The City of Dreams is hosting PokerStars’ Macau Poker Cup, and the turnout has been far greater than expected. While it’s had to compete with the Aussie Millions schedule for press time, it has still received its fair share of publicity, especially for the much-anticipated Red Dragon Main Event.
The main event attracted 280 players on Day 1A, and an additional 349 on Day 2. By the time registration was closed, 1,122 entries had been placed. Several well-known personalities made appearances for the tournament, such as PokerStars pro Celina Lin and ex-premier league soccer player Anthony Gardner. Lin had previously won the event twice, but was denied this year after being eliminated just before the end of Day 2.
366 players made it through the first three days of action. China’s Ying Tang led at the end of Day 3 with an overwhelming stack of 1,339,000 chips. The tournament wraps up on Friday, February 9, with the winner taking home HK$3,055,000, or a little more than US$ 390,000, as well as a seat at the Asia Championship of Poker Main Event.
Tang has shown impressive play for someone with little experience. He recently began his trek down poker road and has only accumulated just shy of $61,000, which he earned last year. He finished 5th at the WPT Sanya Main Event in November, where he earned $60,000. At the WSOP Deepstack tournament in December, he cashed in 47th place for $438.
After receiving a better-than-expected turnout, the guaranteed prize pool of HK$10,000,000 (US$1.279 million) was sent soaring to HK$14,672,000 (US$1.876 million), with a $30,000 PokerStars Platinum Pass thrown in as a little bonus. The Platinum Pass is the ticket to getting into the 2019 PokerStars Players Championship in the Bahamas. That event will be held from January 6 to 9 next year, just prior to the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.
The Macau Poker Cup 28 (MCP28) began on January 26 and will continue through February 11 and players can take advantage of 31 official Asia Player of the Year events. Apart from the standard poker formats players are used to finding at big-ticket events, the MCP also offers a few twists, such as the Baby Dragon and the Megastack.
