Launch of the Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT)

[TightEnd]

Here is the launch press release


Amateur Poker Association & Tour Formed In UK

London, August 1, 2006 – Amateur Poker Limited, in association with PokerStars.com and PokerPlayer Magazine, today announced the formation of the Amateur Poker Association & Tour (the “APAT”).

The APAT is the world’s first combined Poker Association and Tour, and will hold its inaugural live event, the English Amateur Poker Championship, at the Broadway casino in Birmingham on September 23rd & 24th, 2006.  Players will start the event with 10,000 in chips, and a structure designed to encourage creative play throughout. 

The Tour, headline sponsored by the world’s leading tournament site PokerStars.com, will allow APAT members to take part in a series of high profile events with low entry fees, and with sponsor funding increasing the value of prizes considerably. 

Season one will feature seven national and international events culminating in European and World Amateur Poker Championships.  Each APAT event winner will receive a cash prize, an engraved Championship Cup and an expenses paid European Poker Tour or World Series Of Poker main event entry.  In addition, the APAT will run an Online Series of nationally titled events on PokerStars.com, with the overall APAT player of the year winning an expenses paid trip to the sun to play in the PokerStars.com Caribbean Adventure World Poker Tour event.

The Association, headline sponsored by PokerPlayer Magazine, will consult with gaming and industry bodies to enhance the player experience; with standardisation of rules, player friendly structures and event sponsorship at the top of its agenda.   APAT news updates and detailed Tour reports will feature in each new issue of PokerPlayer Magazine, notably increasing the profile of each APAT event winner.

Tony Kendall, APAT Chairman, said:  “I am delighted to be associated with the Amateur Poker Association & Tour, which I believe is a significant new development in European poker.  The APAT will quickly become ‘the’ affordable proving ground for players wanting to realise their potential in high quality live events, and a guaranteed added value prize pool is great news for everyone.  I look forward to welcoming players of all abilities to the APAT, and if it’s your first time in a casino environment, then we’re going to give you a truly memorable experience.”

Tamar Yaniv, European Director of Marketing at PokerStars.com, added:  “PokerStars.com is passionate about poker in the UK, and the Amateur Poker Association & Tour shares our values in wanting to give their members the best tournament experience possible.  Each player has a chance to win a national title and those who do will get the opportunity to fulfil their dream at a PokerStars.com European Poker Tour event or at the World Series Of Poker.  We’re pleased to sponsor the APAT, and look forward to meeting members in cardrooms across the UK, and online at PokerStars.com.”
 
 
APAT Membership and Tournament registration can be obtained online at www.apat.com.  Individual Membership of the Association will cost £10, while entry to the English Amateur Poker Championship will cost £67.50 with a registration fee of £7.50, subject to availability.  Online qualification will be available at PokerStars.com for APAT’s international tournaments, starting with the European Amateur Poker Championship during the Easter holiday period, 2007.

For additional information on the Amateur Poker Association & Tour, and an electronic press pack, contact Richard Prew, media@apat.com, or visit the Press section at www.apat.com.

About Amateur Poker Limited:

Amateur Poker Limited is a commercial entity, established by a team of experienced poker and business professionals with a vision to deliver a player focussed proposition, with equal appeal to its members, corporate sponsors and key gaming venues and regulators.   

For Further Information:

Media:

Richard Prew   
Media Director
Amateur Poker Limited

richard@apat.com
   

Tony Kendall
Chairman, APAT
Amateur Poker Limited

tony@apat.com


Commercial:

Des Duffy
Managing Director
Amateur Poker Limited

des@apat.com

[Claw75]

just read about this in Poker Player magazine - sounds great!

[TightEnd]

OK all, a few quick points


You will see that tikay is Chairman of APAT and I am a director. This is completely seperate to our involvement with blonde and tikay will post later on a seperate thread about what it means for our blonde roles and the overall relationship between blonde and APAT

In the meantime I am around to answer any queries you may have.....check out www.apat.com for everything you need to know

[ifm]

Interesting but how and who decides who is proffesional and who isn't?
Do you need to bring wage slips?

[Dingdell]

Looks great - I am in and want to play - but did you have to chose my friends 40th birthday bash as the date for the first event??!

[TightEnd]

Hi Ian...no wage slips not required.

The definition on the website states the following

"The dictionary defines an amateur as "a person who engages in an art, science, study, or athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession."

For the avoidance of doubt, Membership of the Amateur Poker Association & Tour is NOT available to any individual who earns his or her SOLE income by playing poker"

APAT is aimed squarely at the recreational player, possibly moving for the first time into a live environment. As such we do not expect it to attract the interest of sponsored pro's for example. Each individual will have to ask themselves whether their sole income is from playing poker. If it is, they should exclude themselves. We will not police it as such.

[ripple11]

Looks and sounds great...well done for getting PokerStars to back it!

Will certainly be joining....

Every success for the future.

[ACE2M]

Looks good.

[byronkincaid]

If it's anything like the Late Night Poker Ace tourney you will have quite a few self employed business men, unemployed people, people on Gap years etc.

Anyone who quietly earns a living on the internet just has to think of something similar to play.

Anyway it looks like a great event for house husbands like myself

[Dingdell]

This is great - about time we had something like this!!!  I am really please that Tikay and Tighty are heavily involved - somehow that gives me oodles of confidence int he whole thing.

Well done for getting this up and running and can't wait to be the top player.

[ifm]

Looks interesting:-

An amateur is defined as someone who does not earn their sole income playing poker.  Failure to abide by this rule may lead to disqualification from an event and forfeiture of a player’s entry fee and any prize money won.

This could lead to arguments but it is near impossible to enforce.

I notice you haven't gotten rid of the stringbet rule and why not move the short stack???

It is unclear as to added monies is this because you want to gauge interest before committing?
It's also a little unclear as to how to enter (or am i being thick), i am allowed to register interest only?
Have i missed something?

[ACE2M]

getting poker into the olympics?

you can't get chess into the olympics. A non starter imho.

[ripple11]

Ive now joined!!...(.a fiver if you have a Poker stars account)...and registered an interest in the first live tourney.....but if can  only properly register from the 31st Aug....will it be first come first served race??

[ifm]

It asks for a promo code, any ideas?

[TightEnd]

Ifm,

the added monies are committed for each of the live events and for the top player of the year in the Online series and tour combined. As you can see they are worth many £000s for each event.

At the moment you can sign up for memebership of APAT but only register an interest in playing the first competition

We will send out a reminder email to all those who register an interest and the first 120 respondents on 1st Sept who pay to enter (!) are in the first comp