PokerStars LIVE Macau Shatters Record for Largest Tournament Field in Asia
On Friday, March 14, 2014, the latest installment of the Macau Millions at PokerStars LIVE Macau at the City of Dreams shattered the record for largest poker tournament field in Asia. Surpassing the old mark of 1,329 set in 2011 by a wide margin of nearly 500 entries, the new record has been set at 1,804.
"It's been an extraordinary journey to get here," said Danny McDonagh, the PokerStars Director of Live Poker Operations in the Asia-Pacific. "We wanted to ensure we'd be in position to surpass the 1,329 entries when we ran the Macau Millions again, but this has exceeded our expectations. We're incredibly thankful for the support and positive feedback from the players."
The HK$2,000,000 (approx. $257,000) guarantee on the HK$2,200 (approx. $285) buy-in event was crushed, with the generated prize pool sitting at HK$3,499,760 (approx. $450,000). Of that, HK$550,000 (approx. $71,000) will go to the winner.
The record field and passing of the guarantee comes as a direct result of the unique reentry format used in the event. To start, the Macau Millions had six starting days. If a player busted from one of the starting days, he or she had the option to either reenter into the same starting flight once or play as many other Day 1s as he or she wished.
What's more, survivors that advanced from a starting flight into Day 2 had the option to play in a later Day 1 and would then take the largest stack into Day 2. The smallest stack would then simply get removed from play, but with a slight twist, as it would get replaced with HK$11,000 in the player's pocket.
"I'm extremely proud of our PokerStars team," added McDonagh. "And the City of Dreams isn't just a world class venue, but a world class organization."
Heading into Day 2 of the event Singapore's Tai Tan leads the way, and a total of 121 players advanced. You can follow coverage of the event on the PokerStars Blog by clicking here.
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