The All Japan Poker Championship

You don’t see too many Japanese poker players on the international poker circuit, which is not surprising since there are no casinos in the country and gambling is completely banned.

However, with the advent and popularity of online poker, many Japanese have become keen players.

The All Japan Poker Championship will take place in May 2008, with the Main Event on May 18th. The Japanese event is organised by Global Mix, who aim to promote poker in Japan and give players a platform to develop their skills, with the hope that the best will go on to participate in other international poker tournaments.

To get round the strict gambling laws, there will be no entry fee, and the top prize will be a seat at the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas – worth $10,000 – plus flights and accommodation. No real money will change hands between players, only poker chips.

The Championship will also feature a Ladies Tournament and a Seniors Tournament, to encourage all kinds of players to take part.

This is the second year that the All Japan Championship has run. In last year’s tournament, more than 2000 players took part, and money was raised for a Japanese welfare charity. The champion was Kunihiro Sakamoto, who went on to play in the World Series of Poker 2007 Main Event.

This fledgling event joins other new poker tournaments such as the India Poker Tour, the Asian Poker Classic and the Latin American Poker Tour as poker spreads across the globe. Hopefully we will see the World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker expanding beyond Europe and the United States to encompass the many countries where poker is played and loved by thousands.

Perhaps, like the World Series of baseball, which was conceived when baseball was an all-American sport, the WSOP will adapt to involve and actively encourage poker in other countries. After all, this can only be good for the game, especially after stringent online gambling laws in the United States have greatly restricted the freedom of American poker players.

There is already a Japan Poker Players’ Association, headed by Hiroshi Shimamura, who aims to bring poker to Japan, and Japanese players to the international poker world. Shimamura took part in last year’s European Poker Tour and came 6th in the 2005 WSOP Omaha Hi/Lo event. Fellow Japanese player Masaaki Kagawa also did well this year, winning third place and $200,000 at the Aussie Millions Tournament.

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Tags: american poker, poker players, world poker tour, world series of poker

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