Today, in a first of its kind event, PokerStars cut the ribbon on the brand new and first live poker room in Macau.

Players from all over China walked into the Grand Waldo Casino today to see the opening of PokerStars Macau. Surrounded by hordes of local press, APPT President Jeffrey Hass, Grand Waldo Casino General Manager Gary Woolard, Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson, and Hong Kong actor Kevin Cheng cut the ribbon and opened the doors of the live poker room.

This weekend will see the first ever tournaments played in the new room. The Macau Poker Cup China Earthquake Relief Charity Tournament kicked off the big weekend. PokerStars donated more than $150,000 HKD to help the Red Cross Society of China aid the stricken regions of mainland China. Among the prizes for the inaugural event:

Three $25,000 HKD entries to APPT Macau Main Event (Sep 1-6, 2008)

Four $10,000 HKD entries to tomorrow's Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon Tournament

Five $4,000 HKD entries to Sunday's Macau Poker Cup Blue Dragon Event

Fifteen seats to tomorrow's Macau Poker Cup $1,000 HKD Deep Stack Event

Entries for the 54 players who chose to buy-in amounted to $117,000 HKD that PokerStars then matched, making it a $234,000 HKD donation (not including the 150,000 HKD in donated prizes for the event). Another $4,000 HKD was donated by three players who placed in the money after they chose to turn the tournament seats for which they qualified into cash donations to the Red Cross.

Celebrities from all over China and the poker world came for the first big day at PokerStars Macau.

The winners of the kickoff charity tournament are all familiar faces on the APPT. The top three places went to Fabio Kim, Bob Hwang, and Jeppe Drivsholm (who has the distinction of being the first person to ever be knocked out of an APPT event after suffering his elimination at the APPT Manila event last year).

The opening weekend at PokerStars Macau continues with some big tournaments and cash games over the course of the next couple of days.