The Asian Poker Tour (APT), an Overview
Asia has been tipped as one of the major growth hubs of international poker and online companies have been quick to take advantage of this burgeoning growth. UK bookmaker, Betfair, started the ball rolling by introducing their branded Betfair Asian Poker Tour, BAPT, in 2006.
The inaugural event, BAPT Singapore, was a huge success with the cream of tournament poker players making the long trip to the occident to claim their share of the over $1.4million prize pool. Pros like Gus Hansen, Lee Nelson and Mansour Matloubi all showed their support of the juvenile tour but it was Australia’s Antanas Guoga aka Tony G who walked away with the maiden BAPT title.
The Asian Poker Tour changes hands
Since then, the Asian Poker Tour has been purchased lock, stock and smoking barrel by AsianLogic, one of the leading participants in the online and land-based gambling industry with particular focus on Asian Pacific markets.
The success of APT has seen a veritable rash of poker tours breaking out in Asia – we now have the APPT, or Asian Pacific Poker Tour that is part of the EPT and LAPT family; the APC or Asian Poker Championships, the SEAPT, or South East Asia Poker Tour and the PAPT – Pan-Asian Poker Tour! It will be interesting to see which of these tours endures the test of time.
Europe had a similar poker tour epidemic when it was recognised that poker, tournament poker in particular, could be extremely lucrative but many of the newly formed tours failed after only a single season. The European Poker Masters (EPM), the ShowDown Poker Tour (SDPT) and the Professional Poker Tour (PPT) are cases and casualties in point!
APT Season Two Schedule
The APT took a bit of a break after the Singapore leg in November 2007 but Season Two is currently well under way with the first of four events already decided. The schedule is as follows:
- APT Philippines – 27 May – 1 June 2008
- APT Macau – 27 – 31 August 2008
- APT Seoul – TBA
- APT Singapore – TBA
APT coup - Matt Savage as Tournament Director
Satellite events for APT Macau are currently underway at various online poker rooms and it has recently been announced by the CEO of AsianLogic that the tour will expand to incorporate six events in 2009. The new owners of the APT have also recently pulled off a major coup in that they have engaged the services of one of the best tournament directors in the business, the legendary Matt Savage. He comes with loads of experience having run the biggest poker tour in the world, the WSOP in 2002 and in 2003 he was awarded the inaugural Benny Binion Award for outstanding service in the poker industry!
