PokerStars, the biggest poker company in the world, has released the official schedule for this year’s Asia Championship of Poker or ACOP. The biggest annual poker tournament in Asia is to take place between October 13 and October 29, 2017, and is expected to attract some of the best poker players from around the world. This year’s Asia Championship of Poker will be held at the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room. The latter is located in the City of Dreams resort and casino complex on the Cotai Strip.
The 2017 Asia Championship of Poker will feature a total of fifty cash tournaments with flexible entry fees to accommodate the bankrolls of all participants. Players will be able to join the events in the 17-day tournament series with buy-ins ranging anywhere between HK$1,000 and HK$800,000. All tournaments from the 2017 series involve the No-Limit Hold’em variation of poker. Players, who hit the rail, will generally not be able to buy their way back in as the majority of the tournaments do not allow re-entries.
Asia’s largest poker festival will feature two types of tournaments. Players with more limited bankrolls are presented with the opportunity to opt in for one of the fifty regular cash tournaments after paying entry fees that range from HK$500 to HK$5,000. Some of the events with lower buy-ins include the HK$3,000 Deepstack, the HK$3,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, the HK$5,000 Knockout, and the HK$2,500 Turbo tournament.
Those with more substantial bankrolls can choose from 24 title events where the winners get the chance to scoop one the special Spadie trophies in acknowledgement of their accomplishment. The HK$100,000 Main Event will be at the centre stage of this year’s Asia Championship of Poker series and has a staggering pool of HK$25 million in guaranteed cash prizes. This is the largest prize pool in the history of the ACOP so far.
In addition to a hefty payout, the winner will be awarded the prestigious Gold Spadie trophy. The top finisher will also be treated to the sum of HK$100,000 to buy their way into the 2018 ACOP Main Event.
The 2017 Asia Championship of Poker is expected to surpass previous attendance records, with around 7,000 entrants who will compete for a share of the overall amount of HK$200 million in prize money. In comparison, last year’s ACOP tournament series attracted the interest of 4,479 players and awarded over HK$95 million in cash prizes.
It was Swiss player Vladimir Geshkenbein who defeated 301 opponents to receive the first-place prize in the 2016 ACOP Main Event. Geshkenbein became the only player to earn champion titles in both the Asia Pacific Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour. The 29-year old Swiss went home with HK$5,643,000 in first-place prize money and the prestigious Gold Spadie trophy. Geshkenbein’s top finish in 2016 also earned him a free HK$100,000 entry into this year’s ACOP.
- Author
Harry Evans
