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PokerStars, the world's largest online poker site with over 25 million registered players, today announced the schedule of the ‘PokerStars.net APPT Macau Summer Festival of Poker.' This event marks the start of the hotly-anticipated PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Season 3. With five stops in five months, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) remains Asia's largest and richest poker tour in terms of both player participation and prize pools.
The PokerStars.net APPT Macau Festival of Poker takes place August 25-30, 2009 at the luxurious Grand Lisboa Casino, home to the PokerStars Macau Poker Room - the largest poker room in continental Asia. The Festival of Poker will consist of 20 events, including the $40,000 HKD ($5,200 USD) buy-in Main Event and a prestigious ‘High Roller' event with a buy-in of $88,800 HKD ($11,500 USD). There will be a number of preliminary and side events in a wide range of buy-ins, such as the $4,000 HKD ($500 USD) NLH Knockout Bounty Tournament, the $1,500 HKD ($200 USD) NLH Turbo Shoot-out and a $2,500 HKD ($320 USD) 6-Handed Fixed Limit Hold'em Tournament. See the full schedule below, or visit www.appt.com/tournaments/macau/ for more details.
"I'm pleased to see the sport of tournament poker continue to grow in Asia" said Team PokerStars Pro and Poker World Champion Joe Hachem "I played in the first APPT Macau in 2007 when PokerStars planted the seeds of No-Limit Texas Hold'em poker culture in Macau, and it's been incredible watching that legacy take root and bloom. There are now hundreds of local players, cash games running 24/7 and tournaments available every week at the PokerStars Macau Poker Room. I wouldn't be surprised if the next World Champion comes from Macau or elsewhere in China."
In Season 2, The PokerStars.net APPT Macau generated the biggest prize pool recorded for a poker event in Asia, more than $12.6 million HKD ($1.62 million USD). Edward Sabat of the United States bested a record field of 538 players to take the first prize of $3.5 million HKD ($453,851 USD). This year the APPT expects to beat its own records, with more players and a prize pool of more than $15.5 million HKD ($2,000,000 USD).
Jeffrey Haas, President of the PokerStars.net APPT, said: "This season's APPT is set to be even bigger than Season 2 in terms of both number of participants and prize pools. This has been made possible by continued enthusiasm for the tour right across the region, with amazing levels of participation. As poker culture continues to grow in Asia Pacific and more extraordinary players emerge on the scene, they tell us how excited they are to match their skills against players from around the world to win the prestigious poker title of APPT Champion. We will continue bringing together vast numbers of poker players at many experience levels, giving them the greatest poker experiences, in some incredible places and constantly exceeding their expectations."
The PokerStars.net APPT will make stops in Seoul, Auckland and Cebu in the Philippines before moving on to Sydney for the Grand Final in December. Increased tournament capacities will enable the forthcoming tour to build on the success of Season 2 which attracted a total 1,772 players and created a total prize pool of $38,736,076.49 HKD ($4,998,268 USD).
Last year, the best poker players from around the globe played at APPT events - including Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, Isabelle Mercier, Barry Greenstein, Hevad Khan, Chad Brown and Player of the Year Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, as well as Johnny Chan, John Juanda, Scotty Nguyen, Grant Levy, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Eric Assadourian, Nam Le and Liz Lieu.
