Towards the end of April 2020, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Online Series debuted on Natural8, bringing a total of 62 events across 12 days of online action. The festival was announced with an initial guarantee of $1.5 million, but ended up awarding more than $4.1 million in total prize money. After a month, the online series is back, this time featuring a massive guarantee of $10 million!
The second edition of the APT Online Series will take place on June 14-28 on GGPoker and features more than 200 events, including starting flights to the major tournaments.
Six Trophy Events
Those keen on winning an APT trophy shouldn’t miss these six feature tournaments on the schedule – the $50 buy-in Mini Main Event taking place on June 14; $500 APT Main Event and $5,000 APT Super High Roller both scheduled for June 21; and the $800 APT Championships, $400 buy-in Short Deck, and $400 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event all taking place on the final day, June 28.
The APT Main Event has nine starting flights which will kick off on June 18. It will give away $1,000,000 in prizes. The APT Championships offers a $1,000,000 guarantee as well, while $30,000 and $40,000 are up for grabs respectively in the Short Deck and PLO events.
Apart from the flagship events, the schedule also offers an extensive line-up of side events which players can enter for as low as $10. Each day throughout the festival, players can expect a maximum of 21 events playing out, featuring various formats, such as NLHE, PLO, Progressive Bounty, Deepstack, Monster Stack, Turbo, and Hyper Turbo.
Once again, the festival will include an APT Player of the Series leaderboard, giving players the opportunity to win extra prizes ranging from $500 to $1,500. Participants can also boost their winnings if they end up claiming a top spot in Natural8’s exclusive leaderboard with a total of $10,000 in additional cash up for grabs.
Inaugural APT Online Series A Massive Success
The inaugural APT Online Series which concluded in May attracted a total of 18,555 entries, with the Main Event awarding the biggest prize pool worth $578,075. The event was taken down by “DblBarrel” for $91,353.53 after topping a 1,217 field.
The $200 buy-in Mini Main Event was captured by Pete Chen for $40,058.92, while Phachara Wongwichit and “DingZhu88” won the PLO Championships and Short Deck Championships for $11,687.40 and $10,786.14 respectively.
The biggest winner in the inaugural festival was “DirtyDuck” who triumphed in the $800 buy-in APT Championships for $97,444.51. He was also crowned as APT Player of the Series after ultimately topping the series leaderboard. It was his second time of being crowned APT POS as he also won a similar title at the APT Kickoff Vietnam last year.
Like DirtyDuck, several other players also emerged as multi-winners, including “fish3098”, “readytoship”, “Dosobyc”, “tikkipokka”, and “Floatingworld”. Natural8 brand ambassador Michael Soyza also claimed his own trophy, so did Simon “Fireburns” Burns, Justin “PetitFoxx” Zhu, and Dicky “FloatingWorld” Tsang.
Asian Poker Tour
Since launching in 2008, the APT has become one of the leading poker tours across the globe, organizing multiple tournaments that mainly cater to players in the Asia-Pacific region. It hosted its first-ever tournament in Manila, and has since been holding stops in different locations, including South Korea, Vietnam, India, Macau, Cambodia, New Caledonia, Australia, and London, awarding more than $30 million in prizes across all events so far.
Natural8
Natural8 is a leading online gaming platform in Asia, offering a wide selection of tournaments and games, as well as qualifying events for major Asian live events. The site is popular for its innovative features, such as Tournament Staking.
The platform is focused on promoting social interaction and providing a fun and engaging gaming environment for its players. It is represented by some of the world’ best poker pros, such as Kitty Kuo, Dong Kim, Henri Buhler, and Bryan Paris.