World Poker Tour Announces WPT Asia Swing Schedule, Prizes

Swing through Asia for WPT tournament prizes

The World Poker Tour is currently in a down period, but the schedule is about to get very busy in a couple weeks. Most poker players are familiar with the main tour, played mostly in the United States, but there are loads of players around the globe who are not about to fly to the U.S. – or even Europe – just to play in a poker tournament. Even a prestigious one. In September, the World Poker Tour is truly living up to is name, featuring what it calls the WPT Asia Swing. The WPT Asia Swing is a series of three events in quick succession during the month: WPT Vietnam, WPT Japan, and WPT Korea.

This week, the World Poker Tour announced that each stop will have three events in which players can earn points. The top points-earner across all three stops will win a WPT India High Roller package which includes a seat in the INR₹100,000 buy-in (US$1,400) WPT India High Roller event, three nights’ accommodation, and airport and boat transfers. Second place will receive an INR₹55,000 (US$770) Main Event package and third place will receive an INR₹35,000 (US$490) Side Event package. The rest of the prize package for the second- and third-place players will be identical to that of the winner. All three players will also receive US$500 when they get to the Deltin Royale in Goa, India.

“The WPT Asia Swing proved to be a huge success in Season XVII and the WPT and its casino partners look forward to having strong participation from players across the globe during the Season XVIII edition,” said Cathy Zhao, Director of WPTDeepStacks, in a press release.

Three points events per stop

The first stop on the WPT Asia Swing is WPT Vietnam at Pro Poker Club in Ho Chi Minh City September 3-11. The VND₫4 billion (US$172,964) guaranteed Kickoff event September 3-5 is the first event in which players can earn WPT Asia Swing points. Following that is the VND₫15 billion (US$644,865) guaranteed Main Event September 6-11 and then the WPT Pro Poker Club SuperStack Classic September 10-11.

September 14-16 is WPT Japan at the Hotel Gajoen Tokyo. The three WPT Asia Swing point events there are the JPY¥20,000 (US$189) Main Event, the JPY¥30,000 (US$283) WPT300, and the JPY¥13,000 (US$123) Megastack. The Main Event has multiple Day 1 flights at different casinos in Japan from August 31 through September 8.

The final WPT Asia Swing stop is WPT Korea at Paradise City in Incheon, South Korea September 17-23. The three points events include the KRW 800,000 (US$658) Main Event Warm Up, the KRW 1,650,000 (US$1,358) Main Event, and the KRW 500,000 (US$411) 500K Finale.

Player of the Year points up for grabs

There are more events at each of the three WPT Asia Swing stops other than just the three that count for the WPT India packages. Depending on the location, there are anywhere from nine to thirteen tournaments at the stops. At all venues, points will also be awarded for the WPT Asia-Pacific Player of the Year race. The ultimate winner of that leaderboard will be given a $10,000 WPT Passport for any event, not just in Asia, during the next season of the World Poker Tour (Season XIX). The second-place finisher will also receive a Passport worth $3,500, while the third-place finisher will be granted a $1,500 Passport.

Angelica Hael, VP of Global Tour Management for the World Poker Tour, said, “The WPT thanks its global casino partners for making the WPT Asia Swing a reality and to the players for once again supporting this initiative.”

Previous “swings” have been popular

The World Poker Tour has done “swings” on its schedule in the past. For several years this decade, the WPT main tour schedule featured the WPT California Swing, composed of three consecutive tournaments in the Golden State: WPT L.A. Poker Classic, WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, and the youngest of the three, WPT Rolling Thunder. Similar to the WPT Asia Swing, players in the WPT California Swing could earn points based on their tournament finishes, with the top points earner winning a prize package for the following season.

When the 2018 portion of the 2017-2018 season was released, though, Bay 101 was glaringly absent. It was a part of the WPT since the tour’s second season and was one of the favorite stops for poker players and fans alike. The Bay 101 Shooting Star was a unique event in that a select group of poker pros were designated as “shooting stars.” Whoever knocked out a shooting star received a cash bounty and traditionally, the star would sign a t-shirt for the player.

The Bay 101 Shooting Star was back in action after a year off, but was still not part of the World Poker Tour.

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