Asian Poker Tour (APT): Stops, Buy-Ins and Main Event Format

Asian Poker Tour: what the tour is

The Asian Poker Tour is one of the longest-running live poker festival brands in the region. It moves from country to country, setting up multi-day series in casinos and poker rooms, with a schedule that mixes a headline Main Event with dozens of side events, high rollers and satellites.

The tour has been running for well over a decade. By mid-2012 it had already drawn more than 1,000 participants to sponsored tournaments in a single year, and event buy-ins at that point ranged from US$900 to US$2,700⁶. A 2019 season announcement listed twelve dates already confirmed, with the season opener in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam from January 9 to 20, plus first-ever stops in Tokyo and Taiwan in February⁷.

In recent seasons the APT has been sponsored by Natural8, and the brand has expanded its footprint considerably. The APT Taipei 2024 was described as the largest and richest poker series ever to play out in Taiwan⁴. The tour has also added stops in South Korea, Jeju and Vietnam, and it continues to announce new festivals with multi-million-dollar guarantees.

If you are comparing the APT with other regional tours, our guide to poker tours and series in Asia covers APPT, JOPT, Triton and WSOP Circuit alongside it.

Where the tour stops: Macau, Korea, Vietnam and beyond

The APT has historically moved between several Asian markets. In 2012 it returned to Macau after a one-year hiatus, running 28 events over seven days at the Ballroom on the eighth floor of Galaxy Entertainment Group's StarWorld Hotel & Casino⁶. That same year it also ran an Asian Series stop at Ti Vegas Casino in Grand Bay, Mauritius, with a €900 buy-in⁶.

More recently, the tour's center of gravity has shifted to Vietnam, Taiwan and South Korea.

The tour has also run events in the Philippines, including the APT Finale Philippines 2018, which drew a field of well-known regional players⁷.

If you are planning around a specific stop, check the official series page for that festival. Schedules, venues and guarantees change from season to season, and the APT publishes each series' details separately.

Registration: account, ID and Player Release Form

Registration is mandatory. All players are required to register with the Asian Poker Tour to be able to participate in any APT event¹. You can create an APT account online before you travel, which lets you skip the queue at the venue, or you can register on site when you arrive⁸.

The on-site process is straightforward. You show your ID or state your name to the registration staff and tell them which tournament or tournaments you want to enter. You will then be issued Tournament Receipts, which you pay and verify at the cashier³.

If it is your first time playing in an APT event, the team will assist you with the APT Registration System. You may be asked to give or confirm your details and to fill in and sign a Player Release Form³.

What to bring:

• A valid government-issued photo ID showing your full name, date of birth and photograph²
• Your APT account details if you registered online⁸
• Cash or a card for the buy-in, paid at the cashier³

The ID requirement is not unique to the APT. Poker rooms across Asia generally require official photo identification before you can play. In the Philippines, for example, prospective players must show one valid government-issued ID card containing a photograph, full name and date of birth, and provide personal information including nationality, address, contact details, type of ID and number, nature of work and source of income⁹. Remote play platforms licensed there require similar KYC details, including a bio page of a valid passport and a real-time photo ID screenshot¹⁰.

If you are playing as a visitor or expat, our guide to playing poker as a visitor or expat in Asia walks through entry, ID, currency and online account issues across the region.

Buy-ins and tournament receipts at the cashier

The APT does not take your buy-in at the registration desk. The process is two-step: registration issues you Tournament Receipts, and you take those to the cashier to pay and verify³. This is standard for larger live festivals, because it separates player registration from money handling and keeps the cage queue moving.

For context on how buy-ins work across the region, poker tournaments in Vietnam are structured so that players buy tickets to enter, with costs from a few hundred thousand dong to a few tens of millions of dong¹¹. That range covers small local club events up to larger series.

If you are new to tournament poker, our guide to how poker tournaments work explains buy-ins, flights, re-entry, rebuys, add-ons and payouts. For the fee side, poker rake, time fees and tournament fees covers what card rooms and sites charge on top of the buy-in.

Practical points:

• Pay at the cashier, not at registration³
• Keep your Tournament Receipts until you are seated
• Buy-in amounts are set per event and published on the series page
• High roller and super high roller events have separate, much higher buy-ins⁴

Main event guarantees and formats

The Main Event is the headline tournament at each APT stop, and the guarantee is the number the tour promotes. Guarantees have grown substantially over the years.

Here is how the headline numbers compare across recent stops:

The APT also runs country-exclusive tournaments alongside its main schedule. These are side events restricted to players from a particular country, with their own buy-ins and prizes:

• Thailand exclusive tournament: ฿1,000 buy-in (about USD 28), with ฿800,000 (about $22,117) in APT Taipei Poker Classic Main Event packages for 1st through 6th and a ฿125,000 (about $3,500) prize pool⁸
• Taiwan exclusive tournament: NT$2,640 buy-in (about USD 80), with NT$501,732 (about $15,204) in APT Taipei Poker Classic Main Event packages for 1st through 6th and an NT$99,000 (about $3,000) cash prize pool⁸

Main Events are typically No Limit Hold'em. The 2012 Asia Poker Tour Macau Main Event was a HK$25,000 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event⁶. If you need a refresher on the format, our Texas Hold'em rules page covers blinds, betting rounds and the board.

For how starting stacks, blind levels and structures affect a tournament, see poker tournament structures.

Cancellations and schedule changes

APT events can be canceled, sometimes mid-series. The most significant recent example was APT Hanoi Billions in December 2023, when the APT announced the cancellation of all remaining tournaments on December 9 and 10 amid concerns over local legality⁵. Full refunds were offered.

That cancellation is a reminder that live poker in Asia operates under different rules in different countries, and a series that is fine in one market may run into problems in another. Vietnam, for example, has specific rules about which poker activities are legal and which are not¹¹.

What this means for you:

• Check the official series page before you book flights or hotels
• If a series is canceled, refunds are typically offered for affected events⁵
• Keep an eye on the APT's news page for schedule changes
• Buy flexible travel where possible for stops in markets with less established poker regulation

Online play: rooms serving Asian players

If you want to play online between live stops, several licensed operators serve Asian players. In the Philippines, PAGCOR maintains a list of poker operators with issued gaming licenses, including Poker Brothers, Voyager Poker Club, Masters Poker Club, Gensan Poker Club, 9D Poker Club, Kings Card Club, Red Dragon Poker Room, Boss Poker Club, Supreme Poker Club, Wild Aces Poker Sports Club, Blue Sapphire Poker Club, Prime Poker Club Manila, Metro Card Club Davao and FAME Sports Inc. Poker Club¹².

Online poker rooms in the region typically require full KYC before you can play. PAGCOR's remote play framework requires prospective players to provide full name, date of birth, contact number, current address, nationality, occupation, source of income, a bio page of a valid passport, a real-time photo ID screenshot, and a declaration of age and legal eligibility¹⁰. A separate PAGCOR memorandum sets out mandatory KYC information including full name, date of birth, current address, contact number, source of income and a valid government-issued ID card¹³.

If you are considering online play, our guide to live vs online poker compares pace, costs, rules and legal status. For private club apps specifically, private poker club apps explains how club and union apps work and the legal risk involved.