo13 third (11.94 million), and dulek_jason fourth (7.23 million). They quickly agreed to an "ICM"-based chop of the remaining prize pool -- saving $20K for which to play -- and continued onward.

A little while later the blinds were 250K/500K when dulek_jason opened for 6.5 million from the cutoff, leaving just under 160,000 behind, and when untouchble10 reraised from the big blind, dulek_jason called off the rest, showing [Kd][9h] to untouchble10's [Ad][Jh]. Five cards later -- [7c][3s][Jc][5d][8s] -- dulek_jason was out in fourth.

untouchble10 enjoyed the lead at three-handed for a while, right up through the break that came at the 11-and-a-half-hour mark of the tournament. But then darluna managed to double-up with a flush through untouchble10 to grab back the advantage, and it didn't take much longer after that for a winner to be decided.

With the blinds at 300K/600K, untouchble10 raised to 1.272 million from the button/UTG, leader darluna reraised to 3 million even from the big blind, and untouchble10 called. The flop came [6h][2h][8c], darluna led for 2.4 million, and untouchble10 called. The turn then brought the [Kd] and a check from darluna. untouchble10 fired 4.2 million, then darluna pushed all in and untouchble10 called with the 9.26 million behind.

untouchble10 had [Ks][Js] for kings, but darluna had [Ad][Ah] for aces, and after the [2s] river untouchble10 was out in third.

That pot put darluna at 47,663,168 to start heads-up versus Toroo13 who had 12,846,832. They played eight hands with darluna winning all but one of them to push up close to 58 million while Toroo13 dropped down to 2.53 million.

Then Toroo13 open-raised all in and darluna called. Toroo13 had [6d][4c] while darluna had [8s][4d], and after a runout of [2h][Qh][2c][3s][Kd], it was all over -- darluna had won.

Congratulations to darluna for outlasting more than 6,000 opponents to win this week's Sunday Million, and kudos also to the other three players who made it to the four-handed table deal to ensure themselves handsome paydays as well.

1/17/16 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants:  6,051
Prize pool: $1,210,200
Places paid: 900

1. darluna (Colombia) $159,483.14*
2. Toroo13 (Costa Rica) $105,505.94*
3. untouchble10 (Moldova) $128,463.80*
4. dulek_jason (Poland) $90,147.18*
5. marjanko89 (Ukraine) $50,828.40
6. Eat_U_Up_ha (Canada) $38,726.40
7. Mpa3yka (Russia) $26,624.40
8. Allwill move (Russia) $14,522.40
9. doublefish87 (China) $9,379.05
* = denotes a four-way deal leaving $20,000 for the winner

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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.

The $425,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-Up showed an uptick in players this week. Perhaps a little warm-up to the Turbo Championship of Online Poker (TCOOP) starting up on Thursday's Event #1 Phase Three tournament (Phase One began today) holding a lofty $1.5 million guarantee and not-so-lofty $27 buy-in. As for the matter at hand, PIPI tapis! outlast the 2,554 player field after ten and a half hours of play earning $80,706.69 as this week's champ.

Read on below for PIPI tapis! run for a Sunday Major victory.

With two tables left mennck was looking to avoid another deep run without a final table at a major tournament. After bubbling the SCOOP 2015 Event #33-L mennck would be asked to sit out the Sunday Warm-Up final table as well after running pocket nines into PIPI tapis! kings to finishing in 18th place ($1,915.50).

After mennck's departure the exit door became much larger as the second half of the ninth hour saw the population of the tournament roll from 17 to hand-for-hand play. The remaining ten players would get to chill for five minutes before one hand could decide the difference between receiving $3,192.50 and a potential $80K payday.

True to the fast-styled play of the last half hour, it would only take five minutes to reach the spotlights shown below. With the blinds up to 40K/80K ante 8K t3hN1njALV would four-bet shove over DixyDix who has a SCOOP and a Sunday Million final table. Make that a Sunday Warm-Up final table as well, as DixyDix would make the call with [As][Th] and prevail over t3hN1njALV's [Qc][9c] on the [Td] [9h] [6h] [8d] [Ad] board to open up the final table below:

Seat 1: 10Badboy10 (2330150 in chips)
Seat 2: dimiangelako (1240021 in chips)
Seat 3: DixyDix (4883333 in chips)
Seat 4: Chapex (1825277 in chips)
Seat 5: PIPI tapis! (2990504 in chips)
Seat 6: ileudo (3908448 in chips)
Seat 7: Balazs "birs320" Botond (1305033 in chips)
Seat 8: Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks, (3584111 in chips)
Seat 9: MountainRo$e (3473123 in chips)

Ten minutes into in the final table Balazs "birs320" Botond with a final table in TCOOP 2014's Event #3 would try to better that sixth place result with a shove over an initial raise by PIPI tapis!. However, PIPI tapis! had the goods, quickly calling with [Kc][Ah]. Botond's [Jc][Kh] started behind and ended behind [Th] [4s] [6h] [Ts] [8d] picking up $4,341.80 in ninth place.

Shortly after the blinds moved up to 65K/130K ante 13K a massive three-way pot between 10Badboy10, ileudo, and LoneHixx starts up with one player living on to tell the tale. Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks, a Super Tuesday champ, all-in holding [Kh][Qs], would be looking up at ileudo's kings [Kc][Ks], and even worse, 10Badboy10's aces [As][Ac]. The aces would prevail on the [8d] [8s] [5c] [4h] [8h] board scooping the 8.2 million chip pot, knocking out Hicks in eighth place ($7,406.60) and ileudo in seventh ($12,003.80).

Eight hands later PIPI tapis! was not happy about giving up the chip lead and decided to re-claim it. With the blinds up to 80K/160K ante 16K. PIPI tapis! would raise to 336,000 as DixyDix shoved from the small blind for 2.68 million. PIPI tapis! started with nearly seven million and made the call flipping up [Qc][Ac] to race against DixyDix's fives [5s][5h]. A queen in the middle of the [6c] [Jd] [Qs] [7s] [8s] board earned DixyDix $17,111.80 in sixth place.

On the next hand dimiangelako held out a shortstack long enough to move up the pay ladder decided to try to move up a little more with a push for 1.2 million from the cutoff. MountainRo$e decided to defend the big blind and called with [Qs][Ah]. It worked the last hand for PIPI tapis! and it would work again as dimiangelako's [6s][Ac] did not find any help [9d] [3c] [4d] [7d] [9c] ended the tournament in fifth place ($22,219.80).

After some brief chop talks that went nowhere and the five-minute hourly break, the next two hands would decide who would play heads-up for $80K.

First, with the blinds up to 100K/200K ante 20K Chapex would min-raise from the button as MountainRo$e decided to defend the big blind again, shoving for 3.4 million. Chapex covered and called with pocket nines [9s][9h] as MountainRo$e turned up the popular ace-queen [Qc][Ac]. Unfortunately for MountainRo$e ace-queen's magic would not see this one through [Kh] [7c] [Td] [4c] [8d] ending the run in fourth place ($29,876.69).

On the next hand 10Badboy10 would three-bet PIPI tapis! to 1.1 million as the chip leader made the call. [9s][5h][Th] flop got both players excited as 14 million chips ended up in the middle with PIPI tapis! holding straight and flush draws [Qh][8h] and 10Badboy10 clinging to top pair-top kicker [Td][Ac]. [2d] turn was solid for the double up but the heart on the river [3h] would send 10Badboy10 home in third place ($42,907.20).

PIPI tapis! would bring in a sizable lead (17.7 million to 7.7 million) to heads-up play and would hold that lead over the course of the match. Halfway through the 10th hour of play with the blinds up to 125K/250K ante 25K and PIPI tapis! extending the lead 19.9 million to 5.5 million, Chapex would take a shot at a double up. With the board reading [9s][5h][6s][Ks][5s] PIPI tapis! shoved as Chapex called for 3.6 million left holding rivered trips [Tc][5c]. PIPI tapis! got the max payoff for the flopped straight [8c][7d] earning $80,706.69 as this week's Sunday Warm-Up champion!

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up results (01-17-16)

Entrants: 2,554
Places paid: 378
Prize pool: $510,800.00

1. PIPI tapis! (Malta) $80,706.69
2. Chapex (Peru) $60,274.40
3. 10Badboy10 (Russia) $42,907.20
4. MountainRo$e (Israel) $29,876.69
5. dimiangelako (Greece) $22,219.80
6. DixyDix (United Kingdom) $17,111.80
7. ileudo (Russia) $12,003.80
8. Kenny "LoneHixx" Hicks (Canada) $7,406.60
9. Balazs "birs320" Botond (Hungary) $4,341.80

Ready to join in the upcoming TCOOP series? Click here to get an account.

The record-breaking Macau Millions Main event of 2,343 entries has now been whittled down to a final nine.

Leading the charge is China's Alvan Zheng, who edged into pole position after enjoying a late game card rush to finish play with a stack of just over 4.5 million.

Hot on Zheng's heels is 2014 APPT Seoul High Roller champion Quan Zhou who had a huge day at the felt, bagging an impressive 4.18 million in chips.

Both Chinese players enjoy a lead in excess of 1.5 million over next closest rival - Hong Kong's Jason Lo - who finished the day with a stack of just over 3.5 million.

While all three players are way ahead of the rest of the pack there is still plenty of quality left with in-form reigning APPT champion Tony Cheng coming in fresh from his latest victory in the HK$20,000 (~US$2,500) NLH side event a scant two days prior. Cheng will have to work hard to lock up the win however, coming in as the shortest stack with just over 1 million in chips.

The remaining nine finalists are all guaranteed a payday of at least HK$75,000 (~US$9,600) with first place paying out a wallet-fattening HK$911,000 (~US$116,800) that includes an entry to the 2016 ACOP Main Event.

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 Hen 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 follow all the action as it happened on the Pokerstars blog and can find a complete Main Event Winners List here.

Play began with 160 hopefuls who circumnavigated the tournament minefield to make Day 2 with China's Xiao Lin leading the field with a stack of 553,000.

Unfortunately for Lin he came up short as play progressed, falling victim to Hong Kong's Benny Lai, who himself fell victim to final tablist Guancheng Wu in a three-way car crash of a hand that saw the latter hit a set of tens to beat Lai's [as][ks] and crack Zhou Lin's [kh][kd].

Other notable casualties included inaugural Macau Millions winner Justin Chan (119th), Red Dragon winner Raymond Wu (92nd) and 2015 Asia Player of the Year Alan Lau (82nd).

The action was fast-paced and thoroughly entertaining with more than 30 players hitting the rail during the first level. Play began to slow slightly as the dinner break approached before 17 players departed in a flurry of cards and chips when play resumed to set up the final table.

The final table plays out on Monday 18 at 2:00pm local time - join us then as we see who has what it takes to become 2016 Macau Millions champion.