Fresh off of the success of the 2012 Asian Poker Tour Philippines, the Asian Poker Tour is packing its bags and bringing its brand go high-stakes, action-packed poker back to Goa, India.
Oh yes, you poker-loving friends of ours from India. The APT is coming back for the 2012 APT Asian Series Goa. The week-long event will be held from May 21 to May 27 at the Casino Royale in Goa, India. Last November, the APT held their very first tournament in India to a resounding success, highlighted by India’s very own Sangeeth “Samohh” Mohan’s dramatic victory in the Main Event Final Table, a win that earned him a cool INR 2,346,400 (USD 43,600).
With the success of the 2011 event, the APT is returning only a few months after that event’s staging with plenty of new tournaments, all of which could attract even more local and international professional poker players.
In addition to the INR 50,000-buy-in Main Event, the 2012 APT Series Goa will also include a INR 10,000 Freezeout tournament, a INR 15,000 Head Hunter tournament, a INR 7,000 Hyper Turbo Deep Stack tournament, and last but certainly not least, a INR 150,000 FundooPoker High Rollers event.
In an email exchange with CalvinAyre.com, APT CEO Jeff Mann said that the decision to return to Goa was the result of the successful staging of the 2011 Asian Series Goa last November. “At the outset – given our view that the Indian poker market had huge potential- we had an agreement in place with Casino Royale that should the inaugural event be a success, then moving forward APT would stage two events per year in Goa,” he said.
Mann couldn’t help but be excited about the growing poker market in India, saying that the game is “growing very fast” in the country with a “huge upside” for the game of poker.
It certainly goes without saying that the success of the 2012 Asian Poker Tour Philippines has given the APT tremendous momentum for the second half of the 2012.
“[The] APT has matured to the stage where it now has its own constant momentum,” Mann said.
And if you need any more evidence of the APT’s increasing popularity, look no further than the expected turnout for the 2012 Asian Series in Goa, India later this month.
