Yesterday, We saw the kick-off of the Asia Poker League.
This is the second edition of this festival in Beijing.
Asia Poker League Main Event
While the WPT is offering a $3,500 buy-in Main Event with an entry number that is capped, the Asia Poker League is featuring a CNY 5,500 (around $800) buy-in Main Eventalong with a multitude of side events (PLO / High Roller / Team event).
More: Asia Poker League Reloaded – Schedule
The two events have a complementary offer, with organisers managing to work together to offer shuttles between the events at their two separate sites.
For Judic Kim, founder of this League, this return to Beijing for the APL has special meaning. Talking to Somuchpoker he said:
“When we decided to launch last year the Asia Poker League one of our goals was to connect the Mainland Chinese poker scene with the rest of the Asian poker world”.
He went on to say: “With this second event in Beijing we are giving the opportunity to international poker players to jump into the Chinese poker scene and the opportunity to Chinese players to compete against international poker players. Hosting events in China can be very challenging – but we have a great partner the Beijing Poker Club and we strongly believe in the importance of this market in the future”.
The first day of the Main Event saw 127 players enter. With four more starting days for the Main Event, the field and prize pool will progressively grow in the coming days. The number of competitors at the last Beijingedition was 465, and so this is the mark to beat. After a strong start yesterday, this goal is more than achievable.
A large contingent of international players has already arrived in Beijing, with many deciding to wait before buying into the Main Event. High on the list of expected players are: Japanese pop star Gackt and WPT National Philippines Champion Tetsusya Tsuchikawa.
Korean players are also expected to make an entrance in the coming days, with several big names taking part in the event: SJ Kim, Steve Yea are only two names among an important delegation
