Tournament poker is officially back in Macau with Sands China to host the city’s first official tournament in six years at The Venetian Macao from today.
The four-day “Macao Masters” event, boasting a HK$3,000 (US$384) buy-in, features three Day 1 flights over the next three days, each with unlimited rebuys through the registration period. The top 30 chip stacks at the conclusion of the three flights will then progress through to the final day on Thursday, according to the event’s guidelines.
Sands China is one of three concessionaires currently offering cash game poker in Macau alongside MGM China and Wynn Macau, however it is believed this represents the first official poker tournament to be held in the SAR since the PokerStars Live room at City of Dreams was shuttered in 2018. The last ever large-scale event held at City of Dreams, the 2018 Macau Millions, attracted a Main Event starting field of 2,499 players.
In response to inquiries from Inside Asian Gaming, Sands China’s Senior Vice President of Casino Operations, Andy Kobel, said the company saw this week’s tournament as “a way to continue to grow the market, while simultaneously enhancing the experience for our customer base.”
The local market, he added, had “responded well to [The Venetian’s] poker offering.”
Asked if this event, which is self-run by Sands China, could be a precursor to larger-scale events in future, Kobel said, “We’re always looking at new opportunities, and tournaments of different scale and frequency are certainly some of those opportunities.”
The World Poker Tour (WPT) has recently expressed a desire to bring its brand to Macau, with CEO Adam Pliska telling IAG in December that the company is “very eager to go there”.
“There are some structural issues in Macau that make it difficult, particularly with dealers, but we are dedicated,” Pliska said at the time.
“We will get to Macau. We will work with the government and we’ll work with anyone else to make sure we get a good event.”
Kobel told IAG that Sands China was not in a position at this time to comment on whether it had held any such discussions with the WPT.
