On August 12th, the Asian Poker Tour‘s (APT) Macau event will kick off from the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino, tournament officials announced on Monday. Last year, the event ran for just five days. This year, the APT has been granted permission to hold it for more than twice that length of time.
In 2008, the APT Macau Main Event guaranteed $1.5 million, which it claimed was the largest guaranteed prize pool ever offered in Asia. When the smoke cleared, 20 year-old Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who is known as “atimos” in the online poker world, grabbed $500,000 for the win. He bested players from over 40 countries in the process, including Americans Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan, who are second all-time with ten World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets behind Ultimate Bet’s Phil Hellmuth. In addition, reigning WSOP Europe Main Event winner John Juanda and National Heads-Up Poker Championship victor Huck Seed were also in attendance last year.
One year ago, the tournament series was acquired by AsianLogic, which is traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol “ALOG.” At the time of writing, it was trading up ₤0.50 on the day to ₤15.00, a jump of 3.45%. Over the past 52 weeks, the company’s stock has traded in a broad range of ₤8.00 to ₤89.75. The APT’s ambassadors, known as the “Poker Pack,” have helped build the tour’s brand name and company’s stock price. They consist of Nam Le, Quinn Do, J.C. Tran, Steve Sung, David “Chino” Rheem, and Kwang Soo Lee.
The buy-in for the 2009 APT Macau Main Event will be $4,300. The action gets underway on August 19th with the first of three starting days. The final table, which will be televised, kicks off on August 23rd. APT officials will once again fly Tournament Director Matt Savage in for the event. Savage serves as the officiate of high-profile poker tournaments around the world, including the recently-completed World Poker Tour (WPT) Bay 101 Shooting Star event in San Jose. Its champion, Steve Brecher, received over $1 million for his efforts and defeated popular poker pro Kathy Liebert heads-up.
APT officials are also expecting a wide variety of side tournaments and ring games. The high-stakes HK$1,000,000 (US$130,000) cash game is expected to return. However, a press release distributed on Monday claimed, “With the APT-sponsored poker room at the Starworld now witnessing six-figure pots in games on a daily basis, the stakes will be significantly raised.” A schedule of events for APT Macau was not available at press time.
APT CEO Chris Parker commented on the upcoming Macau poker tournaments, “The Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival will feature a side event schedule never seen in Asia before, including several new formats that will stir the curiosity of poker enthusiasts at all levels. We believe Asia’s first festival of poker will establish Macau as an essential stop on the international poker circuit.” Last year’s event began on August 27th and ran through the 31st. This year, APT Macau begins on August 12th and concludes on the 23rd.
In 2008, the APT made waves by publicly reaching out to U.S. Olympic swimmer and eight-time gold medalist Michael Phelps, inviting him to compete free of charge. The invitation came as a result of Phelps telling his hometown newspaper, the Baltimore Sun, that he wanted to compete in the WSOP. Although Phelps did not make the flight from Beijing, the site of the 2008 Olympics, a total of 257 players made their way to Macau.
In addition to the festivities in Macau, the APT also held tournaments in January in Manila. The Main Event was won by Neil Arce, a local poker player, who earned $185,000 for his efforts. A total of 262 players turned out for the $2,700 buy-in event, which was held at the Dusit Thani Manila Hotel in Makati City. Amazingly, South Korea’s own Steve Yea finished as the runner up in both the Macau and Manila Main Events for a combined $350,000.
iPoker Network rooms, Full Tilt Poker, PKR, Everest Poker, PartyPoker, 888, and Microgaming’s 32Red Poker are among those that are scheduled to offer online satellites to the 2009 APT Macau event.
