Gambling
Related Essays and Reports by Andrew W Scott
Poker's Chink in the Great Wall
October 29th 2007
The
poker world is abuzz. The People’s Republic of China,
with it’s massive population base already predisposed
to gaming, has long been regarded as somewhat of a
holy grail for the poker world. Just look at the way
Macau has overtaken Las Vegas as the world’s pre-eminent
gaming locale, just five years after deregulation.
Much of this trade is from mainland Chinese.
But holding a real-money live poker
tournament there has always been problematic. Where
many have tried and failed, the Asia Pacific Poker
Tour has finally succeeded, and in its inaugural season
no less. Late last week it announced the first ever
real-money poker tournament on Chinese soil, to be
held in Macau on November 22-27, with the main event
on November 23. Yours truly will most certainly be
there.
This first season of the APPT has
already been a raging success, with successful tournaments
held in Manila and Seoul, and the Grand Final of season
one to be held in Sydney on December 13-16. About
600 entrants are expected at the Sydney fixture, each
stumping up their $6,000 entry fee – making a prize
pool of around $3.6 million. Many of them will win
their seat in the tournament by qualifying online,
for a mere fraction of the $6,000 entry fee. In the
few days since the Macau leg of the tour was announced,
about 30 people have already qualified online, and
perhaps 250-300 entrants are expected for the Macau
main event.
The newly formed tour owes its success
to a number of factors. It has the long-term financial
backing of Pokerstars.net as the major sponsor. Pokerstars
is the world’s largest online card room, which has
allowed many of the entrants to qualify online for
relatively tiny amounts of money. A number of poker
celebrities played in Manila and Seoul, including
Australia’s own Joe Hachem, the 2005 World Champion
of poker. Another key to the APPT’s success was the
hiring of Australian Danny McDonagh as the tournament
director. McDonagh ran the poker room at Crown casino
for many years and he and his trusted team run an
extremely tight ship. Some consider McDonagh to be
the best tournament director in the world today.
The television deals which are now
being negotiated will surely mean the tour will surely
grow exponentially in the seasons to come. Pokerstars
financial backing has allowed for the hiring of 441
Productions, the world’s premier poker production
company to shoot the series for television. Such a
professional production will no doubt make fascinating
television, and you can expect to see season 1 broadcast
in Australia sometime around Feb 2008. It will be
seen on TV3 in New Zealand and Solar Sports in the
Philippines.
Season 2, in 2008, is already expected
to contain seven fixtures, including New Zealand.
With a tournament now announced in Macau, could it
just be that we get one in mainland China one day?
Imagine the number of entrants and the prize pool
for that one…
©
2007 Andrew W Scott
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