Asian Poker Tour Invites Michael Phelps to Play

Poker News - August 8th, 2009 - Written by Bruce

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) has invited swimmer Michael Phelps to play in the Main Event at their Macua poker tournament. This will be the second time the APT will visit China for this event. The Macau APT stop is being held at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel & Casino and will take place from August 12th -23rd. There are going to be 15 preliminary tournaments leading up to their Main Event, which will be a $34,400 Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) No Limit Hold'em Event. ATP officials sent Phelps a letter inviting him to come and take part in the tournaments. They offered him to come and play in their Main Event all expenses paid, and have even stated that they want President Obama to come and take part in the event.

Michael Phelps has shown interest over the last few years that he is avid poker fan. He has been seen playing various tournaments at the Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. Phelps is recently coming off winning five gold medals at the 2009 World Swimming Championships. Last year he made history when he won eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics. APT organizers extended Phelps an invitation to play in their event while he was in China last year following the Olympics. The Olympian did not take them up on their offer last year, so they have decided to extend him an invitation once again for the upcoming Macua APT event. Tournament organizers are actually hoping that Phelps will bring President Obama with him to play. At the 2008 Caesars Poker Classic, Phelps made the money in a tournament and got to meet many of the poker celebrities including Doyle Brunson. He has shown that he know how to hold his own at the poker table, but it is not yet known if Phelps will accept the APT's invitation.

Whenever a poker tournament is held at Macau, there is always plenty of big cash games taking place to go along with the large buy in tournaments. This attracts some of the biggest names in the poker world and this year will be no different. Last year's Main Event winner was Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who will once again return to try to defend his title. Former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Johnny Chan will also participate in the event. Along with Chan, there is a group of talented poker players known as the "Poker Pack" who will take part in the event as well. J.C. Tran, Nam Le, Quinn Do, Steve Sung, David "Chino" Rheem, and Kwang Soo Lee comprise the poker playing group. The "Poker Pack" along with Johnny Chan, are also attending the tournament to take part in an upcoming Chinese poker movie that is being filmed while the APT Macau festival is taking place. With the filming of the much anticipated movie to go along with the high stakes poker action, the upcoming APT Macua event is poised to be an extremely exciting event for poker fans to enjoy.

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