Asia Poker Tour (APT) Philippines, a 9-day poker fiesta with 15 title events is kicking off tomorrow (April 14) at the Resorts World Manila, Pasay City. Poker players from all over the Asia-Pacific region will assemble to battle for the lion’s share of the prize pools across side events as well the $2,200 Main Event.
The inaugural event boasts of a guaranteed prize pool of $50,000 with a nominal buy-in of $275. It will have two opening flights on April 14 followed by the final play on the next day. A variety of NLH events which includes Multi Rebuy, High Rollers, Bounty Hunter and Ladies event will keep players engaged throughout the week. Meanwhile, an array of one hand and mega satellites to the main event will be running to save on $2,200 entry fee. Open Face Chinese Pineapple 60 Max on Friday and Pot Limit Omaha Hi on Sunday will please the poker players who love variety in games in the long-running tournaments.
A big pool of Indian poker players including the Team Spades trio – Amit Jain, Kunal Patni and Aditya Sushant and Team Thrill pros – Jasven Saigal, Dhaval Mudgal, Danish Shaikh, Shravan Chhabria, Haresh Kukreja and Sahil Agarwal has started arriving in Manila. Giving these sponsored pros company will be Amit Ajwani, Apoorva Goel and Ashish Ahuja which makes a strong Team India this year at APT Philippines.
“I am super excited about going to manila for the 1st time. I have heard a lot of good things about the place and the events hence really looking forward to it. I’ve taken a much required 3-day break with the family to charge myself for APT Manila,” said Amit Jain before leaving for Manila.
Kunal Patni who had a successful outing in Macau with one final table coupled with the Main Event cash seemed enthusiastic about the APT Philippines events. He said, “I am fresh and charged up as I took a mini break after IPC and didn’t play any live game. The structure of all tournaments at APT is very deep which suits my kind of game. So, I have a good feeling about it.”
OPN spoke to another Team Spade pro Aditya Sushant about his preparation for this 9-day tournament. He said, “I’m really looking forward to playing the APT in manila. This will be my first time. I have been playing a lot on adda52 to stay in touch and keep my game sharp.”
Of all the changes made in events this season, the Main Event which drew 208 entries last year will be played with an increased starting stack of 25,000. Feng Zhao topped the main event field in 2014 taking home $126,500 with the title. Monster Stack is the new inclusion in the APT Philippines roster which gives the players a starting of 30,000 chips for a decent buy-in of $770. The last event – $21K Guaranteed 6 Handed – 10 Man Stop in its revised version will be played down to last 10 players who will receive an equal share in the prize pool along with the ticket to APT Vietnam Main Event.
For the full schedule of 2015 APT Philippines, click here.