An estimated prize pool of over P25 million will be at stake when the Philippines hosts the opening leg of the brand-new Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT on Aug. 24-26 at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino Manila.
Produced by online poker giant PokerStars.com (www.Pokerstars.com) and sanctioned by Pagcor, the APPT is easily the richest tournament of its kind in Asia. With a buy-in of $2,500 (about P120,000) and an estimated field of 250 players from all over the world, the tour offers over P25 million in prizes.
A slew of the biggest names in the game are coming over to take a crack at the first APPT crown, including the world-famous Daniel “The Kid” Negreanu, the genius from Canada hailed by many to be the best in the planet, and Joseph Hachem, the 2005 world champion with over $2 million in tournament winnings in the last two years.
Ongoing in a multitude of bars and casinos all over the country are many satellite matches for players who cannot afford the $2,500 buy-in. These are smaller qualifying tournaments with buy-ins ranging from P1,500 and P3,000 to P12,000. Winners of these smaller tourneys qualify for the three-day main event at the Hyatt. In fact, many Filipinos have already won slots through these live satellites, which will run daily till the start of the main event.
PokerStars.com, the single largest and most trusted online poker site today with over nine million members playing daily, has also decided to give more Filipinos opportunities to win seats by providing online satellites entirely free of charge on a daily basis at 7 p.m. By logging on to their website and playing their no-money qualifying tourneys called “freerolls”, any Filipino is provided the chance of winning a $5,000 package that includes a $2,500 seat to the event proper, accommodations at the Hyatt and pocket money without shelling any of his own cash.