Poker Tournament coverage

The Railbird report

Written by Railbird Ronny

This article first appeared in the Jul/Aug 2011 issue of World Gaming magazine.

Welcome to our newest regular column at World Gaming where we give you all the latest news from the poker tours in Macau and Asia, and the major events around the world. Each issue we will review important tournaments since the previous issue’s Railbird Report and we’ll preview what’s upcoming on the tour to ensure you don’t miss out on any events.

We have just seen the completion of the hugely popular Macau Poker Cup at PokerStars Macau at the Grand Lisboa. Once again the PokerStars team have delivered a world-class event that just keeps getting better and better, as proven by the numbers. The June event had a very impressive 447 runners and a prize pool of HK$4,470,000 with the eventual winner Kwan Pao Mah pocketing a cool HK$983,400.

In August we have the APT Asian Series Manila from August 17 to 23. The APT Asian Series will have lower buy-in poker tournaments which is sure to make it very well supported by the locals. Add in to the mix that it is to be held at the luxurious Resorts World Manila and we are in for some great poker.

The APPT is back for season 5 and the first event of 2011 will be at Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia from July 2 to August 1 and even with an AU$5,000 ($4,700 + $300) buy in you would expect them to be in the ballpark of the 500 player cap in Australia’s poker capital. The next APPT stop is the Queenstown Snowfest in New Zealand from August 22 to 28 so if you are keen to hit the slopes during the day then the tables at night this one is for you.

I couldn’t go without mentioning the WSOP main event, being held from July 7 in Las Vegas. Due to recent upheavals in the poker world it’s hard to predict the size of the field, but it will definitely be somewhere between 5,000 and 10,000 runners, and the first prize will go close to US$10 million. It will be a long, long road for the eventual winner whoever it may be. Thirteen gruelling days of poker sees the field of many thousands play down to the final nine players. Then the so-called ‘November Nine’ return to play on November 5 to 7 to find out who will be the next WSOP main event winner, often simply referred to as the World Champion of Poker. There will be quite an Asian contingent at the WSOP including our very own CEO Andrew Scott, so let’s hope someone from our part of the world can ship it!

Be sure to watch this space in future issues of World Gaming for all your tournament info and don’t forget you can always find tournament coverage at www.wgm8.com.