By Sean Callander

The chips are being bagged at the end of the opening day’s play at the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino in the PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asian Poker Open.

We’ve completed 10 levels, and just 77 players will be back tomorrow: first chasing a spot in the money (top 40) and then a final table berth for a serious shot at the first prize money of $US22,460.

Just minutes before play wrapped up, Tobias Schulze from Germany snatched the chip lead when his jacks held up against his opponent’s K 10 on a board of 7d 3h 4c Ac 10d. He finished the day on 179,000 in chips.

It’s been a good day at the office for Team PokerStars with the list of players still in the hunt including Joe Hachem, Bill Chen, Hevad Khan, Isabelle Mercier and Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier. Sponsored players Scotty Nguyen, Masa Kagawa, Guillaume Patry and James Potter also survived the day.

Other players of note who’ll have to set the alarm for the morning include APPT Seoul champion Ziv Bachar from Israel, highly ranked Aussie pro Gary Benson and Liz Lieu, who’s stack swung wildly through the day before she finished just under the chip average of just over 45,000.

PokerStars Video Blog
Alison interviews Liz Lieu about her excitement about Poker in Asia.





And as we’ve reported throughout the day, players to end the day on the rail included 1990 WSOP champion Mansour Matloubi; Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Rousso, Lee Nelson and Tuan Lam; Chad Brown; Jeff Lisandro; Van Marcus and John Juanda. We’ll be back tomorrow from noon (local time) for day two.