After a Day 1A and 1B field of 110 and 148 players respectively, the addition of 133 runners from Saturday's Day 1C brought the total to 391 for the Red Dragon, easily surpassing the HKD $3,000,000 guarantee for the Macau Poker Cup's HKD $11,000 buy-in main event held at the Grand Waldo Entertainment Complex. PokerStars Macau will payout the top 44 players for a share of the HKD $3,838,212 (US $495,000) prize pool with the eventual winner collecting the HKD $854,000 (US $110,000) top prize.
Day 1C started with an accomplished field headlined by 2012 Aussie Millions winner Oliver Speidel along with 2009 APPT Sydney champ Aaron Benton, 2008 APPT Macau High Rollers runner-up Andrew Scott, and Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu.
However, the big names didn't hold up nearly as well in 1C as they did in the previous two Day 1s as that entire list failed to advance.
Leading the surviving 35 Day 1C players was China's Richard Hu who finished Saturday night's play with 183,000 which places him 3rd overall entering Day 2. Hong Kong's Yee Lap Lai (144,000) and Malaysia's Darian Tan (131,100) will also be amongst the biggest stacks when the 104 remaining hopefuls from all three Day 1s return Sunday afternoon.
Interestingly, chip leaders from Day 1A, B, C represent the top 3 overall stacks and in that order. Day 1A leader Jordan Westmorland has 269,000 while 1B leader Thomaz Yip just edges Hu's stack with 183,500.
Former champions still in the hunt to become 2-time Red Dragon slayers include Wing Cheong Chong (75,600), Victor Chen (36,200), Patrick Lee (31,500), Mark Benasa (25,500), Kenny Leong (21,000), and Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin (38,300)
Indian players still in the fray include Abhishek Goindi (109,200), Kunal Jain (81,700), Jasven Saigal (48,400), Team PokerGuru Pro - Sangeeth ‘Samoh’ Mohan (34,800) and Akash Malik (18,900).
Other notables left in the field are 2010 Asia Player of the Year Bryan Huang (34,200) and fellow Team PokerStars Pro Vivian Im (17,900); Macau Poker Cup Championship winners Raiden Kan (99,600) and Julian Hasse (77,500); and, 2012 ANZPT Sydney champion Gordon Huntly with 15,000.
RED DRAGON CHIP LEADERS ENTERING DAY 2:
Jordan Westmorland (Thailand) -- 269,000
Tomaz Yip (Hong Kong) -- 183,500
Richard Hu (China) -- 183,000
Yee Lap Lai (Hong Kong) -- 144,000
Darian Tan (Malaysia) -- 131,100
Xujun Huang (China) -- 120,100
Chul Woo Park (Korea) -- 119,700
Abhishek Goindi (India) -- 109,200
Vladimir Volov (Russia) -- 104,200
Rickie Vedhara (UK) -- 101,300
For Red Dragon Day 2 chip counts click here.
Follow updates of Team India and show them your support on the PokerGuru Forum.
