MACAU, Aug. 22, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PokerStars (www.PokerStars.net), the world's largest online poker site, today announced an unprecedented line-up of 20 top poker champions who will be hitting the felt for the launch of Season 2 of the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) at Macau in the People's Republic of China. APPT Macau is expected to become the largest poker tournament in Asia, with over 500 participants competing for the top spot in the nine-day event, starting September 1, 2008.
The newest addition to the field of 20 champions to join APPT Macau is poker legend Johnny "The Orient Express" Chan. With ten World Series of Poker bracelets to his name and over $6.7 million in tournament earnings during his career, Chan is one of the most decorated champions in the history of the sport.
"It's great for Poker in Asia that there's a major tournament like this here in Macau," said Chan. "It's attracting all of the top players in the sport, and letting the world know that there is real poker, real poker players, and that anybody can win millions of dollars."
"We are excited to have so many of the world's top players coming to the Grand Waldo Casino in Macau this year," said Jeffrey Haas, president of the PokerStars.net APPT. "It's a testament to the success of Season 1 that champions such as Chan, Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Men 'The Master' Nguyen and Barry Greenstein are eager to compete on the felt during our second season. We're privileged to continue leading the growth of poker and poker culture in Asia, and expect local and regional player participation to at least double during this year's events. The PokerStars.net APPT is taking poker to a new level in Asia Pacific, and when this Macau tournament is broadcast on TV around the world, we expect this growth to continue."
Joining the professionals will be a host of players from across Asia Pacific and the world, who have won their way to the event via free, online tournaments at PokerStars.net. Players can still win their entries through live mega satellites set to take place from August 24 through August 31, at the PokerStars Macau poker room at Grand Waldo Casino. Players can also buy-in directly on-site.
The PokerStars.net APPT Season 2 in Macau will include the $25,000 HKD buy-in Main Event ($3,200) from September 1-6 and the return of the prestigious "high roller" event with a buy-in of $150,000 HKD ($19,250) from September 7-9. Both televised events have a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $10M HKD. With more than 500 players expected to start, the Main Event is likely to set a new record for poker tournaments in Asia, both in player numbers and prize pool.
The top champions from around the world slated to participate in the PokerStars APPT Macau event include:
- Joe Hachem, Australia (2005 WSOP Main Event Champion)
- Johnny Chan, Hong Kong (1987 & 1988 WSOP Main Event Champion)
- Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, France (2008 PCA Champion)
- Scotty Nguyen, Vietnam (2008 WSOP HORSE Champion)
- Lee Nelson, New Zealand (2006 Aussie Millions Champion)
- Isabelle Mercier, Canada (2004 WPT Ladies Event Champion)
- Van Tuyet Nguyen, Vietnam (2008 WPT Celebrity Invitational Champion)
- Barry Greenstein, USA (2008 WSOP Razz Champion)
- Dinh Le, Vietnam (2007 APPT Macau Main Event Champion)
- Eric Assadourian, Australia (2007 APPT Macau High Roller Event Champion)
- Neil Arce, Philippines (2008 FPT Manila Champion)
- Mike "Timex" McDonald, Canada (2008 EPT German Open Champion)
- Ziv Bachar, Israel (2007 APPT Seoul Champion)
- Grant Levy, Australia (2007 APPT Sydney Champion)
- Mel Judah, England (2003 WPT Legends of Poker Champion)
- Daniel "Rekrul" Schrieber, USA (2007 WSOP Heads Up Champion)
- Men "The Master" Nguyen (2005 Player of the Year)
- Harry "Wise Owl" Demetriou, England (2004 Victor Poker Cup Champion)
- Anthony Rivera, USA (2008 WSOP Mixed Events Champion)
- Isaac Galazan, USA (2005 WSOP Short-Handed Champion)
For more information on the PokerStars.net APPT and how to qualify for the tournaments, visit http://www.appt.com.
About PokerStars:
PokerStars (www.pokerstars.net) is the world's largest online poker room (with 15 million players worldwide) and also the #1 poker tournament site. As the premier destination for the top players -- with over 100,000 tournaments running every day -- PokerStars is renowned for offering the best software and security in the online poker world. To date, PokerStars has:
- Dealt over 19 billion hands
- Run more than 100 million poker tournaments
- Entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first and only poker website to reach the 160,000 simultaneous players mark
PokerStars is the official sponsor of the European Poker Tour (www.ept.com), PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker Tour (www.lapt.com), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (www.appt.com) and the World Cup of Poker.
PokerStars is the home of Team PokerStars Pro, a group of 29 veteran and up-and-coming players from around the world who play online at PokerStars and are sponsored by the site in international tournaments around the world. For more information please visit www.pokerstars.net.
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