The Asian Poker Tour makes a return to the Super High Roller scene

04/25/2017

Super High Roller Tournaments have been gaining popularity in the live circuits around the world and most especially in Asia where the playing field includes poker legends, many young live and online pros, and wealthy Asian businessmen.

In the coming days, the next big moneyed event is set to sail at the APT Championships Philippines 2017 with a HK$1,000,000 buy-in (US$128,620) Super High Rollers event kicking off the festival on Wednesday, April 26th at Resorts World Manila, in Newport City, Manila, Philippines. This is the third time the APT has staged such an event.

Super High Roller event announced for the APT Championships 2017

At the start of the year, the APT announced the dates and events of their upcoming APT Championships Philippines 2017 festival, running for twelve days from April 26th – May 7th. Included in the list was a Super High Rollers special event with a huge HK$1M buy-in. The event will take the spotlight on opening day, and is scheduled for a two-day stint.

The APT offers well-constructed formats so expect this event to be the same with a very deep structure. Included in the buy-in is a complimentary two-night stay at the luxurious Marriott Manila hotel to be used anytime during the festival.

APT and the Manila Millions

Back in 2012, the APT staged its first event of this magnitude called the Manila Millions. It was the richest and boldest event in Asia at the time with 31 players ponying up the massive HK$1M entry fee for a prize pool nearing HK$33M (approx. US$ 4.2M). Many poker elites were in attendance including Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, John Juanda, Johnny Chan, Joe Hachem, and the list goes on. Allan Le claimed the event taking home US$1.685M in winnings.

Joseph_Cheong__1493182547_83580 — Joseph Cheong (Photo APT)

Due to its success, the APT followed it up with another run in 2013 wherein Joseph Cheong defeated Asian businessman and current owner of the Triton SHR series, Richard Yong at the heads up round to earn the US$1.33M first prize.

APT ready to cement its place in a promising but competitive market

These days, there are more and more Super High Roller events being offered with buy-ins ranging from US$25K to over US$100K. According to stats compiled by the Global Poker Index for the year 2016, the High Roller and Super High Roller events saw a total of 4,105 total entries combined. On average, the rake collected per event came to around US$117K and nearly US$290M in prize pool was distributed.

For poker organizations and poker players, these big numbers only proves how important and highly lucrative this market has become. Asia is one region where many of these High Roller events are now being hosted. Listed below are those that offer these events and have held at least one this year:

–Aussie Millions has been hosting AUS$50K, AUS$100K and AUS$250K events for several years with Phil Ivey having won two of those events;

–Triton Super High Roller Series has staged four editions with the first one, the US$200K buy-in event seeing 52 entries. This was won by Fedor Holz;

–PokerStars Championship Macau featured a HK$400K buy-in (US$51K) SHR event with 88 entries. This was won by Steve O’Dwyer;

– Macau Billionaire Poker Club held a HK$500,000 (US$64K) SHR event last month with Mikita Badziakouski defeating Tom Dwan at the heads up round.

With a strong position in Manila, and a solid experience in the domain, the APT seems ready to once again bring its own knowledge and pulse to this very specific part of the poker scene.

Read more: The High Roller Ecosystem (Source GPI)