By Zach Purgason

09/02/2008

The western world, where poker got its start and has presently flourished, isn’t the only place that the sport has escalated in popularity.  Asia is quickly catching on to the game of poker where it is their skill that’s tested against opponents, not blind luck that comes with casino games.  But does poker have a future in Asia?

                If recent tournaments and the growing Asian poker pro population is the basis of the answer, then the answer is decidedly yes.  Asian cultures aren’t strangers to gambling or card games in general.  Actually games like mahjong that have been played regularly in Asia for years require similar mathematics skills that some have theorized would be a talent of the Asian poker players.  But it wasn’t until the last few years that the poker organizations of the West and the Web have turned their attention to the player base of Asia.

                The Asian Poker Tour just wrapped up its second of 4 tournaments in Macau last week for a successful first half of their tour as Yevgeniy Timoshenko took home the top prize.  The APT alone has seen a surge in participation and interest and has already announced that they plan to increase the tour events from 4 this year to at least 6 next year.

                But that’s not the only poker organization spreading its influence throughout the region.  The Asian Pacific Poker Tour, or APPT, which is organized by PokerStars, just kicked off in Macau yesterday and will continue there until Sept. 9^th   with a guaranteed prize pool of HK$10 million .  This is only the second annual APPT, but it certainly looks like there will be many more to follow. 

Already there are 400 players from dozens of countries that have signed up for the first event, which exceeds even some major U.S. poker tournaments.  This strong showing for their first of 5 stops along the APPT circuit has insiders saying they will definitely surpass the 1,418 players that participated in the tour circuit last year.