Melbourne, Australia. March 21, 2013 -- The inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP APAC) at Crown Melbourne, featuring five WSOP gold bracelet events, is two weeks away and final preparations are taking place at Australia’s leading integrated entertainment resort. 

Crown Melbourne’s Poker Room is currently hosting regular satellites, and estimates there will be 150+ satellite players qualified for the WSOP APAC ‘Main Event’ by Thursday, April 11.

The event schedule will commence on Thursday, April 4 with a unique No-Limit Hold’em Accumulator event with additional starting flights for this event on Friday, April 5 and Saturday, April 6. The format will be traditional No-Limit Hold’em, but in this variant, players will have the opportunity to play any or all of three separate starting flights, each with a buy-in of AUD$1,100. All chips accumulated each day, will then be bagged, tagged and returned to the player on Day 2 of the event, where they will be combined with any other chips the player has accumulated during the other opening flights. Anyone who busts in one flight still has the ability to play in the other flight(s).  Any player with any chips at the end of each starting flight will make it through to Day 2 of the event, slated to begin on Sunday, April 7 at 12 noon.

The complete WSOP APAC schedule can be seen here: http://www.wsop.com/2013/APAC/ 

Also on the schedule this year is the invite-only exhibition event, the Caesars Cup. Some of the best poker players from Europe, Asia-Pacific region and the Americas will battle it out at this year’s WSOP APAC in the Caesars Cup, a unique Ryder Cup-style poker event that pits teams of the best players from around the world against each other to see which region is the world’s best.

The Caesars Cup is a made-for-television special that will air as part of WSOP coverage on ESPN in their Tuesday night package for the 2013 season. In addition, the Caesars Cup will air on ESPN Australia and ESPN Pacific Rim in their Sunday night primetime poker block in 2013.

In addition, WSOP APAC will feature web streaming of all bracelet events, plus the High Roller event.

Pride, bragging rights and claiming the Caesars Cup are all up for grabs in the Caesars Cup event. 

The unique event will be played on Sunday, April 14 at 12 noon. For the first time in its history, the event will feature a semi-final match-up first. Team Europe, the inaugural winner of the event in 2009, will square off against Team Asia-Pacific. The winner of the best two out of three format will go on to face Team Americas (the defending champion) in the finale.

Captains for each squad have been selected.

-        Team Americas (Defending Champions) – Eight-time WSOP Gold Bracelet Winner Phil Ivey

-        Team Asia-Pacific – 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem

-        Team Europe – Sam Trickett, winner of more than $13 million in the last eight months

These gentlemen are charged with filling out the rest of their five-team roster, with those picks expected to be announced as they are finalized. It is no easy choice to select a team and players attending WSOP APAC are encouraged to reach out to their respective captain to campaign for their inclusion.

The event was last played in Cannes, France in 2011 as part of the inaugural WSOP Europe in France, where Team Americas, captained by Phil Hellmuth, defeated Team Europe, captained by Bertrand ‘ElKY’ Grospellier.

The inaugural event originated in London, during the 2009 WSOP Europe. Team Europe, captained by former WSOPE Main Event champion Annette Obrestad, defeated Team Americas, captained by Daniel Negreanu and featuring poker legends Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey.

The Caesars Cup features No-Limit Hold’em with two teams of five doing battle over a series of unique partner and heads up formats, with a point awarded for each victory.  Each round will play best out of three with each player allowed to play only once per round. The unique formats will be:

-        Alternate Action - A team of two players will play together and play the same hand, passing the cards and action back and forth each street that is dealt.

-        Shared Stack - A team of two players will play heads up sharing one team stack.

-        Singles: Heads Up - If match is tied at one apiece, a third sudden-death match will pit one player from each team against each other in heads up format. Strategies by team captains are key in whom they select to play in each match and whom they hold back in case of sudden death.