By Brad “Otis” Willis

A couple of years back, somebody in Las Vegas whispered to me, "Why do you think PokerStars hasn't opened a live poker room yet? Just imagine..."

I spent the next couple of years imagining just that. Of course, there are a lot of logistics to deal with and such. Still, just imagine.

Today we learned that it's no longer just a flight of fancy. This week, PokerStars is opening PokerStars Macau, Macau's first live poker room. The Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino room will have seats for 160 players, offer cash games, and boast of a pretty nice weekly tournament schedule.

The new poker room opens this Friday with a charity tournament to raise money for the victims of the recent earthquake in Western China. Players will be fighting for $150,000 HKD in prizes, including entries to the $25,000 HKD buy-in APPT Macau event in September.

The charity event will be the first event of the “Macau Poker Cup” – a series of poker tournaments scheduled during the May 23-25 weekend, including a $1,000 HKD buy-in Deep-Stack event and the $10,000 buy-in Red Dragon event.

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour’s is still working out the full schedule for its second season. One thing is for sure, though. It will kick-off at the Grand Waldo Casino with the September 1-6 APPT Macau Main Event, a $25,000 HKD buy-in No-Limit Hold’em poker tournament with a guarantee of $10,000,000 HKD.