The first PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event ever kicked off early Monday afternoon at the City of Dreams resort. Day 1a got underway at noon local time with six 75-minute levels on the schedule. A total of 193 entries put up the HKD $42,400 buy-in throughout the day with 117 surviving through to Day 2.
A great call midway through the day propelled China’s Zigao Yu (lead photo) to the top of the counts on Day 1a of the PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event, ending the night with 162,400.
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zigao Yu | China | 162,900 |
| 2 | Daniel Laidlaw | Australia | 135,300 |
| 3 | Ryan Yu | Canada | 125,200 |
| 4 | Dmytro Denysenko | Ukraine | 118,000 |
| 5 | Yan Li | China | 107,700 |
Joining Yu at the top of the leaderboard was majority Day 1a leader Daniel Laidlaw from Australia (135,400) and Canada’s Ryan Yu (125,900).