Macau Cup kicks off this weekend
5 Aug 2011
The February and June Red Dragon’s pulled in player fields of 509 (HKD 5.1M prize pool) and 447 (HKD 4.5M prize pool) respectively so players can clearly count on a much bigger competition than the guarantee suggests.
The MPC: Red Dragon will be hosting 9 Official Asia Player of the Year events including the HKD $30,000 High Rollers plus other popular variations of Holdem ranging from HKD $1,000-6,000. The last total prize pool was a record HKD 9.5M and all signs point towards breaking the 8-figure mark this time around.
“It's truly an exciting time for us at PokerStars Macau,” said Danny McDonagh, PokerStars Director of Live Operations for Asia-Pacific. “The MPC: Red Dragon has grown immensely in 2011 and our final tweaks to the nine-day schedule advances it from good to great. I’m confident that we’ll award over HKD $10,000,000 in prize money for the first time at this event.”
Vivian Im -- formerly known as Youngshin Im – is expected to be officially announced as the fourth member of Team PokerStars PRO: Asia sometime next week and joins the existing team of Red Dragon winners Celina Lin from China, Raymond Wu from Chinese Taipei, and 2010 Asia Player of the Year Bryan Huang from Singapore.
Im is an accomplished poker pro with a strong resume. The South Korean has achieved Supernova Elite status on PokerStars and has beaten some of the biggest cash games in Macau. In 2010, the South Korean became the first female champion on the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) when she claimed the Cebu Season 4 title. Im followed up that victory with a runner-up finish in the February Red Dragon earlier this year.
According to the Asia Player of the Year (APOY) point system, Im enters this week as the top ranked female player, top ranked player from Korea, and is No. 5 overall.
For complete Asia Player of the Year rankings please click here.
“Vivian is a great addition to the team.” said Huang. “I respect her game a lot. She’s such a nice person that a lot of players thought she was just some friendly girl playing for fun. But the true pros know that she’s a fierce competitor and she’s clearly been one of the best players on the Asia tournament scene over the last 12 months.”
The MPC kicks off with the $3,000 NLH event on Saturday, August 6 at 2:10 PM HKT.