APPT Macau: Blain comes from behind to win

Dermot Blain started Day 4 seventh in chips and desperately short stacked with just 12.5 big blinds left. By the end, he had completed a miraculous recovery to take home the half million dollar prize.

Irishman Dermot Blain needed all the "Luck of the Irish" that he could muster to stand a chance of winning the PokerStars APPT Macau Main Event. Starting the the day with merely 12.5 big blinds, Blain faced an uphill battle just to survive, not to mention win.

However, after nine hours of play, Blain emerged as the champion, outlasting his eight opponents and eliminating overnight chip leader Daoxing Chen, and then Mike Kim in heads-up play to take down the $541,089 first place prize.

Blain outplays chip leaders

The first big break for Blain came in a hand against Chen. With the blinds at 20,000/40,000 Chen raised it up to 80,000 and Blain was the only caller. The flop came and Chen fired 150,000, and Blain again just called.

The turn of was then checked down by both players. came on the river and Blain decided to turn on the aggression by putting in a 325,000 bet. To the surprise of most observers, Chen quickly called. Blain showed to storm up the leaderboard as Chen mucked his cards.

Blain then made an excellent read against Darkhan Botabayev on the river. With the board showing and almost 1 million chips in the pot, Botabayev put in a half million chip bet as Blain checked. Blain talked the hand over inaudibly with himself before making the call. Botabayev tabled for a stone cold bluff, as Blain with raked in the pot to assume the chip lead.

Chen dominated and eliminated

With three players left, Blain put himself all-in after a 1.05 million chip raise from Chen on a board of . When the hole cards were flipped over, it was all good news for Blain as his just had to dodge one of the three queens to eliminate Chen who held .

No queen was forthcoming for Chen and he went home in third to the disappointment of his home crowd. They nonetheless gave Chen a big round of applause as he departed in third and took home $239,327. The win put Blain in pole position as he took an almost 8 to 1 chip lead over his final opponent Mike Kim.

On the fourth hand of heads-up play, Kim finally decided to put his tournament on the line but he was dominated with against Blain's . Both players made a pair on the flop and Kim needed help to win. on the turn and on the river did not do it for him, and Blain completed his miraculous come from behind victory.

Here are the APPT Macau Main Event results:

APPT Macau Results
Place	Name	Prize
1st	Dermot Blain	$541,089
2nd	Mike Kim	$384,999
3rd	Daoxing Chen	$239,327
4th	Darkhan Botabayev	$166,497
5th	Pontus Kers	$114,464
6th	Jicheng Su	$74,923
7th	Dbinder Singh	$52,033
8th	Brandon Demes	$41,621
9th	Stefan Hjorthall	$31,222