Historic APPT poker tournament event gets underway in Macau
The very first hand of (legal) live tournament poker in the People’s Republic of China was dealt today as The PokerStars.net Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau: Asian Poker Open got underway, ushering in a new era of poker in the Asian-Pacific region.
APPT President Jeffrey Haas summarized the impact of the event in a post over on the PokerStars blog: “This event ranks up there with the first World Series of Poker in 1970 and the 2003 WSOP, when Chris Moneymaker’s win played a pivotal role in starting the online poker boom,” Haas said.
The main event of the AAPT Macau: Asian Poker Open looks to break current entry records, and boasts a star-studded field that includes former WSOP champions Mansour Matloubi, Scotty Nguyen and Joe Hachem, along with PokerStars pros such as Barry Greenstein, Lee Nelson, and Hevad Khan.
The main event is priced at $2,500 USD, and the field size is expected to max out at 350. Following the main event, there will be a ‘High-Roller’ event this coming Monday with a buy-in of $15,000.
For complete coverage of the AAPT: Macau APO, check out the PokerStars blog. The APPT is also providing an extensive video blog of the event, hosted by Alison Lightman, which can be viewed on the APPTLive website here.
