Phil Ivey

After playing the APT Asian Series Manila, I was hell-bent to attend the Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau 2011.  For months, I had been planning for this week-long event, not to play the main event as that would have been too much for my bankroll, but I was setting aside enough to play the side events and to participate in 1 week of poker, partying, and just downright decadent fun.

Last week, I changed my

mind and decided to go elsewhere,  just to find out today that “Oh-so-divine”  Phil Ivey played Day1a of the Main Event.

Phil Ivey!  Need I say more?  With all the friends I have in that tournament, I was bound to meet this man.  And if not, I would have imposed myself on my friends to introduce me to this Godhood of a poker player.

And as I berated myself for changing my mind, I calmed myself with the thought that, like poker tournaments, there will be a next time.  Nonetheless, being formerly part of the media, I knew that his presence in Asia and, most especially, at the APPT Macau would be the talk of the town and would have been a major scoop.  I was definitely missing the fun of the talk, the speculation and essentially, a confirmation via an extremely significant interview.

And as my fantasy of being in this event passed through my mind, 1 question lingered…. Is his very presence at the APPT, a Pokerstars event, a statement?

After the hullabaloo of Black Friday, legal action against Full Tilt Poker (FTP), the boycotting of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and silence, he returns to the scene by playing in the event of Pokerstars, the direct competitor of the online poker room he used to be the icon of.

Will he be representing Pokerstars now?  Is he staying in Asia because of gambling issues in the US?  What is his take on the sale of FTP?

So many questions… and no opportunity to ask him directly because… I changed my mind.

Alas!  I will just have to wait, with the rest of the world, for the answers to my questions in an interview conducted by someone else.

Pius Heinz

LONDON, UK – NOVEMBER 4 – World Series of Poker* November Nine player Pius Heinz today became the latest member of Team PokerStars. The German player, who this coming Sunday returns to Las Vegas in a bid to become WSOP* World Champion and win the first prize of $8,711,956, joins the likes of Sandra Naujoks, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Boris Becker as a Team PokerStars member from Germany.

Heinz goes into Sunday’s WSOP final table in seventh place, and at age 22, is one of the youngest members of the November Nine. He’s the first German player ever to make the Main Event final table but he’s not just there to make up the numbers. Heinz said: “I’m pretty relaxed about the game. There are a lot of tough players left but I’m confident I can win it. Joining PokerStars has given me an extra lift, too. I’m looking forward to being part of the team.”

Fellow German Team Pro Sandra Naujoks said: “Pius has all the qualities needed to be a great poker player, and he has played a tough and intelligent game to get to the WSOP final table. We’ll be rooting for him to win on Sunday and I’m excited to see another top player join the ranks of Team PokerStars.”

Heinz success

The WSOP Main Event is only Heinz’s second ever live cash, but before his run in the World Championship, he finished seventh for $83,286 in a WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event back in June and has since continued his hot streak with a first place in a €1,000 Turbo Bounty event at EPT Barcelona in August for another €17,450.

After the WSOP experience is over, Heinz will play his first event wearing the PokerStars patch at EPT Prague, which takes place from December 5-10.

*WORLD SERIES OF POKER and WSOP are trademarks of Caesars License Company, LLC (“Caesars”). Caesars does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerStars or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.

About PokerStars:

PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker site and serves the world’s largest poker community, with more than 49 million registered members. It’s the first choice of the world’s top players, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else and with the best security online.

Photo by PokerStars/Neil Stoddart

Russian student Andrey Pateychuk has won EPT8 San Remo after besting a talented final table – and 837-strong field overall. His win heads-up against Dimitar Danchev ended Bulgaria’s hopes of a first ever EPT champion.

As well as the EPT San Remo title and €680,000 first prize, Pateychuk also wins a stunning bracelet from EPT Season 8 Official Bracelet Sponsor Shamballa Jewels worth more than €10,000.

Pateychuk, who celebrated his 22nd birthday yesterday, said: “It feels great to win. I can’t really imagine a better birthday present than this. I wasn’t feeling that nervous today. I haven’t played so many live tournaments but I’ve played a lot of final tables online so I have a lot of experience. It was actually harder when it was 30 players and people like Johnny Lodden, Lex Veldhuis, Kevin MacPhee and Mike McDonald were still in. It was tough if they had position on you.”

Pateychuk, who is studying Information Security at Bauman Moscow State Technical University, has no plans to give up college and says he’ll be straight back to class when he leaves San Remo. The young Russian had virtually no live results until he grabbed attention this summer by coming 15th in the WSOP Main Event for nearly $480,000.

Danchev, who normally plays online cash games at the $5-$10 to $10-$20 levels, only had a few relatively small live results before today’s big cash. The 26-year-old from Plovdiv, who chopped for €600,000 for second place, has been a pro for two years.

Third place went to Daniel Neilson, the 2010 Australian Player of the Year and winner of High Roller events at both ANZPT Perth and ANZPT Sydney. Neilson, who held the chip lead for two days straight, took home €285,000.

There was disappointment though for several big names. Dutch Team PokerStars Pro Lex Veldhuis was eyeing up his first EPT final but bust in 15th place for €22,000 while fellow Team Pro Johnny Lodden from Norway was aiming to better his EPT Budapest fifth place, but bubbled the final for €45,000. EPT Berlin champion and PokerStars qualifier Kevin MacPhee made the final but his hopes of becoming the first player to win two EPTs were ended when he was eliminated in eighth place.

British poker pro and celebrated commentator Barny Boatman has a string of live results totalling more than $1.75 million but has yet to win a major title. His hopes were dashed when he bust in fourth place for €225,000.

Others who made the money were EPT Dortmund champion Mike McDonald (18th), Italian Poker Tour Player of the Year Mustapha Kanit (19th) and WSOPE champion Elio Fox (23rd) – all for €19,000, plus Italian Poker Tour Female Player of the Year Carla Solinas (30th, €16,000), Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst (40th, €14,000), EPT founder John Duthie (41st, €14,000) and PokerStars qualifier Shaun Deeb (71st, €10,000).

A total of 831 players from 53 countries entered the €4,900 Main Event, creating a total prize pool of €3,734,694. 128 places were paid.

Italian player Angelo Tarallo won the last longer contest organised by Skrill, the Official Payment Provider Sponsor for EPT Season 8. He outlasted 134 other Skrill-patched players to get his €4,900 Main Event buy-in credited back into his Skrill account.

In EPT San Remo side events, Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth bested a 140-strong field to take down the €1,000 NL tourney for €33,130 while fellow Pro Marcin Horecki won a €300 NL Turbo event for €15,170.

The final of EPT San Remo was broadcast live on www.PokerStars.tv in English and Italian as well as on Italian TV.

For full reports see the PokerStarsblog.com.

The next stop for EPT Season 8 is EPT Loutraki, the EPT’s first visit to Greece, running from November 15-20, 2011 at Club Hotel Casino Loutraki. Satellites for EPT Loutraki are running now on PokerStars, as well as for EPT Prague (December 5 – 10) and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas (Jan 5 – 15, 2012). For more information, please visit http://www.ept.com

Sunday Majors – Double Vision weekend

The latest Sunday Majors weekend saw TWO Sunday Millions AND Sunday Warm-Ups take place on the same day, and all four tournaments easily surpassed the $1 million and $500,000 guarantees.

The first $215 Sunday Warm-Up got under way at 11.00 ET and attracted 4,063 players to create a prize pool of $812,600. A deal was done heads-up, but knecht_poker from Mexico emerged the victor, to pocket the first prize of $115,500. Meanwhile, in the second Warm-Up, which started just 30 minutes after the first, Method999 from Germany took the first prize of $119,823.75 after topping a field of 3,816.

The Sunday Million tourneys kicked off at 14.30 ET and 15.00 ET respectively, and saw fields of 7,046 and 5,462 players battle it out for big money and the prestigious titles. Sunday Million I was won by acozubi from United Kingdom, who won an adjusted first prize of $145,000 after doing a five-way chop. Sunday Million II was taken down by 2010 WCOOP bracelet winner Kroko-dill from Russia. He took the first prize of $159,455.92 as his share of a three-way chop.

For full reports of Sunday Major tourneys, please visit www.pokerstarsblog.com.

EPT San Remo

The fourth stop of European Poker Tour Season 8 is set to hit San Remo later this week, with the eight-day festival scheduled to take place from October 20-27 at Casino San Remo. The headline event is the €4,900 Main Event, which was won last season by UK player Rupert Elder for €930,000, but there are a total of 23 events at this year’s stop, including a €10,300 Single Reload tourney, which is expected to attract some of the world’s best players.

For fans of poker who can’t be at the event, the San Remo final table will be available to watch live at PokerStars.tv on October 27 from 14.00 CET. English commentary will come from James Hartigan, Marc Convey and Team PokerStars Pros Eugene Katchalov, Liv Boeree, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and Jonathan Duhamel.

Check out www.ept.com for more information.

LAPT Colombia

Season 4 of the Latin America Poker Tour continued over the weekend, with the penultimate stop in Medellin for the inaugural Colombia National Poker Championship. The Centro Commercial Casino played host to the Main Event, which saw Argentinean Julian Menendez become the latest LAPT champion, winning a first prize of COP 123,540,000. Menendez defeated Jonathan Monsalves heads-up.

The first big buy-in poker tournament ever to visit Colombia proved to be a great success. The sell-out tournament attracted 681 players and generated a prize pool of COP 1,225,800,000 (approx. USD $650,000). A full report of the Medellin event can be found on the PokerStars Blog.

The next stop on the LAPT will be the Grand Final with full details yet to be confirmed. Please visit www.lapt.com for announcement updates.

Macau Poker Cup Championship

The Macau Poker Cup Championship 2011 reached its conclusion on Sunday, October 16, with new records being set during the 10-day festival, which was held at PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa.

The Main Event set new MPCC records for both field size and prize money, as 308 players competed for a share of the HKD $5,553,856 prize pool. The eventual winner was PokerStars player Raiden Kan, who took home the first prize of HKD $1,250,000 (USD $160,000), with the 27-year-old becoming the first Malaysian player to win a major tournament on the Asian poker circuit. The result also saw him move up from fourth to second on the Asia Player of the Year leaderboard.

In total the 10-day poker schedule awarded HKD $12,358,408 (USD $1,584,400) in prizes, across 12 different events. It’s the first time any MPC series has surpassed the HKD $10 million mark.

Meanwhile, the High Roller tourney was won by Teemu Autio from Finland. The 19-year-old student beat 42 players to scoop the HKD $792,000 first prize.

For a full report from the MPCC, check out the PokerStars Blog.  In the meantime, the next special event at PokerStars Macau is the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau, which will take place from November 17-27, is set to feature a HKD $30,000 buy-in Main Event, and will boast a HKD $6,000,000 guarantee. The festival will also bring to a close the 2011 Asia Player of the Year race, which is currently being led by Hung-Sheng ‘Shaq’ Lin from Taipei.

PCA Women

This Saturday, October 22, sees the start of the PokerStars Women Live Caribbean Adventure Weekend 2012 satellites, which give ladies the chance to win a $3,250 prize package that includes $1,100 tourney buy-in, three nights’ accommodation at the Atlantis Resort and $1,000 travel expenses.

The Weekly Finals (starting October 29) feature a $215 buy-in (with one package guaranteed), but daily cash qualifiers into them start from as little as $1.10, with daily freerolls as well.

Players can find the range of satellite qualifiers in the PokerStars lobby under Events > PCA. For more information please go to www.pokerstars.com/poker/promotions/women-live.

Women’s Sunday

The latest $55 Women’s Sunday was a special edition, with the guaranteed prize pool being increased to $15,000 – more than double the usual amount. In addition, each player received an $11 PokerStars Women PCA satellite ticket.

By the time registration closed the guarantee had been smashed, as 463 players entered to build a $23,150 prize pool. The eventual winner was luzzzy from Germany, who won her second Women’s Sunday title (having taken the tournament down in March). This time she pocketed $4,375.51 in the largest Women’s Sunday to date. She beat regular EPT circuit pro Melanie ‘Callisto 5’ Weisner heads-up.

A full report of the tournament can be found on the PokerStars Blog.

Double Vision Sunday

This coming weekend, PokerStars players will be seeing double, as on Sunday, October 16, there will be two Sunday Warm-Ups and two Sunday Millions on the same day!

The two Sunday Warm-Ups will kick off at 11.00 ET and 11.30 ET, while the two Sunday Millions will begin at 15.00 ET and 15.30 ET. Both editions of both Sunday Majors will have the usual guarantees of $1,000,000 for the Sunday Million and $500,000 for the Sunday Warm-Up.

Read more about Double Vision Sunday on the PokerStars Blog.

Sunday Million

Back to last weekend though, and it was another week in which the $1 million guarantee was exceeded in the PokerStars Sunday Million, with a field of 6,494 players combining to create a prize pool of $1,298,800, paying out the top 990 players.

The player who took the glory after just under 12 hours’ play was StuU_ 0905 from Norway, who claimed the first prize of $148,164.25 after doing a four-way deal. MeatPounder, who came second, actually got slightly more – $157,420.75 – while Skazo4nik777 in third earned $118,670.15 and francoianna, in fourth, picked up $94,748.84.

Several members of Team PokerStars Pro finished in the money, with the top two placed players being George Danzer in 33rd and Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth in 175th.

For more information on ways to register and qualify for upcoming Sunday Million tournaments, visit the Sunday Million page. A full report of this week’s event can be found on the PokerStars Blog.

Sunday Warm-Up

A few hours before the Sunday Million got under way, the Sunday Warm-up saw a field of 3,519 players register to create a prize pool of $703,800.

Winner of the $110,497.77 first prize was LevotonKala from Finland, who fought back from ten big blinds when there were six players left, to take the title. Runner-up was gtzy69, from Australia, who earned $82,344.60.

EPT London

The PokerStars European Poker Tour was in London last week for its annual ‘Festival of Poker’, which took place at the London Hilton Metropole on Edgware Road.

The £5,250 Main Event boasted a prize pool of £3,351,350 and a first prize of £750,000, which went to German player Benny Spindler. The young pro had already enjoyed several deep runs in EPT events before his victory last week, and had also come third at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2009. Spindler led for much of the event and eventually defeated American player Steve O’Dwyer heads-up. The runner-up spot paid £465,000.

Spanish Team PokerStars Pro Juan Manuel Pastor finished fourth for a career-best performance worth £200,000. Other Team PokerStars Pros in the money included Salvatore Bonavena in 29th place, Humberto Brenes in 32nd,Ana Marquez in 42nd and Sebastian Ruthenberg in 76th.

Across the entire EPT8 London festival, there was a total of 3,199 player buy-ins and a total prize pool of £7,642,921.

For more details of the Main Event, read the full report on the PokerStars Blog where you can also find a list of prize winners. Details of the EPT and future events, including EPT San Remo, which begins in just over a week’s time, can be found on the EPT website.

EPT London High Roller

While the Main Event was in the closing stages at EPT London, the High Rollers also played down to a winner, the field of 75 each paying £20,000 to buy-in.

After three days’ play German pro Philipp Gruissem scored a remarkable double, winning the High Roller event and a first prize of £450,200 just a few weeks after winning the High Roller event at EPT Barcelona. He defeated Igor Kurganov heads-up, who took home £318,330 for second place.

For a full report on the High Roller event, go to the PokerStars Blog.

Macau Poker Cup Championship

The Macau Poker Cup Championship got under way on October 7 and runs all this week through to Sunday. The opening event was won by Jian Yang, from China, who earned HKD $357,240 in a tournament that boasted a guarantee-busting prize pool of HKD$1,458,240. The 48-year-old from Beijing defeated Xin Rui Lu heads-up. Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin finished just behind in third.

Arron Lin’s fourth-place finish nearly upstaged Yang’s victory as Lin now occupies the No. 2 position for Asia Player of the Year (APOY). Xin Rui Lu and Celina Lin move up to No. 9 and No. 23 respectively, after both made their fourth final table appearances this year.

MPCC continues all these week with several more high-profile events to come, including the $4,500,000 Main Event. For more information, visit the PokerStars Macau website.

ANZPT Darwin

Season 3 of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour came to an end in Darwin, Australia, this week. The SKYCITY Darwin Casino played host to the $2,200 Main Event, which saw Jack Drake from Queensland become the latest ANZPT champion, winning a first prize of $36,480. Drake, 28, defeated fellow countryman Brett Danevig heads-up.

It proved another successful event for this season’s ANZPT Player of the Year Danny Chevalier, who reached the final table, finishing in eighth place.

The Darwin event brings an end to the third season of the tour, full details of which can be found on the ANZPT website. A full report of the Darwin final can also be found on the PokerStars Blog.

BPT Florianopolis

The second event of Season 1 of the Brazil Poker Tour took place in Florianopolis over the weekend and ended on Monday evening. The R $2,000 + R $300 No Limit Hold’em Main Event attracted 210 players, which created a first prize of $ R 115,024.54. That top payout went to Jorge Breda, who defeated Alex Gelinski heads-up to take the title.

Take a look at the www.brazilpokertour.com website for more details.

Portugal Poker Series Espinho

The Portugal Poker Series’ first season finished at Espinho over the weekend. The Main Event was a €700 + €70 tournament, which drew a field of 143 players and a total prize pool of €97,097. The winner of the event was João Correia, who took the top prize of €26,702.

The PPS Player of the Year was also announced at the event, that honour going to Carlos Barbosa Branco, who won three packages to next year’s PPS (excl. Grand Final) or two packages + seat-only entry for the Grand Final.

For a list of the final top 50 players on the leaderboard, who all win something for their efforts, please visitwww.portugalpokerseries.com/leaderboard/leaderboard/.

LAPT Colombia

The fourth Latin America Poker Tour event of Season 4 continues this week in Medellin, the first time the LAPT has visited Colombia. The Main Event is a COP 1,800,000 + 180,000 buy-in tournament that takes place from October 12-16. In addition there are six side events, including a COP 6,660,000 + 540,000 High Roller event and satellites to both the Main Event and High Roller Event. Check out http://www.lapt.com/tournaments/colombia/ for more information.

PCA and EPT satellites

Three of PokerStars’ biggest upcoming events are gathering momentum, with online satellites having already awarded scores of packages. At present the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has seen more than $1 million go into the Main Event prize pool, with more than 120 players having already qualified or bought into the tourney.

Meanwhile, a little closer to home, satellites for the first ever EPT Loutraki in Greece, and EPT San Remo – the next EPT stop from October 22-27 – are well under way, with huge numbers of online qualifiers taking place every day starting from just €4.44.

Women’s Sunday

For one week only there’s a change to the regular Women’s Sunday event. This week, the guaranteed prize pool of the $55 buy-in event is being bumped up to $15,000, more than double the usual amount. Not only that but the bounties on Team PokerStars Pros such as Liv Boeree and Victoria Coren, will also be increased, with $100 on the head of each liveried player.

The event, on Sunday 16 October, will also have an additional perk, with each participant awarded a PokerStars Women Live PCA satellite ticket worth $11, giving players the chance to win a trip to The Bahamas to play the ladies event of the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Players can even qualify for the Special Edition for free with daily freeroll qualifiers in the week before the event.

From the following Sunday the guarantee for the Women’s Sunday will be raised from $7,000 to $10,000.

Daily freerolls are running at 14.30 ET with satellites from $2.20. For more details go to the PokerStars Women webpage.

Chris Ferguson for Full Tilt Poker

Having been quite busy with real life issues, I had not been able to check my email for quite a few days.

Today, I had all the time in the world to do so and found an interesting news update regarding the status of Full Tilt Poker (FTP).  Apparently, the online poker client has been sold to French tycoon Bernard Tapie who is quite famous for trying to revive and save companies that are in trouble.  This time, he is trying to save Full Tilt Poker.  But the acquisition of the online poker brand is subject to numerous conditions that does not assure poker players that they will get their money back.

The full story can be found with this link: Full Tilt Poker Acquisition

Hmm…

The acquisition of Tapie of Full Tilt Poker is subject to numerous conditions, one of which is the “a favorable resolution with the United States Department of Justice.”  Now I’m not a lawyer but that clause seems as vague as the water of the Pasig River.  As per my experience with lawyers, unless stipulated in exact words, clauses like these can be left to the interpretation of the legal counsel who, if extremely good, can get away without paying the poker players, even if FTP does get a “favorable resolution” in the eyes of the general public.

Another concern that makes me ponder about this acquisition is the credentials of Bernard Tapie himself.   Yes, the man is famous for saving “sinking ships’ but he is also a convicted felon.  With what has happened since Black Friday, FTP has lost the confidence of its patrons.  And with almost every famous poker pro washing their hands of the situation by claiming ignorance, would the acquisition of a convicted felon, despite being wealthy enough to pay $150 Million owed to the players, gain the trust of the poker community back, enough that they would once again put their money and their livelihood in an allegedly fraudulent operation?

In lieu of this question, Laurent Tapie, the son of Bernard Tapie said, “”The brand is not in question, it’s a well-known brand and the technology is widely recognized as being possibly the best in the industry. The management of the company is being questioned and it will be changed (should the takeover be concluded). I believe we have the tools necessary to once again make the site one of the leaders in the online poker sector.”  This remains to be seen.  In my experience with the industry, a change in management doesn’t win back the confidence and trust of the players.  Like the saying goes, “Once burned, Twice Shy” and the new management will be hard-pressed to get back all the player’s money back into FTP.

That is the problem, since we are talking about money, and most of it is people’s hard earned, grinded money, poker players will be 100x shy putting their money back into FTP.  Some people’s lives have been either placed on hold or rewound back to when they started playing poker because of Black Friday.  And once back up, does Tapie or any buyer expect them to do it once again?

But all these questions in my head doesn’t really touch the real issue.  The real question is this: “What about the players?”  This whole news of the acquisition of FTP does not solve the players’ problem at all.  Yes, Tapie mentioned that the players will be paid given that there is a favorable resolution.  But does he have any idea how long these kinds of proceedings can take?  So in the meantime, $150 Million is frozen.  While these proceedings are happening, poker players who have trusted FTP to provide them with their livelihood will have to start from scratch.  So, basically, this news can be summarized in 2 words – nothing new.

Full Tilt Poker – from a group of allegedly fraudulent men to a confirmed fraudulent man…. Yes, as a poker player that used to play in Full Tilt… this news gives me much confidence.  Ship it…Not!

What?!?!?!?!?!?

Poker, poker everywhere is what’s happening in Asia right now.

It would seem that tournaments are happening one after the other with only a few days gap between them in the Asian Region.

This non-stop poker tournaments in Asia has started with the Pokerstars Macau Poker Cup (MPC) Championship currently on-going until the 16th of October.  The tournament which will run from October 7 to the 16th has a Main Event which guarantees a whopping HD$4,500,000 with a buy-in of HK$20,000.  Not only will a champion be hailed at the end of  MPC Championship but the winner of the Asian Player of the Year (APOY) will be named as well.  Currently the leader of the APOY is Hung-Sheng Lin from Chinese Taipei, with $951,490 worth of winnings and 6 final table finishes.

Right after the MPC Championship is the Metro Card Club Anniversary Tournament (MAT) happening from October 20 to 25.  The MAT guarantees Php 5,000,000 for a buy-in of Php10,000.  And after that is the Asian Poker Tour (APT) to be held in Casino Royale Goa from November 8-14, and then this and then that and so on and so forth.  A detailed schedule of these mouth watering events can be found below.  And for sure while you are in the area, you can find pockets of poker happening everywhere during the gaps between these Main Events.   So come to Asia now and hopefully we’ll see each other at the Final Table!

A good day and a good run!  Signing off, PokerPadme

A detailed Schedule of Tournaments is as follows:

Festival will mark fifth anniversary of poker arriving to the world’s gaming capital!

Asian Pacific Poker Tour (APPT)

MACAU SAR (CHINA) – October 6 – PokerStars Macau has announced the full schedule of the final Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) event of Season 5. The APPT Macau Poker Festival will run from November 17-27 and features 14 Asia Player of the Year ranking tournaments, including a HKD $30,000 Main Event with a HKD $6 million guaranteed prize pool.

Other highlights from the festival will include a HKD $15,000 No Limit Hold’em event with HKD $1 million guaranteed, a HKD $10,000 No Limit Hold’em tourney with $800,000 guaranteed, and a HKD $100,000 buy-in two-day High Roller event, which is expected to attract many of the top players from Asia and the rest of the world.

“PokerStars Macau has always been a premier event for the APPT,” said Danny McDonagh, the newly-appointed APPT President. “There’s been an explosion of regional players supporting our major tournaments this year with both the Macau Poker Cup and Macau Millions absolutely crushing all previous records set for poker tournaments in Asia. We are clearly experiencing a tipping point for poker and poker culture in Asia, as more people try the game and tell their friends about it. We see new faces all the time, from across the continent and around the world, and the excitement about the APPT is palpable. Where else can you compete against new players and established pros for millions of dollars?”

Macau fifth anniversary

The APPT Season 5 Grand Final will also mark the fifth anniversary of the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour bringing the sport of No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker Tournaments to Macau for the first time in November 2007. “That makes this a historic event,” says McDonagh. “The APPT Macau has been the richest poker tournament in Asia each year and I have no doubt that it will continue that trend in 2011 and for many years to come.”

Asia Player of the Year

APPT Macau will also host the final 14 ranking events for the Official Asia Player of the Year (APOY) leaderboard. At stake is the one-year sponsorship package from PokerStars Macau and engraved winner’s name on the APPT trophy, which will be awarded at the end of the festival.

Last year’s APOY winner was Team PokerStars Pro Bryan Huang, who said: “It was an amazing experience to win the Asia Player of the Year title. When the APPT events got added to the APOY criteria this year that instantly increased the amount of qualifying events by 50% and that, for me, just makes the award more exciting, while truly recognizing the best tournament player in the region. Having APPT Macau as the finale for the APOY race is brilliant! It will give the entire event a play-offs atmosphere to end the year.”

Last year, the APPT Macau Main Event winner was PokerStars qualifier Victorino Torres, from Northern Mariana Islands, who won HKD $3,246,200 after topping the 342-player field. To follow in Torres’s footsteps this year, players can qualify to play at APPT Macau for free at PokerStars.net. The satellites can be found by going to ‘Events’ and then ‘Macau’ in the client.

City of Culture

Macau has much more to offer besides the casinos, with museums, parks and incredible architecture evident throughout the ‘City of Culture’. From PokerStars Macau at the Casino Grand Lisboa, it’s just a short walk to the ruins of St Paul’s Church, the Monte Fort and the Macau Museum, while in the south west of the city, the A-Ma Temple built in the 14th century, continues to draw thousands of people for prayer.

Meanwhile, adrenaline junkies will love the Macau Tower – a 338m-high structure which can be climbed via vertical ladders, and quickly descended by virtue of the world’s highest bungee jump platform. The food, too, is hugely appealing. The influences come from all over the world – from Macau-style Portuguese cuisine to traditional Cantonese, Italian, French, Brazilian, Indian, Japanese and Korean. The combination of Chinese and European culture across the Macau region, all set against the backdrop of a waterside local, makes Macau a must-see place.

APPT Macau Season 5 – APOY events schedule

Below is listed the 14 ranking events from the APPT Macau schedule. For more side events, including satellites and ladies event, please go to www.appt.com.

About www.pokerstars.net:

PokerStars operates the world’s most popular online poker site and serves the world’s largest poker community, with more than 48 million registered members. It’s the first choice of the world’s top players, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else and with the best security online.

Recent additions to the PokerStars family include PokerStars.fr, which operates in France under the French government license, as well as PokerStars.it, which operates in Italy under the Italian government license, andPokerStars.ee, which operates in Estonia under the Estonian government license.

PokerStars.net is the official sponsor of some of the biggest live poker tournaments in the world, including the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), and the Russian Poker Series (RPS).

PokerStars.net is also home to a team of sponsored players known as Team PokerStars.net Pro. This elite group of players travel the world competing in international tournaments. For a complete list, visit the Team PokerStars.net Pro home page.

OF EUROPEAN POKER TOUR SEASON 8 MAIN EVENTS

LONDON, UK – September 30 – Global Poker Tours Limited (GPTL) today announced a new partnership deal with luxury jeweller

Shamballa Bracelet

Shamballa Jewels, which will see the company become the Official Bracelet Sponsor of European Poker Tour Season 8 Main Events.

This marks the second major sponsorship deal with Shamballa Jewels in 2011, after the Danish company became the Official Bracelet Sponsor of EPT events in the second half of Season 7 earlier in the year. The new deal also follows other partnerships GPTL has secured in 2011 with world renowned playing cards manufacturer Copag, and digital wallet provider Skrill (Moneybookers). Meanwhile, Fournier remains the Official Playing Card Sponsor of EPT Season 8.

Shamballa Jewels owner Mads Kornerup welcomed the new sponsorship opportunity, saying: “We are excited to be working with GPTL and the EPT again. For us, it is a great opportunity to align ourselves with a company that has a similar ethos of striving to be unique and aspirational. Poker tournaments have long been synonymous with awarding bracelets to winners as a sign of their achievement, so we are proud to be continuing this tradition and giving something truly special to each EPT Main Event winner.”

The new sponsorship deal will see Shamballa Jewels provide EPT Main Event bracelets, each one valued at an estimated €10,200 retail value, plus one EPT Grand Final bracelet valued at €25,000, for the winners of the events. The EPT8 bracelet is designed with black engraved ceramic balls, three 18k rhodanized white gold balls and one 10mm diamond pavé made on an 18k rose gold ball. The Shamballa bracelets, which have fast become luxury fashion statements by A-list celebrities, are now breaking into the poker scene, often worn by players at the tournaments.

EPT President Edgar Stuchly was excited about the new deal. He said: “The EPT is delighted to welcome on board Shamballa Jewels as the Official Bracelet Sponsor of the tour for a second time. The tour continues to go from strength to strength, attracting highly-renowned companies as sponsorship partners, highlighting the broad appeal of the European Poker Tour to companies outside the poker sphere.”

EPT London, which begins today at the Hilton London Metropole, will be the first Shamballa bracelet to be awarded this season, but the first two event winners in Tallinn and Barcelona will also receive the exclusive customised jewellery at a later EPT venue.

For more information, please email courtney@gptl.com.

About Global Poker Tours

Global Poker Tours Limited is a full service poker tour production company that develops, organises and produces the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world. GPTL has produced more poker events in more countries than any other company on the planet – establishing it as the market leader in a fast growing, dynamic and exciting environment. Businesses and venues worldwide choose Global Poker Tours as their premier live poker production partner to develop and establish world-class poker events. For more information please visit www.gptl.com.

About Shamballa Jewels

The Danish-owned jewellery company Shamballa Jewels has existed since 2004 and is owned by the brothers Kornerup. The exclusive jewellery has been worn by Hollywood’s very biggest stars, and all sorts of VIPs around the world such as Jay-Z, Michael Jordan, Ashton Kutcher and many more. The jewellery symbolizes more than just an ornament, and caters for people who want to radiate individuality and exclusivity. Shamballa Jewels’ unique and exclusive jewellery is inspired by ancient traditions of Buddhism, meditation and yoga. The philosophy of Shamballa Jewels is to remind each of us the basics of human life such as love, compassion, empathy, ethics and tolerance, and to awaken the inner human harmony between body, mind and soul. For more information please visit: www.shamballajewels.com or http://www.facebook.com/shamballajewelsofficial?v=app_2309869772.

LONDON, UK – September 29 – The countdown has begun. It’s just 99 days until the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure gets under way at the sun-kissed Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island. PokerStars’ flagship live event, which is consistently the largest poker festival outside of Las Vegas, is set to take place in the Bahamas from January 5-14.

The 2012 event – the ninth annual PCA – will once again feature a $10,300 Main Event, scheduled to take place from January 7-13, and is expected to attract a world-class field of players, including a host of Team PokerStars Pros and hundreds of PokerStars qualifiers. Several events, including the Main Event, will be filmed for broadcast later in 2012.

George Markantonis, President of Kerzner International Bahamas (Atlantis Resort), was excited about the prospects of another PCA festival. He said: “On behalf of our 7,200 associates here at Atlantis, we welcome the ninth annual PCA to the Bahamas. We are honoured to play a part in hosting this global event. We have watched the growth of this event and its evolution into a world-class tournament. It will bring more than 10,000 people from around the world to our island, and we look forward to welcoming many more participants in the future. We wish the players luck in the tournament and hope that everyone takes advantage of our amazing resort facilities and enjoys our warm Bahamian hospitality.”

PCA 2011

In 2011, Galen Hall won $2.3 million for his victory in the Main Event, with the total prize pool exceeding $15,000,000. Last year also saw the first Super High Roller event, which featured a $100,000 buy-in and was won by recent Team PokerStars Pro addition Eugene Katchalov for $1.5 million, after he defeated poker superstar Daniel Negreanu heads-up.

Despite his disappointment in 2011, Negreanu can hardly wait for next year’s event to come around. He said: “I’ve never missed the PCA and never will. It’s grown each year and has become a must-play poker festival for every serious poker player. It’s not just about the Main Event, because there is a full schedule of events for both high- and low-rollers. There isn’t a better way to start off your 2012 than heading out to the PCA.”

Global Poker Tours Limited (GPTL) managing director, Jeffrey Haas, said: “Each year the PCA offers the widest range of poker tournament formats, game variants and buy-ins available on the planet. Nowhere else will players find tournaments with buy-ins from $300 to $100,000, or the kind of games provided in the schedule. We want the PCA to be FUN for players both at the tables and when they’re on the beaches, at the nightclubs, or in the restaurants. The PCA is for our players, and their friends and families. We’re privileged and honoured to be welcoming thousands of them back for our ninth annual event.”

Online satellites

A full complement of satellite qualifiers to the event are now running at PokerStars.com,
with cash buy-ins starting from just $1.10, or 4 FPPs via the PCA Mega Path route. For more information on satellites, players can go to Events > PCA > Satellites in the PokerStars client, or view the wider schedule at www.pokerstarscaribbeanadventure.com.

Festival schedule

As players have come to expect, the PCA will feature a huge amount of side events, with a total of 41 events scheduled to take place during the 10-day festival. In addition to the $10,300 Main Event, there will be a $100,000 Super High Roller, a $25,000 High Roller and a $1,100 Women’s Event (in which TV presenter Rikki Lake came third in 2011) among the dozens of tournaments on offer.

In addition, the World Cup of Poker also returns for an eighth year, with nine different teams competing to win the $290,000 prize, and there’s another chance for players to take part in the popular $2,100 Battleship event. Here’s the full schedule:

For more information, please email press@pokerstars.com and follow us at www.Facebook.com/CaribbeanAdventure and www.Twitter.com/PokerStars_PCA.

About PokerStars:

PokerStars operates PokerStars.com, the world’s most popular online poker site, and serves the world’s largest poker community, with more than 48 million registered members. It’s the first choice of the world’s top players, with more daily tournaments than anywhere else, and with the best security online. More hands have been dealt on PokerStars.com than any other site – that’s over 67 billion hands and more than 430 million tournaments played.

PokerStars.com operates worldwide under license from the Isle of Man government. Recent additions to the PokerStars family include PokerStars.fr, which operates in France under the French government license, as well as PokerStars.it, which operates in Italy under the Italian government license, and PokerStars.ee, which operates in Estonia under the Estonian government license.

PokerStars.com stages some of the biggest online poker tournaments in the world, including the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), and is the official sponsor of some of the biggest live poker tournaments in the world, including the European Poker Tour (EPT), the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT).

PokerStars.com is also home to a team of sponsored players known as Team PokerStars Pro. This elite group of players travel the world competing in international tournaments.