The now closed Hard Rock Poker Lounge One of the biggest casualties of the closure of the Hard Rock Poker Lounge at City of Dreams is the loss of a venue to hold the next Macau leg of the Asian Poker Tour (APT). With the very limited availability of venues in Macau that are able to support a large tournament, it’s not known if a replacement venue can be found in time to stage this very popular event this year.
APT Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Mann, said, “This is obviously very sad news for poker in Macau and the APT as we expected to be returning to Hard Rock later this year. We understand the decision was taken because of space limitations; the gaming table cap that is enforced at each casino. Macau is really booming right now and it puts huge pressure on the best usage of floor space, logistics and, of course, staffing. As a commercial decision it is understandable but unfortunately it means the APT needs to find a new home.”
However, landing a new venue is not as easy as it sounds, as Mann added, “The fact is a poker event just can’t be held anywhere in Macau. For the authorities to approve an event it must be with an approved casino and held in a designated gaming area. In addition, that casino must be operating a poker room. All I can say to players is to watch this space as we are working on trying to find a solution for this year.”
In 2008 and 2009, APT Macau was staged at Galaxy StarWorld and then moved to the Hard Rock last year. The reason cited for the move at the time was that StarWorld just could not accommodate the APT, given its size, anymore as its facilities were fully booked for most of the time. Existing poker room operators at the StarWorld Poker King Club have not been able to stage tournaments frequently because of this fact: the StarWorld ballroom is one of the busiest in Macau and is often booked a year in advance.
We’ll just have to wait and see whether the APT will be able to sort out its Macau dilemma for this year. Poker Portal Asia will bring you any updates as they happen.
May 18, 2012 by Posted By: Adam Smith
With the launch of Poker Portal Asia’s revamped Player Database, users can now search by country and find out who are the top players from their respective homelands according to how much they have cashed in Asia Pacific tournaments since 2008. To coincide with the launch of this new feature we’re releasing a series of articles showcasing the top cashers in each major Asian...
Read more»
May 17, 2012 by Posted By: Adam Smith
May 16, 2012 may just go down as a landmark date in Macau’s poker history as it reportedly saw the widespread introduction of a new regulation allowing multiple poker tables to count as only one gaming table in each casino’s table cap.
According to World Gaming Magazine sources, as of 6am yesterday Macau’s table cap in relation to poker rose so that 20 poker tables wou...
Read more»
May 16, 2012 by Posted By: Adam Smith
On May 15, 2012, PokerStars officially launched the fast action ring game of Zoom Poker. The move has come after a successful beta release from March that has seen over 300 million hands dealt and more stakes and games added.
You can now play Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo and Five Card Draw and various No-Limit, Fixed Limit and Pot Limit variations of Zoom Poker. Stake...
Read more»
May 15, 2012 by Posted By: Adam Smith
The poker scene in Singapore just got a welcome boost today with the opening of Resorts World Sentosa’s long-awaited poker room. As the first legal poker room in the country, ‘Poker World’ opened for business at 12pm today and will be operating 24 hours, seven days a week for the foreseeable future.
As reported, the impending opening first came to Poker Portal Asia’s...
Read more»
May 15, 2012 by Posted By: Adam Smith
The Metro Independence Day Tournament (MIDT) is once again returning to Metro Card Club, Ortigas – the biggest card room in the Philippines – on June 14-19, 2012 and is a chance for local players to celebrate Philippines Independence Day in style. The tournament will feature a PHP 5000 buy-in this time around, as opposed to last year’s PHP 3000, while the guaranteed prize...
Read more»
May 11, 2012 by Posted By: Adam Smith
At long last we can say that PokerStars Macau has found a new home. Well, in actual fact, it’s an old home but what’s important is that Macau’s biggest poker room is finally about to be back in business. PokerStars Macau will officially return to the Grand Waldo Entertainment Complex on June 9, 2012, where it started its days in 2008 before shifting to Casino Grand Lisboa...
Read more»
May 11, 2012 by Posted By: Adam Smith
With the launch of Poker Portal Asia’s revamped Player Database, users can now search by country and find out who are the top players from their respective homelands according to how much they have cashed in Asia Pacific tournaments since 2008. To coincide with the launch of this new feature we’re releasing a series of articles showcasing the top cashers in each major Asian...
Read more»
.JPG "APT Trophy (4)")
.JPG "Adam Monaghan (4)")
.JPG "Adam Monaghan (7)")
.JPG "Adam Monaghan (8)")
.JPG "Antonio Martins (1)")
.JPG "Antonio Martins (4)")
.JPG "Antonio Martins (7)")
