<img align="right" src=http://admins.liquidpoker.net/staff/DeFraG/2_09_2008/IJG_6125thumb300x432.jpg style="margin:5px; border: 0px solid black;">Day 1a of the 2008 PokerStars.com Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event welcomed 125 players in the field, and day 1B is just starting at the moment! Competing in this event are quite a few well-known professionals like John Juanda, Wooka Kim, Mike "Timex" McDonald, Vanessa Rousso, Liz Lieu, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown, 2007 APPT Grand Final champion Grant Levy, Johnny Chan, Daniel "Rekrul" Schreiber and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier... but wait. Is it still 'Elky' or should we recall to him as 'Joker' from now on? As You can see on the picture, Elky is wearing a complete Joker outfit, and so far - it does the job. And it's not just the fancy clothing and make-up that does it, he's laughing uncontrollably and jumping up from his seat as well. Putting in raises and calling with the craziness in his eyes, players are thrown off their game for sure!
Day 1A didn't bring a lot of luck for recognized players, but amongst the people who are still left in the HKD $25,000 (USD $3,200) buy-in Main Event, there is Mike McDonald, a young player who recently won EPT German Open in Dortmund, where he cashed in for €933,600. Nominated in three categories for the EPT Awards (best newcomer, best performance and best overseas player) McDonald is really proving his worth with each tournament. This time he will be going into day 2 as a shortstack, as he has just 3,500 chips. Wooka Kim, John Juanda made it to day 2 as well.
During the nine-day poker festival, which is held at the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino (I just hope this doesn't cause any bad "where's Waldo?"-jokes), players will be able to participate in a high-rollers side event, with a HKD $10,000,000 (USD $1,300,000 ) guaranteed prize pool and a HKD $150,000 (USD $19,250) buy-in.
At the moment, ElkY is still in with only 2,975 chips (with 100/200 blinds and 75 ante). Rekrul is doing a lot better with 17.000 chips. Full chipcounts can be found here while updates of the event will be shown at PokerstarsBlog.com
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