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AsianLogic, the online gambling company that owns the Asian Poker Tour, has published the full schedule for the APT Macau Festival which will run from August 12–23, this year at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau.
Last year’s six day event has doubled in size and will be transformed into a 12 day extravaganza, creating Asia’s first festival of poker, a company spokesman said this week. The success of the Asian Poker Tour sponsored poker room at the Starworld has led organisers to embark on an ambitious plan that represents another leap forward for poker in the region. 
The Asian Poker Tour Macau will also be the backdrop to the filming of the first Chinese language poker film, ‘Poker King,’ starring A-list Chinese actors, actresses and pop stars.
APT Macau will host over 20 events with 14 official side events - the first four taking place between the 12th – 16th August featuring guaranteed prize pools. These are the HK$2 500 buy-in welcome event that guarantees HK$100 000; an Asian Poker Tour Open re-buy and add-on event with a $1 150 entry fee that guarantees HK$50 000; a Greed event that costs HK$2 500 to enter but offers the chance for one player to scoop all the HK$100 000 guaranteed prize pool if they choose, and a super HK$1 150 re-buy and add-on tournament that guarantees HK$150 000. This is all ahead of Day 1A of the Main Event which kicks off on the 20th August.
There are also other headhunter, six-handed, eight-handed, invitational, and celebrity tournaments, along with a ladies’ tournament and heads-up event, both believed to be firsts for the region and an example of just how far the game has moved on in Asia in the last 12 months.
Taking part in the headhunter tournaments will be ‘The Poker Pack’ the top professionals who are ambassadors of the APT on the world circuit, as well as other famous names such as Johnny Chan. The Pack, who will also have prominent roles in the ‘Poker King’ movie, is made up of JC Tran, Nam Le, Steve Sung, David ‘Chino’ Rheem, Quinn Do and Kwang Soo Lee.
A comprehensive APT side event schedule also includes a HK$164 000 buy-in high rollers event with other side events having a buy-in as little as HK$1 000. Another highlight includes the ‘Battle of the Nations’ team event. This is a team No Limit Hold’em tournament where teams are composed of three members from the same country. There will be two teams facing each other at each table, so the tables will be six-handed. The goal is to eliminate all the members of the other team. This will play down until there is one victorious team left.
Sponsors of the side events and collaterals include the Hong Kong Game Club, DafaPoker, Dafa888, The Poker King Movie, JBet, PartyPoker, BWin, 777babycasino and PKR.
Amongst the online networks already committed to sending players to the APT are The Ongame Network, the iPoker Network and PartyPoker. In addition, online rooms Bwin, PKR, Dafa Poker, JBET Poker, Betfriends, 888, Titan Poker and 32Red are in on the action guaranteeing a significant online qualifier contingent.
Last year, the event attracted some of the most famous names in the game including Doyle Brunson, Jack Binion, Johnny Chan, John Juanda, Huck Seed, Liz Lieu, Todd Brunson, Kenny Tran and ‘The Poker Pack.’ The 2008 Asian Poker Tour Macau Main Event was won by then 20-year-old US hotshot Yevgeniy Timoshenko (see previous InfoPowa report), who scooped US$500 000 after emerging triumphant from the star-studded field that featured players from over 40 countries. Timoshenko has since gone on to win the WPT Championship and is currently one of the hottest prospects in the game.
The Main Event buy-in is set at HK$34 400, while high-limit games and sit-n-go tables will run throughout the duration of the festival.
