City of Dreams Poker Room To Host New Tournament

By Frankie Price on May 4, 2013

Well before the Macau Poker Cup could become a distant memory, PokerStars brings poker back to the City of Dreams. The poker giant shook hands with Guangdong Group Ltd to host what many expect to be the largest poker tournament ever to be held outside of the WSOP. The number of players is expected to be greater than 100 and with a buy-in of HK$1,000,000 and two more rebuys of the same amount, the prize pool will count in millions of dollars.

The Guangdong Macau Group is expanding at an accelerated pace in Macau and already has 15 VIP rooms, at the Venetian, Four Seasons, Wynn, MGM, Sands and Grand Lisboa in addition to City of Dreams. The highroller event will start on June 5 and will reach its conclusion two days later, while on June 4 poker players can compete in the Warm-up Event. There is nothing to frown upon regarding the prizes in this preparation tournament, with the buy-ins standing high at HK$250,000, roughly USD $32,500.

Members of the exclusivist Guangdong Group will have priority at purchasing tickets, with outsiders competing for a limited number of seats. PokerStars will also offer a seat to one player who qualifies through their network, and the lucky winner will have the buy-in and expenses covered. As for the rebuys, the one qualifying through PokerStars satellites will need to pay attention to the plays they make in the early stage of the tournament as they are not covered.

The Super Satellites begin on May 5 at PokerStars and will be held each Sunday until May 26, with interested players expected to buy in for $530. Those poker players who can’t afford this amount, but are dreaming of a chance to play high stakes poker in Macau have a broad range of smaller satellites to choose from. These run on a daily basis and cost only a handful of dollars, with the most successful players qualifying for the Sunday Super Satellites. At the end of this promotion on May 26, the winners of each Super Satellite will sit down at the Grand Final Satellite that will send one lucky player to Macau.

In addition to players qualifying through PokerStars satellites and members of the Guangdong Group, the high roller rebuy tournament is expected to attract many poker professionals. Back in 2012 when the Guangdong Group held a similar event with a buy-in of HKD $2,000,000, some prominent players signed up. Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, Sam Trickett, Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey were just a few of the pros who bought in, but the winner was the less famous Stanley Choi.