Eighty-Eight intrepid poker players signed up for the first starting day of play at the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau main event today, despite a starting buy-in of HKD $40,000 (about $5,130 USD).

Among those starting players sat more than a few recognizable faces including Raymond Wu, Julian Powell, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Celina Lin, Ben Barclay and Marcel Luske, who as well as playing in the event also started the day off with the traditional “Shuffle up and deal” announcement.

Of all those players, the one that fared the best by the end of Day 1a was Raymond Wu with over 87,000 in tournament chips. Wu’s ending day stack puts him in great shape just below the chip leader Alex Chieng and his 110,000 in chips, though all of the other above mentioned pros are actually still alive as well, despite the elimination of more than half of the starting Day 1a field during its seven levels of tough play.

With Day 1a concluded, the 43 surviving players will now have to patiently wait for the results from Day 1b and 1c, before finally learning some crucial details like how many players they’ll be battling in total, how much money will be up for grabs and exactly what this year's winner will receive, for taking down this exciting APPT Macau event.

To follow the Day 1b action, or to learn more about Day 1a check out the PokerStars blog, or the live updates and photos provided by PokerNews.com.