The first ever Asia Pacific Poker Tour kicked off on the 24th of August in Manila, the capital of the Philippines.  The total prize pool of $500,000 is to be shared among the more or less 200 players coming from 30 different countries.  The event is being held at the Hyatt Hotel and is set to end today, August 27.

According to Same Lightman,  organizer of the event, “”There has been a massive explosion in poker over the last 10 years.  Poker used to be associated with shady men in smoke filled rooms but that’s not the case any more. Televised poker and the Internet has changed all that.  Poker is a skills based sport based on mathematics and psychology.”
The region can thank PokerStars for bringing this tour to Asia.  PokerStars is an online poker site (which I am sure you know) with millions of players around the world.

Just one thing I noticed, though, it seems the locals were not really part of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour.  I have some friends in Manila who are avid poker players.  Actually, they play home games every weekend.  It didn’t seem that they were too excited about this big event, though.  In fact, none in their group joined nor even watched the events.  Does the $2500 buy in have anything to do with it?  I don’t know.  It is just a bit sad that people who are really passionate about poker cannot relate all that much to a big tournament like this one.

For those who are looking for some winter poker action, you need not look any further.  This November, Titan Poker is bringing the European Championship of Online Poker.  It is slated to run for 10 days, starting at the end of November.  Dubbed to be the largest online poker tournament, poker players will get the chance to win $2.5 million in guaranteed total prize money.   The main event, scheduled to be held on the 9th of December, will have $1 million up for grabs for the best poker player in this tournament.

Poker games will be either be No-limit Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, Limit Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, Omaha Hi/Lo R/A, and Pot-Limit Omaha R/A.  There will be a total of 10 events, with the winner of each event winning a considerable cash prize as well as an ECOOP bracelet, much like the bracelets given to WSOP winners.  As an added incentive, the top 50 players of the whole event get to play in a $50,000 freeroll which will be held on the day after the main event.

You can join the ECOOP with buy ins of as low as $100+$9.  You can also qualify for the tournament by playing in their qualifiers – the first of which has already started.  The next qualifying period will begin on the 10th of September.  Buy ins for these events are as low as $2+20 cents.

If you think that you have a good chance of winning large amounts of money, visit Titan Poker now.  Even if you don’t , just go ahead and join anyway and have lots of fun.

With the news that they would broadcast the World Series of Poker in High Definition, ESPN got a reaction – maybe unexpected – from the host himself, Norman Chad.  According to this news article, Norman Chad couldn’t understand why.

For poker?” Chad asked rhetorically this week in an interview with the Los Angeles Daily News. “We need to see high def on the queen of hearts? She looks good even in black and white.”

Chad, a former writer for The Washington Post, often delivers biting comments about the players (and their play) on the poker series. But it appears that his acerbic barbs go beyond the participants and into the production booth.

“High def would have been great for Neil Armstrong planting a flag on the moon. But for the flop on a 3-6-10? Maybe I’m behind the curve,” he told The Daily News.

Now I would not call myself as being anti HDTV.  In fact, the whole idea blows me away.  It is probably obvious to you at this point that I still do not have HDTV – not that I do not want to have one.  Maybe that is why I am tending to agree with Norman Chad.  Why the heck would you need to watch WSOP in HD?

Then again, there is the argument that it is not all about need but want.  I suppose this is where ESPN is going to score points.  I don’t know.  Ask yourself – is the price of HDTV worth watching poker in it?

Who wants 3 million euros?  I do, don’t you?  Well that much is up for grabs in the Irish Open 2008.  This is the longest running and largest poker tournament in Europe.  Here’s a piece of the press release for this much awaited tournament for the next year:

Europe’s largest poker tournament grows even bigger in 2008. With an increased capacity, buy-in and guarantee, The Irish Open 2008 will be the greatest festival of poker on the planet!

• €3 Million Guaranteed Prize Pool
• €4,200 Buy-in + €300 Registration Fee
• 1,000 player capacity
• Dublin
• April 2008

Demand for tickets will be huge so book your seat early. Buy directly into the Main Event on our register page, or qualify online on paddypowerpoker.com.

Poker’s royalty turned out for the 2007 event including World Series of Poker Champions Dan Harrington and Carlos Mortensen, but in the end it was popular Northern Irish man Marty Smyth who reigned supreme. Marty lifted the Terry Rogers trophy, taking home €650,000, after an epic heads up battle with Roland De Wolfe.

Marty defeated a record breaking field of 708 players which also included Mike Sexton, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Andy Black, Padraig Parkinson, Scott Gray, Ram Vaswani, David Plastik, Eddie Scharf, Dave Masters, Surinder Sunar, Frank Cruess Callaghan, Ian Frazer, and both G.I. and Vegas versions of Elvis!

Of course, with the promotions starting as early as now (for 2008 mind you), I think that the upcoming tournament is going to outdo this year’s event.  For more information, visit the Irish Open 2008 web site.

China has always been one of the more enigmatic countries for the western people.  Whether it is politics or religion, it seems that China has a big mysterious aura surrounding it.  Even when it come to gambling, this country is not so open.  That is why a lot of eyebrows were raised and hearts started beating faster when the news that WPT is entering China came out.

So what’s the real deal?  Well it is true, Chinese poker fans are in for a good year as WPT signed an agreement with the China Leisure Sports Administrative Center to promote “the sport of poker, by helping to create, expand and commercialize China’s first ever national poker competition.”  This was done only last Monday.  The agreement between the two parties will hold for the next 5 years.  At the end of this period, there will be an option to extend the contract.  That would, of course, depend on how the whole thing goes.

The fact that poker is making its formal entry to the “far” parts of the world is something to be happy about already.  Yet the fact that China has a gambling ban makes this feat even better!  For those who think that this is a good chance to flout the government, though, they couldn’t be more wrong.  The gambling ban holds – and is as strong as ever.   The only question now is what stakes the poker players will play for.  Personally, it doesn’t matter to me.  If you really love playing poker that should be enough.  Of course, a little incentive wouldn’t hurt, would it?