APPT Macau Main Event Day 1a | 2009 PokerStars.net APPT Macau

Level: 1

Blinds: 50/100

Ante: 0

08-25-2009 12:30 UTC+8

Shuffle Up and Deal!

[user75032]

After a few opening remarks by APPT President Jeffrey Haas and a local Chinese mask-changing dance, Bryan Huang has said the magic four words, "Shuffle up and deal!" Cards are in the air.

Tournament Director Danny McDonagh has given the player the following notes:

* Play today will be to a maximum of eight levels.

* The top ten chip stacks that advance to Day 2 from the combined Day 1 flights will be placed on separate tables.

* The top three chip stacks at the three-table re-draw will also be placed on separate tables.

McDonagh also instructed the players to be extremely careful about betting out of turn, as any chips that are placed in the pot at any point (even out of turn) must remain in the pot.

08-25-2009 12:23 UTC+8

2009 APPT Macau Main Event Begins Today

[user75032]

Ni hao, poker fans, and welcome to to the third floor of the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino in steamy Macau for Day 1a of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event. This event is the showpiece tournament of a two-week-long series of poker tournaments that kicks off the third season of the highly successful APPT.

Year-on-year growth has been the story for the APPT. This year that growth included a move from the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino on the Cotai side of Macau to the more opulent, more spacious and more prominently located Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino on the peninsula side of Macau. Players will be playing high-stakes tournament poker beneath dazzling glass spider webs that dangle from the ceiling of the poker room.

Last year, Californian Eddy Sabat was the player who emerged victorious after a week of poker play, banking more than US$450,000 for his accomplishment. We expect that a new champion will be crowned this year, having heard second-hand that Sabat will not be returning to Macau to defend his title.

Play for the first of the three Day 1 flights is scheduled to begin at 12:15pm local time, in just a few minutes. We're set up on media row in the back corner of the room, waiting to bring you all of the action. Stick around!