Macau.
With casinos as far as the eye can see down the Cotai strip and beyond, CNN reported that the gambling industry was seven times bigger than that of Vegas itself in 2014.
And with over 34 casino’s in close proximity, it’s no surprise that the glitzy-gambling capital of Asia has a rich history of high rollers. As I stroll through the PokerStars LIVE Room here in the City of Dreams casino, I notice a whole host of former high-roller champs crowned in this very town with a seat at today’s event – the HK$100K Single Re-Entry Shot Clock High Roller.
The enigmatic David Peters is one of them.
After busting a mere-20 minutes into Day Four of the PSC Main Event, the American jumped straight into this one – where he’ll be hoping to last a little longer today. Peters took down the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) last November for HK$4,885,200 ($629,868), which catapulted him to the top of the GPI Player of the Year 2016 to pip Fedor Holz to the post.
Steve O’Dwyer is also expected to show up shortly. Yes – he won the super-high roller here just earlier this week in spectacular fashion for $1,088,783 (again, I might add to trump Holz – no thanks, in part, to a magic mango). But that wasn’t even the high-roller veteran’s first victory here in the Vegas of the East.
Back in 2014, O’Dwyer took home a whopping HK $ 14,050,000 ($1,811,638) for his win at the APPT Super High Roller (HKD $500,000) – his biggest all-time cash. It should be noted here that he managed to secure this victory without the aid of any magical fruit.
Other former high-rollers winners in today’s field include James Chen – another man to have outright won two high-rollers in Macau to place him at the top of the Taiwanese all-time money list. And who can forget Stanley Choi – the HK all-time money list champ, who took down the 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller for a smidgeon over HK $50,000,000 or $6,465,574.
Pfft, what a fish eh?
As expected, the usual high-roller regulars can also be seen in situ for this week’s host of events. So far today they include the likes of John Juanda, Jack Salter, Ike Haxton, Davidi Katai, Mustapha Kanit and Sam Greenwood among others. Watch this space for an update on their progress so far to come shortly, or head over to PokerNews to for live updates.
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