The Macau Poker Cup celebrates a quarter-century this week with MPC25 already steamrolling its way into the record books. The 17-day festival has just eclipsed the halfway point and now it is time for the celebrated HK$12,000 Red Dragon Main Event.

Officially commencing on Sunday with Day 1A the Red Dragon boasts a HK$6,000,000 guarantee and can have big shoes to fill after the roaring success of MPC24. The last iteration of the series saw a record-breaking 1,075 entrants, earning the title of the biggest freezeout tournament ever within the Asia-Pacific.

When all was said and done it was Malaysia's Ying Lin Chua who overcame the mammoth field and a difficult final table (including Tom Alner and Wayne Zhang) to attain himself HK$1,904,000 after a three-handed deal. And as though that wasn't enough, Chua also became the proud new owner of the best-looking trophy in poker.

Reigning champion Ying Lin Chua

Time will tell if the Red Dragon record will also be broken again this week but organizers have high expectations after the child Dragon event just crushed a record of its own. The most important field previously for the child Dragon was seen in August last year with 353 runners in attendance. This week a whopping 575 entrants pulled up seats to generate a prize pool of HK$3,513,825 and dwarf the HK$1,000,000 guarantee. With the child Dragon blowing expectations out of the water, here's hoping the Red Dragon Main Event follows suit.

"The Baby Dragon result has far exceeded what we expected and we already had high expectation first of all" said APPT President Mark Blake.

Among what's gearing as much as be a packed house, the standard of the sector may also be anything but lacklustre. The Team PokerStars contingent has already made itself known this week, with Celina Lin and Chen-an Lin returning to Day 2 of the infant Dragon today.

Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin at MPC24

For now though the main concentration is going to be at the imminent Red Dragon. The tournament includes three Day 1 flights with the overall table beginning on Friday. We'll even have High Roller coverage at the days following the crowning of our Red Dragon champion so you'll want to keep a watch out for that.

Red Dragon Day 1A begins Sunday at 2pm local time and if you wish to get entangled via social media use the Twitter hashtag #MPC25. We are hoping you'll be able to join us!

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Asia Pacific Poker Tour]