Macau’s poker calendar just got its loudest entry of the summer. The MGM Poker Classic is back at MGM Cotai, running June 26 through July 6 with HKD 13,000,000 — roughly USD 1.65 million — in guarantees stretched across eleven days of play. For a region that spent much of the first half of 2026 watching the big money move to Jeju and Manila, a festival of this size on the Cotai Strip is a reminder that Macau still anchors the Asian live circuit.
An HKD 8 Million headline act
The centrepiece is the MGM Poker Classic Main Event, an HKD 12,000 buy-in tournament carrying an HKD 8,000,000 guarantee on its own. Five Day 1 flights run from July 3 to 5 — two apiece on the 3rd and 4th, a final go on the 5th — before survivors converge for Day 2 on July 6. That flexible multi-flight format is built for exactly the kind of travelling field Macau draws: fly in, fire a bullet, and re-enter on a later flight if the first one goes south.
Organisers are clearly betting on volume from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan, all within a short hop or ferry ride of the Cotai Strip. Whether the HKD 8 million target gets cleared will be the number to watch once the flights are counted.
Eleven days, every format under the sun
The supporting schedule is where the series earns its “Classic” billing. Two NLH Mystery Bounty events, on June 27 and July 1, each guarantee HKD 800,000. Between them sits a full spread of formats — Progressive Knockout, deepstack and multi-stack NLH, Big O, HORSE, Short Deck and even a PLO Double Board Bomb Pot for the gamblers. Nine events across the run carry guarantees, so there is a soft landing for players who bust the Main Event early.
The final day doubles as the high-stakes finale: the MPT High Roller — King of Glory asks HKD 55,000 with 100,000 starting chips, while a Last Chance Freezeout and Deepstack Turbo (HKD 500,000 guaranteed) give the grinders one more shot before everyone flies home.
What players should know before they travel
A few Macau-specific rules are worth packing alongside your passport. All buy-ins, cash games and payouts at MGM Cotai run in Hong Kong Dollars — not the local Pataca — and entries are accepted strictly in cash or live casino chips. Membership of the Alpha, Golden Lion or Masters clubs is required to sit down, and Macau gaming law prohibits filming, streaming or exposing hole cards without prior authorisation, so leave the vlogging rig in the room.
Getting there is the easy part. MGM Cotai sits minutes from Macau International Airport and the Taipa ferry terminal, with high-speed ferries from Hong Kong and the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge offering a land route for anyone crossing from the mainland.
With the Main Event flights firing from July 3, the next few days will tell us whether Macau’s flagship summer festival can convert its geography into one of the region’s deeper live fields of the year. We’ll be tracking the APAC names as the Cotai action plays out.