Too much poker is never enough

For anyone with a love of tournament poker, the next few months loom as one of the most exciting periods ever seen in the Asia-Pacific region with six major tournament series and some big prize money on offer. Of course, with so much going on it can be difficult to keep up so we thought we’d make it easy and run through exactly what’s coming up for the rest of 2014.

We’ll start in Manila, where if you’re quick you can still make it in time for this year’s APT Manila main event stating this Saturday 13 September. With a very accessible buy-in of around US$1,100, APT events are a great way to experience a professional poker tournament and take your shot at a major trophy without breaking the bank.

From the Philippines we head to Australia and the most significant event the region will see in 2014 as the World Series of Poker (WSOP) returns to Melbourne’s Crown. Last year’s maiden WSOP APAC tournament series featured only five bracelet events but proved to be a huge success with none other than Daniel Negreanu winning the main event and the AU$1 million first prize. Now moved from February to October, the 2014 schedule boasts 10 bracelet events from 2 October with the AU$10,000 main event kicking off on 12 October.

From Melbourne it’s straight back to Manila for another exciting event in WPT National Philippines. WPT National events are designed to take WPT branded and run tournaments to the world with affordable buy-ins of around US$1,500 making them far more accessible than the WPT’s prestigious main tour stops. There are actually two WPT events being held in Asia back to back with the Manila leg starting on 18 October before WPT National China kicks off in Sanya from 28 October.

Squeezed right in at the same time is Macau’s flagship event – the Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) from 24 October to 9 November. The huge 14 event schedule is highlighted by the HK$100,000 from Tuesday 4 November and with last year’s winner, Korea’s Sunny Jung, taking home an impressive HK$4,352,000 we expect plenty of big names to be taking their seat at the tables.

Finally, it’s off to New Zealand for the final leg of the 2014 Australia New Zealand Poker Tour in Auckland. Aside from the lure of another major tournament trophy, the race is well and truly on for the title of ANZPT Player of the Year with current leader and recent ANZPT Melbourne champion Edison Nguyen, Sal Fazzino and reigning ANZPT Auckland champ David Lim among those still in the hunt.