The 2018 Oriental Poker Championship HKD $16,500 Main Event Live Coverage

Good morning, afternoon, and evening wherever you are in the world, and welcome back to PokerNews’ coverage of the inaugural Oriental Poker Championship (OPC) 2018. We’re here all week at the lavish Venetian Macau Resort & Hotel, and while yesterday saw the HK$100K High Roller kick things off, today they’ll get the ball rolling on Day 1a of the HK$16,500 OPC Main Event.

This event comes with an enticing HK$5million guaranteed prize pool, which is sure to attract some of the top talent to the Poker King Club. The starting stack is 30,000, and the plan today is to play 11 40-minute levels, with a 60-minute dinner break scheduled after Level 8. This event has unlimited re-entries, so expect an action-packed day.

While this is the first event here under the OPC banner, it’s not the first time the Venetian Poker Room has held some big tournaments. Almost a year ago to the day we were here for the Poker King Cup Macau 2017 Main Event, a HK$16,500 event which attracted 490 runners to create a healthy HK$7,129,500 prize pool. It was China’s Longyun Li who took that one down for HK$1,225,500 (~$157K), defeating Malaysia’s Michael Soyza heads-up.

We were also here at the Venetian in November 2017 to cover the Suncity Cup Finale Macau. The HK$6,600 Main Event had a massive HK$8million guaranteed in the prize pool, and after ten days of play the 928-strong field was whittled down to just one. South Korea’s Je Ho Lee emerged victorious, banking HK$1,605,472, while Hong Kong’s Park Yu Cheung finished second.

But who will be victorious this week? We’re here to find out. Tomorrow will be Day 1B, which kicks off at 1pm, and there’s a turbo Day 1C tomorrow evening at 6pm. Saturday will be Day 2, Sunday is Day 3, and the whole thing will come to an end on Monday’s Final Day. Here’s a look at the Day 1 structure (it’s worth noting that levels increase from 40 minutes to 60 minutes from Day 2 onwards):

Day 1 Level Structure