It was the start of something beautiful as Saturday saw another edition of the Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon in full effect.

The feature tournament of the MPC's 17-day festival, the HK$12,000 Red Dragon, attracted a field of 108 for the first of four Day 1 flights. That's only two less than the last edition and with three more opening flights this week, PokerStars LIVE Macau are confident that the total entrants tally will no doubt increase substantially.

Day 1a had 12 blind levels of 40 minutes each and when all said and done only 21 remained. Leading the pack is Korea's Saehoon Lee who bagged up 158,900 at the conclusion of play. Lee already has over 20 live cashes in Macau and will be looking to add to that here this week.

The biggest of those cashes was for second place in an APPT Macau event last year for HK$340,000. Lee will have three days to rest up before returning for the official Day 2 on Wednesday.

Joining Lee on the Day 1a podium are Hong Kong's Jason Pereira (2nd place) with 133,600 in chips and Japan's Tokuho Yoshinaga (3rd place) who finished up with 122,600. If either of these two make a deep run they could potentially eclipse their previous biggest live cashes to date.

MPC23 Red Dragon Day 1a Top Ten
Saehoon Lee (Korea) - 158,900
Jason Pereira (Hong Kong) - 1336,00
Tokuho Yoshinaga (Japan) - 122,600
Wei Huang (China) - 107,600
Mattias Douhan (Sweden) - 104,600
Juerg Niederberger (Hong Kong) - 98,100
Zhong Zheng (China) - 94,800
Ziyang Zhao (China) - 92,500
Feng Zhou (China) - 91,400
Chong Wei Lew (Singapore) - 89,500

Click here for end of Day 1a chip counts

While they've all secured a spot for Day 2, there were 87 who weren't so lucky. Notables KC Wong and Wing Cheong Chong were among those who fell by the wayside. Chong emerged as champion in this very event back in 2008 but couldn't keep the dream alive tonight.

For those who survived, however, it's time for three days off while the others try their luck in the remaining Day 1 flights. By all educated guesses we're in for some big fields and an exciting week here at PokerStars LIVE Macau.

Day 1b begins at 2:00pm local time on Sunday and we'll be here to cover all the action from the felt. Be sure to stay with us!