John Hardyment, CEO of World Series of Mahjong and Alex Ho, Champian

Congrats to Alex Ho is the King of Mahjong 2008 and his take home prize is a cool US$500,000 !

1st runner-up Tong Kam Wing, Champion Alex Ho, 2nd runner-up Lam Ho Nam, 3rd runner-up Shigeru Aono

The Top 8 Players 

World Mahjong Limited CEO John Hardyment and Taiwanese celebrity Yu Xiao Ping

Hong Kong Player Crowned World Mahjong Champion Again

The second-annual World Series of Mahjong entered final stage today at the Wynn Macau. 32 mahjong players, out of the original 302 contestants from 15 countries, battled in the fifth round this morning. After 12 hours of four elimination rounds, the world champion was crowned at 10:30pm. Alex Ho Kwok-Hung from Hong Kong became the new mahjong world champion, while Hong Kong natives Tong Kam-Wing and Lam Ho-Nam settled for the second and third place respectively, followed by Japanese player Shigeru Aono.

The 34 year-old world champion Alex Ho Kwok-Hung had never thought of winning, and believed that he was just lucky at the final round. At the sixth round, he was selected by the computer system to play on stage, which made him nervous. Moreover, as he was not familiar with the automatic mahjong table, he dropped and illegally exposed his tile to the other players when he was drawing. He then decided to change his strategy and eventually won the “Pure One-Suit” hand worth 420 points.  In the final round, he was originally the last of the top four players, posting a negative score. During the last two hands of the final round, he beat Japanese player Shigeru Aono, who had been leading in the first few hands of the round. Eventually, Alex won on discard and became the world champion scoring 180.38 points. He then took home the US$500,000 prize money and the HK$150,000 champion’s necklace.    

First runner-up Tong Kam-Wing, 58 years old, is currently retired. He had been in leading positions throughout the final day of the tournament. Since childhood he has been playing mahjong and had worked as a taxi driver. Last year, he also participated in the first World Series and ended up in the 32nd position with US$5,000 prize money. This year, he returned to the tournament with eight family members, including his son and daughter who did not make it to the final round.  Mr. Tong was awarded US$150,000 for second place.

Third-place winner Lam Ho-Lam is a student from Hong Kong. The 22 year-old university student is the youngest among the top four players. He graduated from the Faculty of History at Hong Kong University, and is studying education at the Chinese University in Hong Kong at the moment. He wants to be a teacher, and is not worried about having a negative image in the eyes of his future students, when they find out he had participated in a mahjong tournament. Today, his friends from Hong Kong came to cheer for him and he took home US$80,000.

The 52 year-old Shigeru Aono is an entertainment industry researcher from Japan. He has been playing mahjong for 35 years, and had participated in different mahjong competitions in mainland China. With his solid experience in mahjong tournaments, he had been leading in a few rounds, but lost many points as a discarder during the last few hands of the final round. He settled in the fourth place and won US$50,000.

 Yu Xiao-ping, Taiwanese celebrity and second-runner up of the 2007 World Series, battled alone at the tournament today. Both her mother and grandmother were eliminated from the game earlier, but they still came to support her. Miss Yu dropped from the fourth position at the fifth round to the eighth position at the seventh round. Although she could not make her way to the final round, she still won US$15,000. After the play, she said she was very jealous of the Japanese players since their mahjong skills were so good.

 Hong Kong players continued to dominate the World Series this year, followed by players from Taiwan and Japan. The average scores for this year were higher than last year’s, while the tournament duration was relatively shorter, so the players were less exhausted. Most of the players thought that the World Series provided them with a precious opportunity to play mahjong with people from different countries. World Mahjong Limited, founder of the World Series, said the second year was more successful than the first year, and hoped to have more players from different countries joining next year.

 The World Series of Mahjong was launched by World Mahjong Limited in 2006, and the tournament gathers top mahjong players from all over the world to vie for the enviable title of “World Mahjong Champion” and the biggest prize money - US$1.0 million - in the history of mahjong. Details about the event – registration, rules and regulations, etc – are available on the official website www.world-series-mahjong.com.

香港區選手再度成為『世界麻將大賽』冠軍

（澳門, 2008年09月21日）第二屆「世界麻將大賽」於今天進入最後階段，由來自十五個國家的302位麻將高手，經過兩天的淘汰賽後剩下32位進入今早的第五回合。在今天四個回合、十二小時的激戰之後，冠軍於晚上十時三十分順利誔生。香港選手何國雄勇奪『世界麻將大賽』冠軍寶座，而亞軍及季軍同樣由來自香港的選手湯金榮及林浩楠分別奪得。日本選手青野滋則成為今屆殿軍。

新鮮出爐的「世界麻將皇」何國雄是一名保險從業員，現年34歲的他從沒想過會勝出，感覺自己非常幸運。於第六回合，他被電腦挑選在台上比賽，由於心情特別緊張及對自動洗牌機不大熟悉的關係，在摸牌時不小心把牌丟在枱中央，讓對手看到牌面。因此他決定改變策略，最終糊出清一式，獲得420分佳績。他直言「塞翁失馬、焉知非福」。在最後的第八回合，他本來的分數是負分及排行最後，但到了最後兩局，全靠日本選手青野滋出銃給他，才出奇地反敗為勝，以180.38總分稱冠。他共獲得50萬美元獎金及價值15萬港元的皓石麻將冠軍頸鏈。現職美國友邦保險的他坦言對公司充滿信心，未被雷曼兄弟事件影響心情，獲獎後依然會繼續努力工作。

至於亞軍香港選手湯金榮，現年五十八歲的他是退休人士，今天一直穩守較前排名。從小就搓麻將的他過往曾經做過跟車和的士司機，去年也曾參加過首屆「世界麻將大賽」並獲得32排名及5000美元獎金。他今年特別帶同女兒及兒子等一家八口一同參賽，結果只能得他能進入最後四強，共獲得15萬美元獎金。

季軍林浩楠也是來自香港，現年二十二歲，是四強中最年輕的選手。於香港大學歷史系畢業的他現正修讀中文大學的教育文憑，立志成為教師。他坦言不怕將來的學生知道他曾參加過麻將比賽，因為搓麻將只是為了樂趣而不是沉迷賭博，不會影響其教師形象。最終他共獲得8萬美元獎金，現場的朋友為他歡呼喝采。

殿軍的日本選手青野滋先生現年五十二歲，是娛樂產業的研究生。他有三十五年牌齡，曾參加過於中國舉行的不同形式麻將比賽，因此累積了不少麻將大賽的經驗。今天他本來一直在賽事中領先，可惜到了最後兩局，因出銃而失掉不少分數，最終獲得5萬美元獎金。

首屆「世界麻將大賽」季軍、台灣藝人余筱萍今天單獨出賽，與她一同遠赴澳門參賽的媽媽及婆婆已於早前被淘汰出局，但仍到場替她打氣。筱萍從第五回合的第四排名跌至第七回合的第八排名。未能晉身最後四強，但也奪得一萬五千美元獎金。她於賽後表示，很妒忌那些日本參賽者，因為他們的牌技非常好。

總括今天的賽事，參賽選手繼續以香港人為最多，其次是台灣及日本人。今屆的參賽者平均水準比去年高，而且比賽時間比去年短，令各參賽者不會過份疲累。他們大部分都認為「世界麻將大賽」提供了一個難能可貴的機會，讓他們與不同國家的人同枱較量。主辦單位表示，今年大賽比去年更成功，希望下年有更多不同國家的選手參加。

「世界麻將大賽」由「世界競賽有限公司」舉辦，由一班國際傳媒和資深娛樂工作者成立，總部設於大中華區，旨在舉辦大型的高質數國際性體育和娛樂項目。該賽事將逐年於澳門舉辦，明年活動規格將更盛大更隆重，今年晉級前八強之選手明年將可免報名費參加比賽，歡迎各方麻將好手明年前來挑戰高額獎金。活動詳情請參閱大會官方網 站http://www.mahjongtw.com。

Photos copyright of World Mahjong Limited