Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Debuts Today

The PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau: Asian Poker Open starts today and runs through 27 November at the luxury Grand Waldo Casino on the historic Chinese island of Macau.

It will be the first No-Limit Texas Hold'em poker tournament held in Macau, and the very first time ever that No Limit Texas Hold'em poker will be played live in the People's Republic of China.

Macau is the only legal gaming location within China.

The Asian Poker Open is a key stop on the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), an annual series of televised No Limit Texas Hold'em poker tournaments held across the region.

The PokerStars.net Asia Poker Open is a thrilling six-day poker event featuring a USD $2,500 (HKD 19,500) buy-in main event, and a USD $15,000 (HKD 117,000) "High Roller" buy-in, as well as other special side events. The estimated prize pool for the USD $2,500 (HKD 19,500) main event is USD $600,000 (HKD 4,680,000), with the champion walking away with a potential first prize of USD $170,000 (HKD 1,326,000).

The estimated prize pool for all events exceeds USD $1,290,000 (HKD 10,000,000, which is 900,000 Euros, or 629,000 GBP). Click here for a complete schedule of events in Macau.

Scotty Nguyen, World Series of Poker Main Event winner in 1998 and one of poker's most popular champions, will join the talented and glamoros Liz Lieu alongside some of Team PokerStars best players.

"Scotty and Liz are two of the highest profile Asian players in the world, so it's great to see them supporting the PokerStars.net APPT Macau," said Sarne Lightman, Director of Marketing for PokerStars Asia Pacific.

Many notable poker players are making the trip to Macau, and include: Chad Brown, Bill Chen, Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachem (2005 WSOP Main Event Winner), Masa Kagawa, Hevad Khan, Tuan Lam, Mansour Matloubi (1990 WSOP Main Event Winner), Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier, Kirk Morrison, Lee Nelson, Emad Tatouh and Jerry Yang (2007 WSOP Main Event Winner) [HINT- click links to see player profiles].

APPT MAKES SEVERAL STOPS

The APPT launched this past August in Manila, Philippines, with a second event in Seoul, Korea in September. After the Macau event, Season 1 will conclude in December with the Grand Final in Sydney, Australia.

All APPT events are filmed for television with the programmes distributed globally.

MANY FIRSTS FOR MACAU POKER

"The Asia Pacific Poker Tour is honoured to be bringing the sport of tournament poker to Macau", said Jeffrey Haas, President of the APPT. "Macau is already the world's gaming capital and this historic event diversifies its global attraction by including the APPT's unique brand of poker tourism. It's a significant step forward, not only for the APPT, but for the growth of poker in Asia."

"Poker is enjoying tremendous growth in Asia and we are very excited to be a part of this and to be the first casino to host this event," said Mr. Gary Woollard, Casino General Manager of Grand Waldo Casino. "We are very honoured to have this prime opportunity of working with First Impression Ltd and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour to make this a major event on the Macau gaming calendar," he added.

Founder of First Impression, Mr. Elton Tsang, said, "Bringing the sport of poker to Macau has always been my vision because we're convinced that Texas Hold'em Poker will be the next big hit in Macau. We are going to show people how thrilling it is to play and even just watch a poker tournament, and demonstrate that poker is a game involving real skill rather than just luck."

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