Japanese wins $60K in Baccarat Challenge

 Japanese Noritsugu Hakata came away as the Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino’s first Baccarat Challenge winner of the year after  topping the 56-player field tournament over the weekend.

Hakata was presented with a trophy and a giant check worth $60,000 after beating runner-up Hyung Seok Nam of Korea, and third and fourth placers Kenji Murakami and Toru Horiuchi of Japan. Nam walked away with a trophy and $20,000, Murakami a trophy and $10,000 and Horiuchi received $4,000.

Six finalists were issued $1,000 consolation prizes and everyone was invited back to play in the next tournament. The list include No. 5 Ji Uk Heo of China, No. 6 Kensaku Higashi of Japan, No. 7 Noboru Watanabe of Japan, No. 8 Kang Chen and No. 9 Sun Hee Jung of China, and No. 10 Yoshihisa Kobayash of Japan.

After surviving Saturday’s elimination round, Hakata came into the last four hands in third place with 14,800 in chips behind Watanabe (15,200) and Hiriuchi (16,600).

Two hands later Watanabe was shown the door, while Murakami assumed his position with a healthy stack of 23,600 in chips. Jung and Chen also crapped out in the storm, which went to show the aggressive game strategies players employed. The law of averages held true as just six players, one of which riding on fumes, remained at the start of the very last hand.

Hakata still trailed Horiuchi, 32,800 to 29,400, with Murakami (23,600), Heo (19,000) and Nam (17,900) also in pursuit. Hakata elected to submit a secret bet of 16,000 in favor of the player; Nam also bet 17,400 on the player. Hakata was the only player to use the secret bet option and the rest of the field all bet their respective stacks on the banker.

In the end, the player turned over a Natural 9 and defeated the bank.

Notably, Murakami essentially stole third place with the measly 500 in chips that he elected not to shove into the pile. Horiuchi could have locked in a second or third place finish, but was caught greedy.

The event started with four tables of 11 players and another of a dozen. Players began the competition with a bank of 5,000 in chips during the short 20-hand elimination round and the minimum bet was set at 100. The maximum bet limit was removed, however, and the Top 2 finishers of each table advanced to the finals.

Finalists started with a bank of 10,000 in chips and played 30 hands with the same bet limits. Players also received a pair of secret bet slip in both rounds.

Meanwhile, Tinian Dynasty would like to invite tourists on Saipan to check out their new gaming machines-the Interactive Gaming and Hyperlink Jack Pot machines. These machines offer players a chance of winning big payouts with small nickel and dime bets. The Hyperlink jackpot was tipping over $6,000 as of last weekend.

The hotel also announced that the next Baccarat Challenge will be held on March 17 and 18.