GGRAsia – All Japan Poker Championship Asian Circuit growing fast: CEO

All Japan Poker Championship Asian Circuit growing fast: CEO

Jun 07, 2018 Newsdesk Industry Talk, Latest News, Top of the deck

The All Japan Poker Championship (AJPC) Asian Circuit is growing, its chief executive says. The AJPC Asian Circuit is one of the competitions organised by the AJPC outside of Japan. It was launched in December 2017.

“We have seen an increase in event registrations of more than 1.5 times since our launch of the AJPC Asian Circuit. The circuit is also seeing players from not only Japan, but also [mainland] China, Taiwan and throughout Asia,” said AJPC Inc chief executive Yasuhiro Sasaki in a press release issued on Wednesday.

He added: “Our goal is to continue the series growth in Asia. We are currently scouting additional locations for future overseas tournaments in 2018 and beyond.”

The most recent event held at Paradise City in the South Korean city of Incheon from May 18 to 27, attracted 1,149 entries and was won by Hideo Miyamoto. Organisers say the 10-day event was the longest on the AJPC Asian Circuit.

The AJPC held its first event in Japan in 2007.

The Incheon tournament was announced in January as part of the association’s drive to expand overseas. Events in Macau and Taiwan, as well as Southeast Asia, have also been planned.

The next event on the current AJPC Asian Circuit begins on June 14 at the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club in New Taipei City in Taiwan. It will be the first event resulting from the partnership between the AJPC and the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association of Taiwan.

Neither Taiwan nor Japan currently have legal casinos. Taiwan has flirted with the idea for decades, creating legislation to enable such facilities on outlying islands. It has held several referendums regarding allowing casinos on outer islands – most recently in October last year – but without any end product. Japan is on course to create a legal casino market, but it might be the year 2025 or later before any venues open.

The AJPC is based in Osaka and holds a number of events within Japan, including a yearly AJPC Championship, which it said was the “largest poker tournament” in Japan.