The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macau was kicked off yesterday at Galaxy StarWorld with the appearance of "Godfather of Poker" Doyle Brunson and the legendary host of the 1970 World Series of Poker Jack Binion.
The two figures joined the APT tournament director, Matt Savage, to ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’ as a world class field took their seats.
“This is the future of poker,” said Mr Binion, adding “this is so exciting and significant, you can see the potential and feel the energy.”
Players were at StarWorld for the landmark USD $5300 (US$5000+$300) event yesterday. Amongst those spotted include Johnny Chan, Todd Brunson, Liz Lieu, J.C Tran, Kenny Tran, John Juanda, Nam Le, Quinn Do and APT Philippines champion David Saab.
The APT Macau is making history by offering US$1,500,000, the largest guaranteed prize pool ever to be offered in Asia, with the first prize also guaranteed at US$500,000.
At 19:00 pm today, the Asian Poker Tour will make history again with Asia’s largest cash game, coverage of which will be televised and distributed worldwide at a later date.
The details are simple, minimum buy-in is HK$1,000,000 (US$130,000), starting blinds are HK$3,000 to $6,000, straddling and blinds are raised at the discretion of the players.
It is estimated that HK$15 million will be at stake, more than the guaranteed prize pool of the APT Macau tournament.
Doyle Brunson has already wired in HK$2,000,000 and quipped “that’s just the start.”
Chris Parker, CEO of the Asian Poker Tour, will also be taking a seat in the tournament.