By Ben Blaschke
01 December 2009
IT’S been a long wait but the Pokerstars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour grand final finally kicked off this morning with 80 players taking their seats hoping to win the $1 million first prize.
With more than 400 expected over the coming days, there was a distinct air of excitement in Star City’s new poker room as 2005 World Series of Poker champion Joe Hachem welcomed the players before uttering those immortal words: ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’.
Among today’s starters are Lee Nelson, Eric Assadourian, Jason Gray, Tony Dunst, Joel Dodds and Julian Powell while last year’s WSOP main event champ Peter Eastgate was spotted wandering the halls and will no doubt take his seat either tomorrow or Thursday.
The APPT grand final is expected to boast a prize pool of around $3 million by the time Friday’s Day 2 arrives with the eventual champion collecting $1 million for their efforts.
Player: Omer Silatozija
Player: Ben Blaschke
Player: Mladen Ivin
Player: Honglin Jiang
