JOHNNY CHAN SPEAKS OUT ON FIRST CHINESE LANGUAGE POKER FILM AND ITS IMPACT
Manila, Philippines – 7th August 2009 — The countdown is on the Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival, which runs from the 12–23, 2009 at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau. AsianLogic, owners of the Asian Poker Tour, recently announced a historic first for poker in Asia: the hotly anticipated Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival will be featured in a ground-breaking Chinese language poker movie! The movie is provisionally titled ‘Poker King’ and will be directed by famous Chinese language director Chan Hing-Kai and Janet Chun and, produced by Amy Chin and Chan Hing-Kai. One professional player hoping for a role is the star of 1998 Hollywood hit, ‘Rounders,’ the legendary ten time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan.
Chan said: “Poker King has the potential to be much, much bigger than Rounders ever was. Say there are over one billion Chinese speaking people in the world and compare this to the US and their 300 million people you can see that this could be huge. Rounders gave poker a new lease of life in the western world – this could kick start a new poker boom in Asia.”
“I had a fantastic time filming Rounders back in the 90s - a big part of my involvement was behind the scenes where I helped teach Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich how to play poker. I also played myself in the film and to this day it gives me recognition in the mainstream outside of poker circles. The film had a huge impact on poker and gave it a new lease of life. In fact, I was recently talking to Chris Moneymaker who is credited by many as being a catalyst for the poker boom in the west and he said without the influence of Rounders he wouldn’t have even have tried to qualify for the WSOP Main Event that he won! People got turned on by it and I can see this happening with Poker King in the Chinese language world.”
“I don’t see myself as an actor, I play myself - it is good for the mainstream to see real poker players. I am looking forward to going to the Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival – it is great to meet new faces and catch up with old friends at an event in a city where the game is on the up.”
‘Poker King’ tells the story of two bitter poker rivals competing for world championship glory. The cast will be all-star, A list Chinese actors and pop stars with a cinema release across the region set for later this year. Actors with the coveted starring roles include Louis Koo, Sean Lau Ching –Wan, Stephy Tang, Cherrie In and Josie Ho. There have been several famous gaming films in the region, most notably the 1989 Chinese language classic ‘God of Gambler’s’ starring Chow-Yun-Fat which spawned dozens of spin-offs – but ‘Poker King’ is set to be the first release that focuses on poker.
The Asian Poker Tour Macau is a hotbed for the world’s top poker professionals and negotiations are ongoing about giving the Tour’s sponsored ambassadors ‘The Poker Pack’ significant roles in the film. The Pack includes recent World Series of Poker bracelet winners JC Tran and Steve Sung, as well as Quinn Do, Nam Le, David ‘Chino’ Rheem and Kwang Soo Lee. Together, they are amongst the most feared players on the world circuit.
The Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival will run from August 12–23, 2009 at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino in Macau. Last year, the event attracted some of the most famous names in the game. Poker legend Doyle Brunson was one of those that attended and said: “I thought Las Vegas was the gambling capital of the world but I was wrong, it feels like coming home.” The Main Event was won by 20-year-old US hotshot Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who scooped US$500,000 after emerging triumphant from the star-studded field that featured players from over 40 countries. Timoshenko has gone on to become one of the hottest talents in the game after taking down the WPT Championship earlier this year.
The Asian Poker Tour Macau hosts over 20 events with 15 official side events - the first four taking place between the 12th – 16th August featuring guaranteed prize pools. Day 1A of the Main Event kicks off on the 20th August. Amongst the online networks sending players are The Ongame Network, the iPoker Network and PartyPoker.com. In addition, online rooms BWin, PKR, Dafa Poker, JBET Poker, Betfriends, 888.com, Titan Poker, RedKings, 32Red, ChiliPoker, Winamax, BetSafe, PafPoker and PokerLoco are in on the action guaranteeing a significant online qualifier contingent. Sponsors of the side events and collaterals include the Hong Kong Game Club, DafaPoker, Dafa888, The Poker King Movie, JBet, PartyPoker.com, BWin, Zipang Casino, 777babycasino and PKR.
The last Asian Poker Tour event was held in the Philippines in January 2009 and was won by Manila rounder Neil Arce, who scooped US$185,000 for first prize after overcoming a field of 262 players from over 40 countries. The runner-up was the Republic of Korea’s Steve Yea, who repeated his second place in the Asian Poker Tour Macau 2008. Full details can be found at http://www.asianpt.com/
ABOUT ASIANLOGIC (ALOG) OWNERS OF THE ASIAN POKER TOUR
AsianLogic is a leading online and land-based gaming company focusing on the Asia-Pacific markets. AsianLogic owns and operates eight online casino brands and two online poker rooms as well as land-based sportsbook operations through its MegaSportsWorld brand. It is a specialist in Asia-specific games such as Mahjong, Cho-Da-Di, Do-Di-Zhu and 13 Card Poker. The Company owns and operates the Asian Poker Tour. The Company also maintains a corporate advisory team specialising in the gaming sector which is an active investor in gaming-related businesses as well as providing consultancy and analytical services. AsianLogic enjoys strong commercial relationships with leading gaming providers including Playtech, ID Games and LVS. Founded as ESL in 2002, AsianLogic employs over 300 employees, the majority of whom are based in the Philippines.
World Series of Poker”® and “WSOP”® are registered trade marks of Harrah’s License Company LLC. No license, affiliation, sponsorship, or endorsement is claimed, or should be inferred from the use of these trademarks here. AsianLogic is not licensed by or otherwise affiliated with Harrah’s License Company LLC or the World Series of Poker®, in any way.
August 10, 2009