The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) rolled into Manila on August 4th and will continue through to August 12th. Aside from the cash prizes, players are competing for a total of 5 Platinum Passes which have a value of $30,000 each.
These highly-coveted passes include the $25,000 entry fee into the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) that will be held in the Bahamas between January 6th and January 10th 2019.
Platinum Pass holders also get free accommodation at Atlantis Resort in Nassau and $2,000 in travel expenses.
A total of 844 entrants participated in PokerStars LIVE Manila this past weekend for the ₱15,000 APPT Kickoff Event. It was the largest field of players in the tournament’s history and easily surpassed the previous record that was set last year when 451 players entered. Seven different countries were represented when the tournament came down to the final table of nine competitors. Tamon Nakamura of Japan finished in third place and won ₱883,000 ($16,712) leaving Tsolmon-Erdene Ochir heads up against Gyeong Tae Yoo of Korea.
Tsolmon-Erdene Ochir who is the director of the Mongolian Poker Team Training School negotiated a deal with Yoo in which the Korean took second place. However, Yoo ended up with the larger chunk of cash with ₱2,200,000 while Ochir took home ₱1,541,000 as well as the prized Platinum Pass. Even with the reduced cash winnings, it was the biggest payday in Ochir’s poker playing career.
APPT LIVE Manila
APPT LIVE Manila will continue this week and as many as 22 Official Asia Player of the Year events with over $700,000 in guaranteed prize money will take place. This includes a ₱55,000 buy-in Main Event that will feature a guaranteed prize pool of ₱20 million ($380K). There are still 4 Platinum Passes yet to be claimed and they will be awarded at the APPT National on August 5-8, the Megastack on August 7-8, the APPT Main Event on August 9-12, and the Saturday SuperStack on August 11-12.
Another anticipated event on the schedule is the APPT Manila ₱200,000 High Roller Event. This event will allow for unlimited re-entries and the format will feature the big blinds posting the antes for the table and there will be a 30-second shot clock.
The Platinum Passes are a huge draw for poker players all over the world but especially so in Asia as the $25,000 buy-in is a lot of money for most Asian players when you look at how the currency conversion works out.
