Asia Pacific Poker Tour-Cebu

Poker! Do you know that there are an estimated 300 million poker players world wide and that number keeps growing every year? Chances are, within a five or ten mile radius of where you are right now, there are probably hundreds of poker games happening in people’s homes, and card clubs. Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of poker games online and in casinos.

Poker is everywhere. It’s on TV 7 nights a week worldwide. People just love it.

In Cebu alone there are more poker clubs than chess clubs. Officially. The chess clubs in Cebu are Collonade Mall,Deep Blue in SM and Kawayan Grill in Mabolo,home of Cepca.

Poker clubs are Diamond and Allin in Cebu City, Parkmall and Metro in Mandaue and Tulip in Mactan. Investments in each of these poker clubs are in the mid 7 figures including the franchise fee to Pagcor.
The final stop of the fifth season of the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) will take place in the Waterfront Airport Hotel & Casino ,Cebu City on April 24-30
The tournament was won last time by the first female to ever take down an APPT title -Im Young Shin who conquered the P100,000 buy-in Main Event in 2010 over a 236-player field to win P 5.81 million in prize money.
She will be back this year.
It will be the first time that the tournament will be hosted at the Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino. Previously,it was held on the luxurious Shangri-La Mactan Resort where Poker Stars qualifiers will be staying.
The easiest way to get a seat at APPT Cebu is to qualify online with PokerStars
Satellites for as low as $1.10 has been running online since February 13 almost every 10 minutes. I have tried several times.
Here is the schedule:
April 24 – P10,000 buyin Cebu Cup
April 25 – P100,000 APPT Cebu Main Event – Day 1A
April 26 – P100,000 APPT Cebu Main Event – Day 1B
April 27– P100,000 APPT Cebu Main Event – Day 1C
April 27– P25,000 Pot Limit Omaha
April 28 – P30,000 No Limit Hold’em – Knock-Out Bounty
April 28 – P10,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em
April 29 – P20,000 No Limit Hold’em
April 29 – P50,000 No Limit Hold’em – 6 Handed
April 30 – P250,000 High Rollers Event
April 30 – P25,000 No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
Enrique del Prado Jr Jun was my classmate in Colegio del Santo Nino during our elementary days (a long time ago indeed!) and we had a business venture in the early 80s so we were that close.
We also played a lot of poker not only in Cebu but also in Manila. He is a very good poker player. So I was not surprised when I heard the big news last year.
Jun won the 2011 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Philippines Main Event for $179,260. He topped a field of 231 players to claim the title and some serious bragging rights.
The US$2,500 buy-in event took place at the Resorts World Manila in Pasay City last year and by the time the tournament played down to its final table, six of the ten remaining players were from the Philippines
When the final table began, Jun was in 4th in chips but he managed to turn things around early nearly doubling his stack with a 250k pot.
He then went on to eliminate two players and by the time he entered heads up against runner-up Elton Tsang he held a nearly 3:1 chip advantage. Tsang put up a fierce fight but in the end he fell to a measly high card Jack.
$1,000,000 On July 1, 2012, the World Series of Poker will host The Big One for One Drop at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. The $1 million ! buy-in event will be the largest poker tournament ever held, with a projected eight-figure first prize
22 players have already registered.
It seems that in poker the sky is the limit and it`s adherents dwarfs all sports.
boypestano@gmail.com,www,chessmoso.blogspot.com