Niklas Heinecker wins GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions


Friday June 7,2013 : GERMAN VICTORY IN ASIA MILLIONS POKER TOURNEY
 
Rebuys boost prize pool to US$15,403,226.
 
German poker pro Niklas Heinecker (28) joined the ranks of Germany's top earning poker stars Thursday with a convincing win in the GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions that boosted his bank balance by a career-best US$4,464,516 –  one of the biggest pay-days in international tournament poker yet seen outside Las Vegas.
 
Heineker took down the US$130,000 buy-in Super High Roller with Rebuys played at Pokerstars new LIVE facility in Macau, surviving a high calibre field of 70 other players that included many aces of international stature despite the World Series of Poker running concurrently on the other side of the world.
 
Each player was permitted two re-buys in the competition, and there were 54 such moves, boosting the already large prize pool to a mind-boggling US$15,403,226.
 
After two days of unrelenting action the field was trimmed to a truly international final table that featured Heinecker and Jeff Rossiter, Sorel Mizzi, Zheng Tang, Isaac Haxton, Igor Kurganov, Anson Tsang and Pratyush Budigga.
 
The action was fast and furious as the finalists fought for the lion's share of the massive prizepool, and Heinecker started coming through with the elimination of Zheng Tang at fourth. He reinforced his lead by sending Sorel Mizzi to the exit in third for US$2,077,419, setting up the heads up with Australian pro Jeff Rossiter, with the German holding a 3 to 1 chip lead and the blinds at dizzyingly high levels.
 
It took Heinecker just a few hands to demolish the plucky but broke Aussie, who nevertheless took home a second placing check for US$3,161,290.
 
An indication of the size of the prize pool is the take-home of the 8th place finalist, Pratyush Budigga, who collected a check for US$774,193!