Get ready for the highly anticipated APT Taipei Kickoff Event! This highly-anticipated event has just started and will run from April 28 – May 7, 2023, and is set to take place in the impressive CTP Asia Poker Arena, the biggest permanent poker room in all of Asia. Representatives from the Arena have announced how thrilled they are to host the latest APT event and for good reason.
Many have said that this APT event is a sign of a new era for this poker tournament for several reasons. One is the new management as APT is now sponsored by world-renowned casino promoter Natural8. The other is because this APT has also seen record turnouts among poker players.
Over 700 Players Signed up for the APT Taipei Kickoff Event
The APT has visited Taiwan’s capital city seven times now. During the last event in APT Taiwan 2022, the attention was on Zhan Guo as he defeated 491 other poker players competing in the Main Event. His victory left him with the trophy and TWD 1,440,900 (which is around USD 45,376) from the TWD 7,005,130 (USD 220,600) prize pool. This event though is expected to bring even more attention to the APT.
The APT Taipei Kickoff Event is an important milestone for the Asian Poker Tour which has left everyone excited to see what’s in store. The Kickoff As one of the most important events of the poker festival, it was expected that the APT Taipei Kickoff Event would have a high turnout, but this event broke records with 751 entries! This has made it the most popular kickoff event in the Series’ history. Poker fans from all over the world are eager to participate in this exciting tournament.
The APT Taipei Kickoff Event has a massive prize pool of TWD 6,556,300 (that is around USD 213,180!) up for grabs. The tournament winner is expected to win TWD 1,254,100 (~ USD 40,770) top prize. This money will be distributed among the top 106 players. That means only 1 and 7 players will win a cash prize making for intense competition.
The APT Taipei Kickoff Event is Just One of Many Tournaments
While the APT Taipei Kickoff Event will get things started, it isn’t the only thing to look forward to. From April 28 to May 7, the APT Taipei festival will feature 49 events with over TWD 50 million (~ USD 1.6M) in guaranteed prize money! This includes the highly-anticipated Main Event which is offering a TWD 30 million (~ USD 1M) prize pool guarantee, for TWD 50,000 (~ USD 1,700) buy-in.
The next major event was the exciting Event #1 Freerollwhich will begin at 11:30 am local time. The first 100 players to register in this tournament were given a shot at claiming a coveted Main Event seat. At noon, APT CEO Fred Leung and CPT CEO David Tai took the stage to welcome all the players before officially opening the tournament. It was an unforgettable start to what promised to be an incredible tournament.
“It’s an honor that CTP chose to have APT open the gorgeous new Asia Poker Arena and we’re extremely grateful for that. APT has had a strong start to 2023 where we’ve seen dramatic year-to-year growth for our first two events in Hanoi and Phu Quoc. Combined, we’ve seen an increase of more than 70 percent in participation while the prize money has swollen by over 110 percent. It’s a terrific lead-up to APT Taipei, which officially launches the Asian Poker Tour into a new era. Our APT team has been working relentlessly to deliver what we hope to be all-time records for the tour over the next ten days. Once again, we’d like to thank David and all those involved in CTP for the efforts and hospitality.”
Fred Leung, APT CEO
This high turnout shouldn’t be too surprising as before the APT officially began, it was already announced to have one of the largest prize pools in the APT.
To know more about this announcement, check out our post on the APT Taipei Prize Pool.