Hot off the press, PokerStars has just announced two dates to one of their most popular tours, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT). The last time this event took place was in August 2018 in the Philippines with a record-breaking 1,364 entries for the Main Event. The tour will come back back to Manila once again but first, they head to Incheon, Korea.
According to the announcement,
APPT Korea will take place from April 5 to 14 at Paradise City in the Incheon complex, The KRW 1,800,000 buy-in Main Event, starting April 11 will feature a KRW 300,000,000 guarantee, with other event highlights including:
APPT Korea Kick Off – April 5-6, 2019 – Buy-in KRW 350,000 (KRW 50 million GTD)
APPT Korea National – April 7-8, 2019 – Buy-in KRW 700,000 (KRW 80 million GTD)
APPT Korea High Roller – April 13-14, 2019 – Buy-in KRW 5,000,000
Following that leg, the tour heads to Manila from July 26 to August 4. The event will take place at the official hub of PokerStars LIVE Manila in Okada Manila.
Events highlighted are:
APPT Main Event – August 1-4, 2019 – Buy-in PHP 65,000 (PHP 20 million GTD)
APPT Manila Kick Off – July 26-27, 2019 – Buy-in PHP 16,000 (PHP 3 million GTD)
APPT Manila National- July 28-29, 2019 – Buy-in PHP 33,000 (PHP 5 million GTD)
PokerStars future in Asia
Ever since the International Entertainment Corporation (IEC) headed by Stanley Choi was granted the rights to handle all PokerStars LIVE events in Asia – with the exception of the Philippines hub – the hype seems to have fallen flat. So far, only one festival has been produced in Korea last year, and this year, only Korea again has been announced.
This is unlike the recently relocated PokerStars LIVE Manila room in Okada Manila with its busy schedule. The year already kicked off with the Manila Super Series 10 and will be followed by the Okada Millions.
Several questions loom. Will the APPT 2019 season surpass its 2018 edition of four events?
Also will they be able to draw the same big numbers as last year without the PSPC Platinum Pass powerful marketing tool? At this time, no incentive of such kind has been offered. Another pressing question is Macau. PokerStars drew players from all over the world to Macau for their events.
Will there be a return to Macau? If so, when? Currently the only festival organized is handled by the Poker King group.
Article by Tricia David
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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