Travel Report: APPT Macau, ACOP Main Event, Day 3

Was another day spent strictly inside the Grand Waldo yesterday, about 14 hours of it or so down in the Grand Waldo Conference and Exhibition Centre where the poker room is located.

Day 3 of the Asia Championship of Poker Main Event -- a.k.a. the APPT Macau ME -- lasted the absolute maximum length of time yesterday as they played from 56 players down to 22 and the cash bubble bursting.

They began with a half-hour left in the 90-minute Level 10, with the plan being to get to 22 and the money or stop at the end of Level 16. The structure is super-deep, with 700/1,400 and 900/1,800 levels stuck in there along the way to ensure the average stack was at least 60-70 big blinds for much of the day. So it wasn’t too surprising things took a while.

As it happened, they made it to the end of Level 16 with 23 players left, having gone to hand-for-hand play at the last three tables for several hands by then. The level reached its end and was extended an extra 15 minutes, and in fact it had been announced they would be playing the very last hand when Linh Tran was knocked out in an A-K versus 9-9 hand.

Michael Kanaan (Australia) and Andrew Gaw (Philippines) are basically tied for the lead as of now, with Mike "SirWatts" Watson (Canada) in third. Team PokerStars Pro Raymond Wu (Chinese Taipei) is still in as well.

This marked my seventh straight day of work, with two more to go. Kind of an arduous schedule, longer than usual for these trips although I know I’ve worked this many days in a row at the WSOP in the past. But as I’ve mentioned before the APPT/PokerStars Macau folks are great to work with, and it’s a fun, supportive environment.

Had a chance yesterday to speak briefly with the last American player left in the field, Alan Sass, for a post. Very nice guy who echoes my sentiment about Macau being a fun place to be. Sass, by the way, participated in that wild $2 million (HKD) turbo sit-n-go in Macau back in late August -- essentially a quarter-million USD buy-in -- and took ninth for a cash worth $705K.

Am also liking very much that the PokerNews folks are here -- Donnie, Remko, Lynn, and Andrew -- as well as others like Jenn who does PokerStars’ Japanese blog.

Speaking of Lynn and Andrew, we shot one of those “nightly notables” videos late yesterday, if you’re curious.

As I say, time is running out here, so I’m cutting this post short today with an idea of trying to sneak in some souvenir shopping before play resumes this afternoon. Check the PokerStars blog today for my posts as well as the live updates from the PN guys.

(Photo above via Hong Kong portrait photographer Kenneth Lim.)