Poker games have been a part of card competition games for over two hundred years already. Undoubtedly, poker has fascinated the majority of the planet, from poker rooms on river boats and at rivals Situs Sakura Slot88 in the Wild West in the past and to modern card rooms with a large number of tables and luxury casinos around the world. Be it the United States, Europe or even Latin and South America, poker has become a super popular game of the 21st century. But even now there is a “new horizon”, which will actively conquer in the years to come, to move poker to a new stage of popularity among tens of millions of new players.
This “new horizon” is the Asian continent. One billion people live in China, another billion people in India, and another billion scattered over the remaining parts of the continent. Given such a number of potential poker players, this market is a “golden vein” for match organizers. Only recently has this horizon begun to be developed (with or without assistance from local government). The new horizon could be the last for poker, which means that it will literally conquer the whole world. Poker organizers guarantee that by the end of 2007 many Asians had a good understanding of what “blind”, “turn” and “river” were.
For a long time online companies have been interested in the possibility of entering the Asian market (in particular, the Chinese market), but the governments of Asian countries are preventing the online or traditional gambling industry from developing full-scale. The Indian government, for example, does not actively support the idea of the gambling industry (though there are six casinos in the country). China, which will host the 2008 international Olympic games, the government is gradually weakening control over the Internet. This is very good news for representatives of the gambling industry, who are ready to launch a large-scale Asian acquaintance with poker.
Steve Wynn, owner of hotels and casinos around the world, is ready to bring his brilliant and glamorous style to the Asian market. “Wynn Macau”, a casino and hotel complex, opens on September 5 in Macao. It familiarizes the Asian continent with the luxury of Las Vegas-. This includes a 600-room hotel and casino, which no doubt offers gambling and poker games, as other Steve Wynn institutions do around the world. The 20-storey hotel will be an exact copy of the “Wynn Las Vegas” hotel-casino. The company plans to regulate the further spread of the table game across the continent.
TV is also bringing poker tournaments to the Asian market. The world’s most popular poker tournament (World Poker Tour or WPT) was recently granted licenses to TV stations in Macao and Singapore for them to show the first season of WPT games to Asian audiences. But the continent is gearing up to organize an extraordinary poker tournament of its own. The organization entitled “PanAsia Poker Tour” recently stated that the debut of this new championship will take place in November, and it is the first time in history that the official championship will take place in Manila, Philippines.
The event called “PAPT Philippines Open” will take place on November 3-5 at “Airport Casino Filipino”. The final tournament will combine free Texas Holdem poker games with a $2500 prize fund. It is hoped that the tournament, which received official permission from the Philippines State Corporation for Control over the entertaining and gambling industry (Philippine Entertainment and Gaming Company or PAGCOR), will attract celebrities and professional poker players. who will strive to win the title of the champion tournament. There are plans for this tournament film to be shown in the future on Asian TV. This means that spectators from the Asian continent want to watch the game, which is played on their own ground.
However, the poker tournament titled “PanAsia” does not stop at organizing one event. The leaders of this organization have adopted plans to organize in 2007 a tour across the continent with ten stops. The latter are planned in Macao, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the Philippines. If the tour seems successful, it will be able to attract millions of new poker players to the poker community.
India is also a part of Asia; India’s world outlook reflects in many respects the peculiarities of Asian or even Eastern philosophy. Gambling and casino games in Indian society are generally condemned (though many Indians want to change this), whereas poker sites, which are not banned here, have had difficulty spreading deeper into the continent. It is interesting that some of the activities of online poker companies take place mainly in India. For example, the company “PartyPoker” has a branch office there with 900 employees, the company pays taxes here, as well as in Gibraltar, where its head office is located. Nevertheless, India will be able to display a real interest for poker during the first tournament in the history of the country, which will take place in 2007.
the Asian poker championship in India – the Asia Poker Classic – with guaranteed prizes of one million dollars will take place on 1-3 March 2007, at a large Goa resort (Grand Resort Goa) in the “Intercontinental” hotel. It is expected that more than two hundred players will take part in the tournament. The registration fee being $7500, this competition is to attract some of the best poker players from all over the world and many celebrities. The organizers hope that the poker site (and tournament sponsor) “Maharajah Club” which has earned its longstanding reputation will help to attract more players to the competition.
Perhaps, the committee itself will provide the best account of the tournament. This is what tournament director and respected director of the “European Poker Tournament” (European Poker Tour) Thomas KREMSER said about the event. “Nothing like this has happened in India before. No doubt, the tournament will be impressive. The striking beauty of the resorts of Goa, beautiful hotels and the truly unique character of this tournament will be an unrivaled sight. This will be the poker tournament of the year!”