It was only two weeks ago that the Asian Poker Tour (APT) was forced to announce the cancellation of APT Cambodia in May this year after the rival Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) unexpectedly changed the dates of their APPT Macau event.
As we reported at the time, the resulting schedule clash left the new management team at Cambodia’s Queenco Hotel & Casino with some tough decisions and rather than hurt player numbers at both events by running them simultaneously they opted instead to cancel.
The good news is that APT Cambodia is back with the event now scheduled to run from 20 to 28 October – slotting into a rare break in the calendar immediately after ANZPT Melbourne, which finishes on 20 October, and before ACOP which kicks off in Macau on 30 October.
“Our first APT event last year was a success and we were very disappointed that the planned May event needed to be cancelled through reasons beyond our control, but I’m delighted that APT Cambodia will now be here in October,” said Queenco General Manager Aharon Aagini.
Queenco’s poker operations were recently taken over by new owners with highly respected poker room manager AJ Brock brought in to establish the venue as a world class operation.
Hosting a leg of the Asian Poker Tour remains an important part of that transition with Brock keen to show off Sihanoukville’s tropical beachside location, but it’s fair to say neither he nor the APT are quite ready to forgive the APPT for forcing a schedule change in the first place.
“The fact of the matter is that we should not have been forced to cancel the May event in the first place,” APT CEO Jeff Mann said. “We have now selected October 20 to 28 as it falls between all other regional poker activities. I just hope that no one changes their published schedules thus affecting APT Cambodia 2015 once again.”
