PokerStars Merges APPT and ANZPT Brands

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Wednesday, October 7th, 2015 | Written by Lucy Brown

There is great news for poker players in Asia and Oceania. Two of the biggest names in tournament play, the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) and the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), are becoming one and the same. Both the APPT and ANZPT are sponsored by PokerStars, whose parent company, the Amaya Group, also owns Global Poker Tours Limited, operator of the European Poker Tour (EPT), the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), and the UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT). By combining the APPT and ANZPT into one force, the new APPT will now likely become one of the biggest, if not the biggest, tournament organizer in the region, continuing the growth it has enjoyed over the last few years.

About the Merger

As a part of the merger, ANZPT is becoming completely absorbed by APPT and will no longer continue to be in operation. APPT’s name and current schedule of tournaments will remain unchanged; however the tour will now be adding stops in New Zealand and Australia. The official merger will take place in early 2016. Commenting on the merger, APPT and ANZPT president, Danny McDonagh, said:

“I have been very proud to be a part of the ANZPT. There have been many memorable stops including Darwin, Gold Coast and Queenstown together with the big city venues such as Sydney and Melbourne.”

The move isn’t really shocking, though, when you consider that APPT and ANZPT have always had an amiable relationship. In the past ANZPT players of the year have received free entry into the Asia Championship Poker event, the largest and most famous of the events that APPT organizes. It’s also clear that ANZPT has been struggling to organize events. This year, the tour had only three stops, compared to the eight that have been offered in other years. APPT already has events in Australia, having had four tournaments scheduled on their 2015 tour.

Saying Goodbye to ANZPT

ANZPT isn’t finished yet! The tour will have one final event at the Crown Casino in Melbourne from October 8-20, with organizers hoping to make this the largest ANZPT event ever as a final sendoff for the tour.

“I hope ANZPT Melbourne at the fabulous Crown Melbourne complex can set a new prize pool record as ANZPT’s final event, beating the million dollar prize pool achieved just last season”, explained McDonagh.

As on previous occasions, organizers have elected to maintain their usual freezeout format for the AUD $2,300 buy-in ANZPT Main Event, a decision based upon how popular the format has proved in the past. Last year, for instance, the tournament attracted 516 players to create a prize pool worth $1.03 million, representing a new prize pool record for the ANZPT. After four days of action, the event eventually saw Edison Nguyen battle Corey Kempson heads-up for top honors, before the Aussie talent took the title for $217,500. Edison Nguyen currently boasts $398,766 in live career earnings, to go with the $919,781 he has won online playing under the screen name “Googiemona”.

APPT Continues to Grow

By absorbing ANZPT, APPT is continuing their positive growth trend that has been underway for the past 8 or so years. The tour began with just four events and now has 10 stops. The tour is run by Global Poker Tours Limited, which is also responsible for organizing events in Latin America, the UK and Ireland and continental Europe. Global Poker Tours is owned by Amaya, the same company that owns PokerStars, which is among the sponsors for all APPT events.

Experts predict that the loss of ANZPT will have very little impact on players because of the tour’s dwindling number of stops. In fact, it’s likely that APPT will only continue to increase the number of events in 2016 and beyond. First stop on the newly-expanded APPT will be the Aussie Millions, scheduled to take place at the Melbourne Crown Casino from January 13 through to February 1st 2016. The A$10,000 Main Event begins on January 24th, and last year was won by Manny Stavropoulos, who overcame a field of 648 players over seven days to walk away with a huge A$1,385,500 payday.