by Mario Alfonsi | Published on Feb 4, 2021 | Updated on Feb 4, 2021
The Asia Poker League (APL) Online Series has kicked off on Natural8! The poker series started on February 1 and will run till Feb 21. It is being run in line with the Chinese New Year celebrations, and features an astonishing $12.4 million in combined guarantees.
The APL has been traditionally held as a live event since 2016, touring across multiple locations in Asia. But with travel and mass gathering restrictions still ongoing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival had to be moved online. Natural8 is the perfect virtual venue, as it’s currently the biggest online poker site in Asia.
Organizers have also found a way to still incorporate a few live elements by adding virtual stops to the series. Meaning, participants will travel virtually from Vietnam to Korea, and then to the Philippines and Taiwan, and head over to Macau and China for the final events, simulating the live festival.
Some of the events included in the virtual “tour or Asia” are the Ho Chi Minh City Championship on February 7, Seoul Starleague Classic on February 9, Manila Metro Million on February 11, Taipei City Challenge on February 13, Macau Grand Prix Superstack on February 13 and Beijing Capital Cup on February 21.
The festival will culminate in the APL Online Series Main Event which offers a massive guaranteed prize pool of ¥10 million ($1.9 million), for a buy-in of ¥1,888 ($290). Players can enter via 25 separate starting flights, with the last of them running on February 21. Day 2 of the event also takes place on the same day.
Other Highlights
The series also features weekly leaderboards for each country, with an additional ¥100,000 ($15,000) up for grabs! Players will earn points according to their finishing positions.
Points are calculated using this formula: Leaderboard Point = f*sqrt(Prize pool / k), where k is the place of finish and f is the points earned based on the finishing position (you get 2.0 points if you win the tournament, 1.5 points if you make the final table, 1.0 if you reach the money, and 0.5 if you become the bubble player).
The 16 primary events each come with an exclusive APL Jade trophy for the winner, and players will also get to enjoy plenty of side events that can accommodate all bankrolls. You may check out the festival’s full schedule on Natural8.
