Asia Pacific Poker Tour goes to Manila for fourth leg

09/06/2008

MACAU — And then there was none.

The five Filipino players left standing Thursday at the Grand Waldo Casino here followed the route of six others and bombed out of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour, yielding to the field of 538 of the world’s best players in this mind sport now taking Asia by storm.

After surviving a grueling first day, Erwin Co, William Te, Frederick Iglesias Hernandez, Sean Oliver Moreno and Terry Gonzaga finally gave in to the pressure and lost their chance at the guaranteed pool prize of $1.62 million — the biggest ever offered this side of the world.

But like the six other Filipino players before them, namely Neil “Dirty Ice Cream” Arce, Kent del Rosario, Ronald Singson, Alan Escano, Teofilo Bibit-Chee and Ronnel Thomas, they don’t mind.

Reason: The Asia Pacific Poker Tour 2002 heads to Manila for its fourth leg on Nov. 13 to 16 at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino, where they will all have a chance to bounce back.

After the first leg in Macau, the tour goes to Seoul, South Korea on Sept. 26 to 28 at the Paradise

Walker-Hill Casino, before Auckland New Zealand hosts the third stage on Oct. 9 to 12 at the Skycity

Auckland. The tour rounds out its five-leg journey at the Star City Casino in Sydney Australia on Dec. 2 to 7 after the Manila stage in November.

“The heart of poker culture in Asia today is in the Philippines,” said APPT President Jeffrey Haas.

“Pagcor (Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp.) has been such a big proponent of poker for so many years, that they really encouraged the growth of poker culture there. They even encouraged various proponents to open many poker rooms and as a result, there are many players there.”

PokerStars (www.PokerStars.net), the world’s largest online poker site announced that the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau, has set new records for both player participation and prize pool by becoming the biggest and richest poker tournament ever staged in Asia.

The total players who joined the tournament this year was a 52 percent increase compared to the inaugural 2007 APPT Macau event,where 352 joined. This year, the top 56 players will also receive a payout, with the champion pocketing ($453,851).

Lending prestige to the Macau event are 2007 APPT Tournament of Champions winner Joe Hachem, Hong Kong legend, Johnny Chan, Australia’s Joe Hachem, New York native Chad Brown, Garry Greenstein of California, Bertrand Grospellier, who is based in Seoul, South Korea, Canadian Isabelle Mercier, New Zealand’s Lee Nelson, Japanese Masa Kagawa, and Macau defending champion Dinh Le.

“Taking part in the APPT is very exciting as you get to meet and compete against so many of the world’s best players. This is the second time I’ve taken part in the event and it’s great to see so many Asian faces at the tables. I think the level of participation this year shows that the PokerStars.net APPT is a great catalyst for the development of the game in the region.” AFP

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