PokerStars releases Asia Championship of Poker schedule
3 Sep 2013
The ACOP is the flagship poker series for the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) and acts as the grand finale for APPT Season 7.
The 17-day schedule has 18 cash tournaments and more than HK$27 million (US$3.5 million) in guaranteed prize money.
This includes 12 championship events, known as ACOP Title Events, and features the HK$100,000 (US$13,000) Main Event, which has doubled its previous guarantee -- now at a massive HK$20 million (US$2.6 million), the biggest guaranteed prize pool in all of Asia.
The opening weekend of the ACOP will launch with the HK $2,500 Rebuy Championship and the HK$11,000 Deepstack Championship. They come with HK$500,000 and HK$1 million prize pool guarantees respectively.
Other highlights include the HK$25,000 Warm-up (HK$5 million guarantee), HK$250,000 + 1R High Roller, HK$15,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship, and the HK$8,800 Ladies Asia Championship.
Last year, the 2012 ACOP attracted some of the game's biggest names, including Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, John Juanda, Oliver Speidel and ElkY, along with nine other Team PokerStars Pros.
In total, there were 2,757 players and more than HK$46.2 million (US$5.9 million) in prize money awarded last year -- both of which are APPT records.
"Last year's ACOP was a great success but it was still just Year 1," said APPT president Danny McDonagh. "The awareness is so much greater this year and we expect the 2013 ACOP to break the previous APPT records."