The second season of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) began on Monday with an event in Macau, the first of five stops planned for the tour. At press time, the tournament generated over 400 entrants, each vying for their share of a HK $10 million prize pool. The buy-in to the Main Event is HK $25,000, which is about $3,200 U.S. Dollars.
The APPT is sponsored by PokerStars and has attracted many of the faces that make up the online poker site. The tournament is being held at the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino in Macau, which is just a short ferry ride from Hong Kong. The buy-in for the Main Event officially closes at 1:30pm local time on Wednesday afternoon. Tournament officials expect over 500 registrations by the time the smoke clears, making it one of the largest poker tournaments ever held in Asia.
Survivors of Day 1B, which was held on Tuesday, included Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who dressed up like Batman’s nemesis The Joker to begin play. He ended the day with 15,100 chips. Grospellier won the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, cashing for $2 million. He finished 370th out of over 6,800 entrants in the World Series of Poker Main Event this year, taking home $28,950. He has six WSOP cashes in total for $128,000.
“Ultimate Poker Challenge” host Chad Brown also survived Day 1B, landing with 40,600 chips. Brown is an experienced poker pro who finished second in a $5,000 buy-in No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball (with rebuys) event during the 2008 WSOP for $324,777. He’s a PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker event winner and has also had success on NBC’s “National Heads-Up Championship.”
Ten-time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan, whose online poker room recently shut its doors, also survived Day 1B. He commented in a press release distributed by PokerStars, “It’s great for Poker in Asia that there’s a major tournament like this here in Macau. It’s bringing in top players like myself and letting the world know that there is real poker here, real poker players here, and that anybody can win millions of dollars.”
Here are the top stacks in the room entering Day 2. There are over 110 players remaining:
André Wagner – 107,000
David Paul Steicke – 87,700
Kofi Farkye – 78,700
Dennis Waterman – 75,800
Daisy Cupino Wain – 70,100
Steven Djingga – 62,400
Steffan Van Khoa Da – 59,300
Others who competed in the APPT Macau tournament were 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem, five-time WSOP bracelet winner Scotty Nguyen, 2006 Aussie Millions Champion Lee Nelson, 2004 WPT Ladies Event Champion Isabelle Mercier, three-time WSOP bracelet winner Barry Greenstein, 2003 WPT Legends of Poker Champion Mel Judah, and 2007 APPT High Roller Champion Eric Assadourian.
A HKD $150,000 High Roller tournament is also a part of the festivities in Macau. The champion of the Main Event will be crowned on September 9th. After the China stop, the APPT’s second season consists of:
APPT Seoul
Paradise Walker-Hill Casino – Seoul, South Korea
September 26-28, 2008
APPT Auckland
Skycity Casino – Auckland, New Zealand
October 9-12, 2008
APPT Manila
Hyatt Hotel and Casino – Manila, Philippines
November 13-16, 2008
APPT Sydney
Star City Casino – Sydney, Australia
December 2-7, 2008
The APPT Macau event immediately followed the Asian Poker Tour’s (APT) Macau event, which was won by Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Johnny Chan, David “Chino” Rheem, J.C. Tran, and John Juanda all participated in that tournament, which was held at the StarWorld Hotel and Casino. Timoshenko defeated an eight-man televised final table on Sunday, just one day prior to the start of the PokerStars APPT tournament.
We’ll have full results from the APPT Macau tournament right here on PokerNewsDaily.com.