India plays host to a leg of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) for the first time as the country and tour continue to reach for the stars in terms of live poker. APT Goa got underway earlier this week at the city’s Casino Royale with the opening event attracting a field of 89 and total prize pool of around INR 400,500 (£5,005).
“We are extremely pleased with the player turnout for this first event of APT Asian Series Goa. Normally, local tournaments start in the evening so with a 4pm start, we were not sure of player participation, but we were overwhelmed by the amount of players from all over India that are here for APT week,” said Jeff Mann, Asian Poker Tour CEO.
Poker news sites are blowing a collective load over the World Series of Poker Main Event right now – and well they should. The Asian Poker Tour is an event that is maturing by the day and taking place in the world’s largest gambling industry market gives it a huge advantage.
In terms of yesterday’s action, Phil Sanders emerged from the substantial field in the opening INR 5,000 NLHE opening event and with it the tidy sum of INR 136,200 (£1,702). The heads-up with Mihir Mehta over-ran the tournament’s maximum 21 levels as the two battled it out for the prize. Eventually Sanders’ K-6 blew Mehta’s J-6 out of the ocean as the runner up went home with INR 80,100. Third place belonged to Vinay Suchede, taking home INR 44,100.
The Main Event, complete with INR 50,000 buy-in, gets underway on Friday and will be the biggest to have taken place in this country of unprecedented poker growth.
