ISLE OF MAN, UK JULY 22 2009 – PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site with over 25 million registered players, today announced the schedule of the ‘PokerStars.net APPT Macau Summer Festival of Poker.’ This event marks the start of the hotly-anticipated PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Season 3. With five stops in five months, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) remains Asia’s largest and richest poker tour in terms of both player participation and prize pools.

The PokerStars.net APPT Macau Festival of Poker takes place August 25-30, 2009 at the luxurious Grand Lisboa Casino, home to the PokerStars Macau Poker Room – the largest poker room in continental Asia. The Festival of Poker will consist of 20 events, including the $40,000 HKD ($5,200 USD) buy-in Main Event and a prestigious ‘High Roller’ event with a buy-in of $88,800 HKD ($11,500 USD). There will be a number of preliminary and side events in a wide range of buy-ins, such as the $4,000 HKD ($500 USD) NLH Knockout Bounty Tournament, the $1,500 HKD ($200 USD) NLH Turbo Shoot-out and a $2,500 HKD ($320 USD) 6-Handed Fixed Limit Hold'em Tournament. See the full schedule below, or visit http://www.appt.com/tournaments/macau/ for more details.

“I’m pleased to see the sport of tournament poker continue to grow in Asia” said Team PokerStars Pro and Poker World Champion Joe Hachem “I played in the first APPT Macau in 2007 when PokerStars planted the seeds of No-Limit Texas Hold’em poker culture in Macau, and it’s been incredible watching that legacy take root and bloom. There are now hundreds of local players, cash games running 24/7 and tournaments available every week at the PokerStars Macau Poker Room. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next World Champion comes from Macau or elsewhere in China.”

In Season 2, The PokerStars.net APPT Macau generated the biggest prize pool recorded for a poker event in Asia, more than $12.6 million HKD ($1.62 million USD). Edward Sabat of the United States bested a record field of 538 players to take the first prize of $3.5 million HKD ($453,851 USD). This year the APPT expects to beat its own records, with more players and a prize pool of more than $15.5 million HKD ($2,000,000 USD).

Jeffrey Haas, President of the PokerStars.net APPT, said: “This season’s APPT is set to be even bigger than Season 2 in terms of both number of participants and prize pools. This has been made possible by continued enthusiasm for the tour right across the region, with amazing levels of participation. As poker culture continues to grow in Asia Pacific and more extraordinary players emerge on the scene, they tell us how excited they are to match their skills against players from around the world to win the prestigious poker title of APPT Champion. We will continue bringing together vast numbers of poker players at many experience levels, giving them the greatest poker experiences, in some incredible places and constantly exceeding their expectations.”

The PokerStars.net APPT will make stops in Seoul, Auckland and Cebu in the Philippines before moving on to Sydney for the Grand Final in December. Increased tournament capacities will enable the forthcoming tour to build on the success of Season 2 which attracted a total 1,772 players and created a total prize pool of $38,736,076.49 HKD ($4,998,268 USD).

Last year, the best poker players from around the globe played at APPT events - including Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, Isabelle Mercier, Barry Greenstein, Hevad Khan, Chad Brown and Player of the Year Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, as well as Johnny Chan, John Juanda, Scotty Nguyen, Grant Levy, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Eric Assadourian, Nam Le and Liz Lieu.

Joining the professionals will be a host of players from across Asia Pacific and the rest of the world, many of whom will have won their way to the event via free online tournaments at PokerStars.net. Satellites for APPT Macau are running on PokerStars now.

PokerStars.net APPT Macau Summer Poker Festival

Sat 15-Aug
14:15 - Satellite to 100K Guarantee $550
18:00 - No Limit Hold’em - $100,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool $2,500

Sun 16-Aug
14:15 - No Limit Hold’em w/ Re-buys - $20,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool $500
17:00 - Satellite Main Event Phase 2 $900
19:00 - Satellite Main Event Phase 3 $4,200

Mon 17-Aug
12:15 - Satellite Main Event Phase 2 $900
14:15 - No Limit Hold’em $1,000

Tue 18-Aug
12:15 - Satellite Main Event Phase 2 $900
14:15 - No Limit Hold’em $1,500

Wed 19-Aug
12:15 - Satellite Main Event Phase 2 $900
14:15 - Knock-Out Bounty No Limit Hold’em - $500 cash for every player you eliminate $2,000
18:00 - Satellite Main Event Phase 3 $4,200

Thurs 20-Aug
14:15 - Free to Enter Mega Satellite w/ $500 Re-buys - 1 MAIN EVENT SEAT GUARANTEED $0
18:00 - APPT Macau Charity Event w/ max 2 Re-buys - $50,000 added value prizes $1,000

Fri 21-Aug
14:15 - No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack $1,500
18:00 - Satellite Main Event Phase 3 $4,200

Sat 22-Aug
12:15 - Mega Satellite to 10k $2,150
15:30 - No Limit Hold’em Day 1 - $500,000 GUARANTEED Prize Pool $10,000
18:00 - Satellite Main Event Phase 3 $4,200

Sun 23-Aug
12:15 - No Limit Hold’em Day 2
14:15 - Terrence Chan Limit Hold'em Tournament 6 handed $2,500
18:00 - Satellite Main Event Phase 3 $4,200

Mon 24-Aug
12:15 - Satellite Main Event Phase 3 $4,200
14:15 - Turbo Shoot-out No Limit Hold’em $1,500
16:30 - Satellite Main Event Phase 3 $4,200
21:00 - APPT Macau Welcome Party

Tue 25-Aug
12:15 - APPT Macau Main Event Day 1 Flight 1 $40,000
15:00 - No Limit Hold’em $4,000

Wed 26-Aug
12:15 - APPT Macau Main Event Day 1 Flight 2 $40,000
15:00 - No Limit Hold’em 7-Handed Event $5,000
18:00 - Last Chance Mega Satellite to Main Event $4,200

Thu 27-Aug
12:15 - APPT Macau Main Event Day 1 Flight 3 $40,000
16:00 - Knock-Out Bounty No Limit Hold’em - $1,000 cash for every player you eliminate $4,000
18:00 - Ladies Event No Limit Hold’em $1,500

Fri 28-Aug
12:15 - APPT Macau Main Event Day 2
15:00 - No Limit Hold’em Teams Event $5,000
18:00 - Mega Satellite to High Roller Event $9,400

Sat 29-Aug
12:15 - APPT Macau Main Event Day 3
14:15 - APPT Macau High Rollers Event Day 1 $88,800
15:00 - No Limit Hold’em $2,000
18:00 – Satellite to APPT Seoul w/ Re-buys $500

Sun 30-Aug
12:15 - APPT Macau Main Event Final Table
13:00 - APPT Macau High Rollers Event Day 2
14:15 - No Limit Hold’em w/ Re-buys $1,000
18:00 - Mega Satellite to APPT Seoul $4,000

All amounts in above table are in HKD $

PokerStars.net APPT Season Three Schedule

EVENT VENUE CITY DATES BUY-IN CAP

APPT Macau Grand Lisboa Casino Macau August 25-30 40,000 HKD (5,160 USD) 700

APPT Seoul 7-Luck Casino Seoul September 17-20 3,000 USD 250

APPT Auckland Skycity Casino Auckland October 12-15 3,250 NZD (2,050 USD) 350

APPT Philippines Shangri-la Mactan Resort Cebu October 14-19 100,000 PHP (2,150 USD) 300

APPT Sydney Star City Casino Sydney December 1-6 6,300 AUD (4,920 USD) 750

About http://www.pokerstars.net:
PokerStars is the world’s largest poker room with over 25 million members worldwide, and more free-to-play tables than any other site. At PokerStars.net players learn how to play, and practice poker skills for free. As the premier destination for the top players, with numerous tournaments running every day, PokerStars is renowned for offering the best software and security in the online poker world.
PokerStars;
· Has dealt over 30 billion hands
· Has run more than 170 million poker tournaments
· Have had over 285,000 simultaneous players, and entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first and only poker website to reach the 200,000 simultaneous players mark

PokerStars is the official sponsor of the: European Poker Tour (http://www.ept.com), PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Latin American Poker Tour (http://www.lapt.com), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (http://www.appt.com) and The World Cup of Poker.
PokerStars is the home of Team PokerStars Pro, a group of over 30 veteran and up-and-coming players from around the world who play online at PokerStars and are sponsored by the site in international tournaments around the world. For more information please visit http://www.pokerstars.net.