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FREE PLAY POKER PLAYER WINS BIG IN ASIA

Asia Pacific Poker Tour debuts in the Philippines with an impressive $600,000 prize pool and 255 contestants from 30 countries

MANILA, Philippines -- September 7, 2007 -- Early this morning American college student Brett Parise beat 254 players to take home the title of the inaugural event of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour, just under US$180,000 and a seat to the APPT Grand Final in Sydney.

Brett, a 22-year-old Californian student, qualified for the tournament for free on PokerStars.net, winning his tournament entry, flights and accommodation. Currently studying Political Science in California, today Brett graduated from online poker amateur to world-class Poker Star.

 

“It’s so exciting to become the APPT’s first ever champion, especially as I won the trip and my seat in the Manila APPT event from a free tournament online at PokerStars,” commented PokerStars.net APPT Manila champion Brett Parise. “This gave me not only a great opportunity to test my poker skills, but also to visit Asia and experience this totally different culture.  It was also an awesome bonus to take down my first professional poker title in front of my mother who was also able to come as part of my PokerStars package.”

The tournament kicked off with an astounding field of 255 players from more than 30 countries, creating a prize pool of almost US$600,000.  The tough field included three of the top Team PokerStars players: 2005 World Champion Joe Hachem, multiple World Series of Poker bracelet winner, Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu, and Vanessa Rousso, one of the most successful female players in the world.

The final table lasted for more than eight hours, with the players’ skills being tested to their limit. The last two players fighting it out were Brett Parise and Thai resident Ira Blumenthal. The final hand saw Brett with a pair, the 10 of spades and the 10 of diamonds, dominating Ira’s Jack of hearts and five of hearts. The first three community cards were the King of spades, the Queen of spades and the 9 of clubs, giving Ira eight chances of making a straight to win the hand. When none of those eight cards fell to the felt, Ira’s chances fell to the floor. The King of hearts on the turn and the 9 of hearts floating down the river clinched the premiere title of PokerStars.net APPT Champion for Brett Parise.

The final table was truly international: Brett from the USA; local Filipino Derick Hernandez; Tokyo native Sato Kazuhiro; Israeli PokerStars’ qualifier Maor Federling; Dutch PokerStars’ qualifier Bas van Liere; Australian professional player Van Marcus; Swedish businessman  Roger Spet, who resides in Malaysia; American Thai resident Ira Blumenthal; and American Nicholas Bamman.

PokerStars (www.PokerStars.net ), the world’s largest free online poker site launched the inaugural season of the PokerStars.net APPT in Manila last Friday at the exclusive Hyatt Hotel and Casino.  Joining professional poker tours throughout the world such as the PokerStars EPT and World Series of Poker, the PokerStars.net APPT will stimulate the growth of poker throughout the Asia Pacific region and marks poker emergence as a truly global sport.

From Manila, the PokerStars.net APPT travels to South Korea on September 27th, when the $2500 buy-in no-limit Texas Hold’em tournament will be held at the Sheraton Walkerhill Hotel and Casino in Seoul. This will be the first international poker tournament on mainland Asia.

The Grand Final of the tour will be played in Sydney, Australia, at the beautiful Star City Casino from December 13-16.
 
Satellites to qualify for APPT tournaments are available on PokerStars.com with buy-ins starting from as little as US$22 dollars. PokerStars.net will also be running free qualifying tournaments for every event so that, like Brett, any poker player around the world will have the glorious opportunity to compete on the tour without ever spending a cent.

The final standings and monies earned in US dollars are as follows:
1. $179, 775 Brett Parise (USA)
2. $113,858 Ira Blumenthal (Thailand)
3. $62,921 Nicholas Bamman (USA)
4. $44,940 Van Marcus (Australia)
5. $35,955 Maor Feldinger (Israel)
6. $26,966 Roger Spets (Malaysia)
7. $20,974 Bas van Liere (Netherlands)
8. $14,981 Sato Kazuhiro (Japan)
9. $11,386 Derick Hernandez (Philippines)
10 – 12 $8,390, 13 – 16 $5,993, 17 – 24 $4,794

TOTAL PRIZE MONEY US$599,250


~END~
Press Contact in Asia Pacific
Marius CHOW / Anna LEUNG        
Starbiz Communications                
+852 92366010/ +852 96672487     
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About PokerStars:
PokerStars (www.pokerstars.com ) is the world's largest and most innovative online poker site with more than nine million players worldwide. PokerStars was the first site to introduce features that became the industry standard and offers the highest levels of security and customer support in the online poker world.   To date, PokerStars has dealt out over ten billion hands and run more than 50 million poker tournaments, awarding well over $7 billion in prize money. PokerStars is the world's largest poker tournament room running over 50,000 tournaments every day. In February 2006, PokerStars.com entered the Guinness Book of World Records as the first poker website ever to reach the 100,000 simultaneous player mark. The PokerStars Sunday Million weekly event is the largest weekly tournament on the planet with a $1 million guaranteed tournament prize pool.

PokerStars is the title sponsor of the European Poker Tour (EPT) and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Each fall, PokerStars hosts the world's largest online tournament, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), which last year featured a record prize pool of over $18 million. PokerStars also sponsors major events around the globe, such as the World Cup of Poker and other exciting tournaments. WSOP Champions Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem lead Team PokerStars and prove the PokerStars credo as the Place Where Poker Players Become World Champions.™  For more information, go to www.pokerstars.com .