The eyes of the poker world have been focused on Paris for the past week for the latest installment of the World Series of Poker Europe, but much of that attention will turn to Macau in the coming days as we near the Asia Championship of Poker main event.
More importantly, it looks like we could be in for some record numbers if the opening events on the schedule are anything to go by.
Event 1, the Rebuy Championship, drew a field of 139 players who also contributed 208 rebuys – the HK$757,328 prize pool easily surpassing the HK$500,000 guarantee. And Event 2, the HK$11,000 Deepstack Championship, smashed its HK$1 million guarantee with 177 entrants giving a prize pool of HK$1,716,900.
Ioan Taiz won the opening event at this year’s ACOP
We’ve noted with interest a large number of pros and tournament regulars from around the Asia-Pacific region have been tweeting their impending departure for Macau in recent days so we’re expecting these figures to continue to swell before the main event gets underway next Monday.
For the record, 32-year-old Romanian player Ioan Taiz won the opening event for HK$189,300 with the final table of Event 2 being played today.
It’s also great to see some of Asia’s best players supporting ACOP. Bryan Huang, Celina Lin and Vivian Im all stuck around to take part in the early events rather than trying to win a WSOP bracelet in France.
