- Many of the players will be members of the Guangdong Group, a Macau-based junket operator, which organizes VIP rooms for high stakes gamblers.
- The main event, runs from June 5-7 with a HKD 1m buy-in, and two HKD 1m rebuys.
- Over 100 players expected.
PokerStars announced Friday the “GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions” (GDAM), a new tournament with a double-rebuy $130k buyin main event.
The event is to be held in PokerStars’ new poker room, PokerStars LIVE Macau, at the City of Dreams casino.
PokerStars is expecting to attract over 100 players, many of the which will be members of the Guangdong Group, a Macau-based junket operator, which organizes VIP rooms for high stakes gamblers.
The super-highroller event gets started with a HKD $250k ($32.5k) warm-up event on June 4. But things really kick off with the main event: running from June 5-7, it will cost a HKD $1m (USD $130k) to buy-in, and two HKD $1m rebuys will be allowed.
“This is going to be the one of the most amazing poker tournaments of all-time,” said Danny McDonagh, Director of Live Poker Operations for the Asia Pacific for PokerStars. “We are expecting over 100 players to sit down and play and one of the biggest prize pools for a poker tournament outside of the World Series of Poker. It’s going to be seriously huge!”
Promoters are hoping for a prize pool in excess of $10m, which would put it on par with the biggest WCOOP events and WPT Championships, though still far from the highs of the WSOP Main which still today attracts over 6,000 participants and creates prize pools over $60m.
Seats for those outside the Guangdong Group are limited. PokerStars will be giving away one seat in the event—in a package that includes the $130k buyin, but not rebuys—through an online satellite. It will be the largest tournament package PokerStars has ever awarded.
According to a report in late 2012, the Guangdong Macau group has 15 VIP rooms with presence in City of Dreams as well as Venetian, Sands, Four Seasons, MGM, Wynn, Grand Lisboa, and more.
PokerStars’ new poker room is now the home to the Macau Poker Cup, which ended last month. The event faced issues in the past and moved between casinos, but now has found a permanent home at the City of Dreams.
The Macau stop of the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) will get started at the end of GDAM, running from June 7-16.
