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Home / Uncategorized / APPT9 Macau: The Mid-Season Finale

It’s been a busy period for the Asia Pacific Poker Tour – with five poker festivals over the past four months – but the mid-season finale is upon us in the form of APPT Macau from May 20-31.

The tour is going to take a 2-month hiatus afterwards so the ‘PokerStars LIVE Macau’ poker room has prepared all the poker action your appetite can handle before Season 9 returns at the end of July with APPT Manila.

What’s in store for the tour’s longest running event?

OPENING WEEKEND
The heart of the 12-day schedule kicks off on Saturday (May 23) with the HK$5,000 Warm-up event which comes with a HK$1 million prize pool guarantee. Last year, the 2-day tournament drew 308 runners and had more than HK$1.3 million in prize money up for grabs. Whether you’re a weekend warrior or coming for the whole poker festival this is no doubt a must-play event.

Opening weekend doesn’t end there as things start to really heat up with Sunday’s HK$15,000 NLH event. This tourney is bigger than most in the region and if you’re preparing yourself for the Main Event then the 15k NLH gets your mind ready for the rest of the schedule.

MAIN EVENT
494. HK$11 million (USD $1,422,000).

That’s the field size and prize money from 2014 and gives you a good idea of what’s in store for the HK$25,000 buy-in Main Event.

2011 champion Randy Lew has confirmed his return to Macau in search of his second APPT title. He’ll be joined by fellow Team PokerStars Pros Bryan Huang, Celina Lin, Kosei Ichinose, and Aditya Agarwal.

randy_lew_macau_winnershot.jpg

Online satellites are still running to the Main Event but if you miss out on that then you should definitely take a shot at the HK$3,500 Mega Satellite on Tuesday, May 26 which is guaranteed to award at least 10 Main Event seats.

There are even multiple HK$700 feeders to the Mega Satellite so there’s a path to the Main Event for any bankroll.

HIGH STAKES
I feel like I’m constantly writing about the insatiable appetite for high stakes in Asia but seriously, the numbers don’t lie! Just take a look at the two high roller events in Asia thus far this season.

Macau Poker Cup: HK$80,000 High Roller
2014: 59 players, HK$4.4m → 2015: 67 players, HK$5.0m

APPT Seoul: KRW 3,000,000 High Roller
2014: 36 players, KRW 199m → 2015: 70 players, KRW 387m

That’s an astonishing 44% average increase and there’s every reason to expect the APPT Macau High Roller to destroy the 59 players (HK$5.5m) from last season.

While the buy-in for the High Roller is still set at HK$100,000, the competitors will be given the option of two rebuys during the registration period. It certainly wouldn’t be a shock to see over 100 runners competing for HK$10 million!

You say you want to play against the big names for the big money and wish there was a way for the everyman? You can!

For as little as HK$2,000 you could qualify your way through in the 2-step satellite to the High Roller.

Pausing for applause ☺

More?

There’s an exciting 50K Freezeout event on the eve of the Main Event that’s being introduced to the Season 9 schedule. All in all there are 13 Official Asia Player of the Year events – ranging from HK$1,500 to HK$100,000 – before summer break comes around.

Let us know what you think on Twitter at @PokerStarsMacau by using hashtag #APPTMacau

APPT Macau takes place at the ‘PokerStars LIVE at the City of Dreams, Macau’ poker room from May 20-31, 2015. For more information, please visit www.appt.com.

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