All Set for Day 1b of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Macau Main Event

Here we go, boys and girls. In just one hour, at 6pm local time, the Main Event of the first-ever PokerStars Championship Macau will fire up the second and final starting flight.

For HK$42,400, players will receive a seat and a starting stack of 30,000 chips to try to build a good stack for Day 2. They'll play six 75-minute levels tonight before the surviving players bag whatever they've accumulated to take to Wednesday's Day 2. Registration will remain open through the first two levels of Day 2 as well.

The first flight into this event saw a fantastic turnout of 193 entries. When play paused for the night, 117 of them remained and the chip lead belonged to Zigao Yu who counted out a stack of 162,400. Second in chips was Daniel Laidlaw with 135,300 after holding the lead for the most of the day. Ryan Yu rounded out the top three with 125,200.

At the same time as Day 1a, the HK$400,000 Super High Roller came to a conclusion with Steve O'Dwyer coming out on top after making a deal with runner-up Fedor Holz. Both of those players jumped in the HK$206,000 Single-Day High Roller that is also running today, but Holz has already busted and O'Dwyer is short, so they may both make an appearance in the Main Event today.

Day 1 Level Structure

Level	Duration	Small Blind	Big Blind	Ante
1	75 min	50	100
2	75 min	75	150
Break 15 min
3	75 min	100	200	25
4	75 min	150	300	50
Break 15 min
5	75 min	200	400	50
6	75 min	250	500	75

This is the third PokerStars Championship in its inaugural season after the new tour replaced the European Poker Tour. The first two stops were at the Bahamas and in Panama. After Macau, PokerStars Championship will hit Monte-Carlo and Sochi.

Keep your eyes on this page as the PokerNews live reporting team will be providing updates all throughout the series from the tournament floor.

Tags: Daniel Laidlaw Fedor Holz Ryan Yu Steve O'Dwyer Zigao Yu