First Asia Pacific poker tour opens in Manila

MANILA (AFP) - Australian Joe Hachem, who pocketed 7.5 million dollars when he won the World Series of Poker championship in 2005, is one of the stars taking part in the first ever Asia-Pacific Poker Tour which began here on Friday.

More than 200 players from 30 countries will compete in the three day event at Manila's Hyatt Hotel and Casino for a share of the 500,000-dollar prize pool.

"There has been a massive explosion in poker over the last 10 years," said Sarne Lightman who organised the event.

"Poker used to be associated with shady men in smoke filled rooms but that's not the case any more. Televised poker and the Internet has changed all that.

"Poker is a skills based sport based on mathematics and psychology."

PokerStars, the world's biggest online poker site with more than nine million players worldwide, is backing the Asian tour.

Registered in the Isle of Man and governed by UK gaming laws it has given out more than seven billion dollars in prize money since it began operations in 2001.

"Asia is an untapped market when it comes to poker," said tournament director Danny McDonagh.

"We hope this inaugural tour, which will end in Sydney's Star City Casino in December, will lead to it becoming an annual event in Asia."

One of those taking part is blonde 24-year-old Vanessa Rousso one of the stars of the American poker circuit and an economics graduate from Duke University.

"When I left Duke I was 20 and realised I wouldn't be taken seriously on Wall Street and besides I was too young to drink," she told AFP.

"I took up law at Miami University and have six months to go.

"I promised my mother I would finish the degree even though I had decided to take up poker. Law is my plan B ... you have to have a plan B."

Rousso said her interest in the game began while she was studying economics.

"It's all about numbers and people," she said.

"I made 750,000 dollars in my first year playing poker.

"I don't have a hope in hell of earning that much in my first year out of law school. Besides, poker allows me to travel the world and live like a rock star."