The HKD $8,800 NLH event at PokerStars Macau had a total of 161 players enter the opening tournament for the Macau Poker Cup Championship 2012 (MPCC) -- easily surpassing the HKD $1,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.
"It's a solid start to the 10-day week." said Lorie Lagrosas, PokerStars Macau Live Operations Manager. "50% more people were here today (Saturday) than Friday. I fully expect the numbers to grow as we approach the MPCC Main Event on Wednesday."
Hong Kong's Ray Chiu leads the remaining 44 player field who will return to the Grand Waldo Entertainment Complex for Sunday's Day 2 final. The top 19 players will be in the money for their share of the HKD $1,249,360 prize pool with the eventual winner receiving HKD $306,100.
Chiu played the second of two Day 1 flights and bagged up 91,700 chips. Singapore's Jacky Wang (85,400), Hong Kong's Tony Chang (75,600), Czech Republic's Roman Babela (71,700), and 2011 Asia Player of the Year Shaq Lin (62,900) round out the Top Four stacks.
End of Day 1 Chip Leaders:
1. Ray Chiu (Hong Kong) -- 91,700
2. Jacky Wang (Singapore ) -- 85,400
3. Tony Chang (Hong Kong) -- 75,600
4. Roman Babela (Czech Republic) -- 71,700
5. Shaq Lin (Chinese Taipei) -- 62,900
6. Chuanbin Yao (China) -- 62,000
7. Edward Ho (Hong Kong) -- 58,800
8. Hao Tian Feng (Australia) -- 56,400
9. Justin Chan (Hong Kong) -- 49,300
10. Xia Ming Huang (China) -- 47,600
Other notables advancing to Day 2 include 2010 Macau Millions winner Justin Chan (49,300), 2009 Aussie Millions High Rollers champion David Steicke (43,700), Jeanette "Jay" Tan (35,700), 2011 MPCC champion Raiden Kan (21,300), Kenny Shih (13,700) and Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin (21,900).
Team PokerStars Pros Bryan Huang and Raymond Wu, 2010 MPCC winner Julian Hasse, 2012 Aussie Millions runner-up Ken Wong, Nick Wong, and Abhishek Goindi entered Event 1 but didn't survive through the end of the day.
Day 2 of Event 1 begins at 4pm on Sunday afternoon. The evening will also see the start of Event 2: $1,500 Deepstack which begins at 6pm.