Massive Field Brewing in Macau, Randy Lew Leads Team Pro Push

After a smaller than usual year-opening Bahamas series and a Main Event in Panama that failed to break 400 players, the PokerStars Championship series have come across some backlash through the first quarter of 2017. Those early Americas-based stumbles were put to rest earlier today though, as the first-ever PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event surged past the 500-player mark, with 321 players coming together for the recently completely Day 1B session.

Nearly 200 players survived the day, including the flight’s chip leader, Joachim Bold. The German bagged 130,500, which still trails Day 1A leader Zigao Yu’s total from yesterday. While big name, high stakes regulars advanced through the first flight in the handfuls, most spent their off-day playing a $25K Single-Day High Roller, the handful of PokerStars Team Pros that were in action did not advance.

Chris Moneymaker, ElkY and Felipe Ramos failed to put chips away for Day 2, along with China’s own Celina Lin. India’s Aditya Agarwal is still alive though, as is Team Online’s Ranky ‘nanonoko’ Lew, meaning those two will carry the PokerStars flag into tomorrow’s Day 2 restart.

Joining them on the other side are Kitty Kuo (69,000), Dong Kim (48,400) and High Roller Steve O’Dwyer (25,300) and while they’ll all return to try to get a piece of an over $2,500,000 prize pool, that figure isn’t set quiet yet. Registration is still open through to the start of Day 2, meaning players who missed both starting flights can still get in the action.

More information on the PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event can be found on the PokerStars Blog, along with updates of Day 2 and complete prize pool information when it becomes available.