By Sean Callander

It’s hard to imagine two more diverse cities than Las Vegas and Macau. Located in the hot and dry Nevada desert, Vegas is isolated from every other city in the USA while Macau’s population density is among the highest of any city in the world.

The make-up of the gaming mix is also vastly different in the two cities. In Macau, you’ll find the regular casino games like blackjack, roulette, Sic bo, Fan-Tan, keno and slot machines (known as tiger machines). But the most popular game by far is baccarat with VIP high-roller baccarat generating more than 70 per cent of total gaming revenue.

And unlike Vegas, you won’t find a single western-style poker room in Macau – yet. The casinos are also yet to pick up on other aspects of gaming culture; one example being fashion.

The players’ attire at the PokerStars.net APPT Macau: Asian Poker Open is like any other tournament – caps, sunglasses, hoodies and iPods are de rigueur. But once players leave the tournament area, strict security protocol dictates that the hats and glasses have to come off.

David Saab’s sunglasses have been packed away for the night after he pushed in his remaining 6200 in chips with just 9 2. But the popular Aussie, who has impressed in his previous APPT outings, ran into A Q, ending his hopes of a good run in Macau.

You’ll never see Jeff Lisandro wearing sunglasses at the poker table, but he shared Saab’s fate just before the dinner break when he shoved in his last 4100 with 9h 8h. He ran into a set of fives, ending his first APPT experience. However, Lisandro will be back for the $15k event, which starts on Monday.



Another WSOP bracelet winner, John Juanda, was also sent to the rail just before the dinner break. Forced to act due to his short stack, Juanda picked the wrong spot with his Qc 3c when James Potter turned over pocket kings in the big blind.

Potter, a sponsored PokerStars player, said it was an honour for him to sit at the same table as the triple WSOP bracelet winner, but happily declared that “he did it for PokerStars”!

Other players eliminated in the 90 minutes prior to the opening day’s main break were Chad Brown and Tuan Lam, who pushed with his short stack holding pocket sixes but ran into kings.

Just over 30 minutes into level seven (150/300 with a 75 ante), more than half the field has been eliminated and the chip leaders in the race for the $US222,640 first prize are Philippines-based American Renato de Guzman (65,000) and Aussie Joel Dodds (58,000).