Freerolling with the Taiwan Poker Tour

This week, TaiwanNights drops in on the guys behind the Taiwan Poker Tour.

Alcohol and gambling rarely add up to a plus on a balance sheet, however a game of poker is probably the most social thing you can do with friends and complete strangers in a bar, apart from trying to hook up. A positive result in both equates to you needing to get lucky!

Sure, you also get darts, foosball, pool, and the odd tequila shooter contest, but these are all way too strenuous exercises for most. For a social game, nothing comes close to a game of Texas HoldEm Poker. No,not even a pub quiz.

However, there are few things in life that are free, and poker, as 90% of all online poker players can attest to, is almost never free. What better concept then than a FREE, legal poker tournament, open to all, where you can hone your skills, meet new people, and win some top prizes?

Pure genius I say.

Anyways, on to the interview:

Taiwannights: What is the TPT?

Taiwan Poker Tour :The TPT stands for the Taiwan Poker Tour. It is an amateur poker league where players play for free over the course of 10-to-15-week seasons for cash and prizes. Players pay nothing. The season one grand prize is a flight to Macau and entry into a 2009 Asian Poker Tour event in August.

More generally, TPT is about having fun. We have new players almost every week who have never played poker before and want to learn. Some of these very beginners have, in fact, won TPT events. Skilled players have been fantastic at helping to teach new players, and they appreciate our efforts to keep games organized and running smoothly. More and more, TPT is becoming a community of friends fostered through No Limit Hold’em, the best card game ever invented.

Taiwannights: Who qualifies to play, where and when ?

Taiwan Poker Tour : Anyone 18 or over can play. Our goal is a completely open tour with people of all backgrounds and abilities participating, developing poker skills, making friends, and having fun through poker. Currently, we play two nights per week. Tuesdays at Tone 56 Live Bar and Thursdays at On Tap (directions on taiwanpokertour.net). Registration is from 8 to 9, and the tournaments start at 9 pm.

Taiwannights: Who are the organizers and what are your specific responsibilities? How do you interact with each other?
Taiwan Poker Tour :The organizers are Mike Brennand, Rich Schuster, and Seth Robinson. Mike and Rich are avid players. Mike plays mainly online with the occasional trip to Vegas (I was once escorted out by an armed guard at the Excalibur with my poker winnings — I swear to God). Rich has a lot of live poker experience — especially tournament style. Seth, while not a poker player, is an event organization specialist. He co-founded Frog in a Sock and organized the original Summer Swank pool parties. He also has experience as a performer in Taiwan’s entertainment industry as a member of the Propaganda Crew.
Taiwannights: How did the TPT concept come about and why?
Taiwan Poker Tour :We love the game, and while there is a loose-knit poker community, there is no league where you can track your progress and earn your way into big tournaments. Our goal has always been to provide current players a legitimate, legal, organized outlet to play live poker, while at the same time fostering an atmosphere of comradery that encourages new players to give it a go. England has amateur leagues, as do Australia and the U.S. In Asia, Tokyo, Hong Kong and other big cities all have amateur leagues. Why not Taipei, why not Taiwan? They are successful and the upside for the players is enormous. It’s free!

Taiwannights: How has the response been so far?
Taiwan Poker Tour :The response has been great. Many, many people have told us that it’s about time Taiwan has a poker league. We currently average over 20 players per night, and we are working hard to grow that number. We are currently trying to secure sponsors to provide prizes for weekly tournament winners. Obviously, offering weekly prizes would (hopefully) help us boost numbers more quickly than the natural growth we’ve seen, would be a great thing for our players, and, frankly, will be a great to the companies that first step up. Trust me, our players understand how hard we are working to grow the league on their behalf, and we know that, without question, these players will recognize and reward the companies that help us to do it.

Taiwannights: What is your vision for the TPT and where do you think is it heading?
Taiwan Poker Tour :We want to find as many foreign and Taiwanese poker players as we can and get them into the league. Our intention is not to replace online poker or cash games or anything. Our goal is to have weekly tournaments at venues island-wide. Picture players from south Taiwan playing 2-3 nights per week at venues in Tainan or Kaohsiung, the same thing in Taipei, and perhaps tournaments in Hualian and Taichung as well. The final tournament for a league like that is a goal we are trying hard to realize. That’s where we are trying to head.

More generally, if we can use the Taiwan Poker Tour to give Taiwan players a chance to get into some big tourneys around the world they never would have entered before, and to introduce lots of people in Taiwan to poker, the league will be a success. Poker’s not like basketball, where you have to be 7-feet tall to compete. Players of any shape, size and gender can play this game. You look at players like Annie Duke on the world stage and you won’t be surprised we have so many women doing well in our league.

Taiwannights: Poker is essentially gambling with money. Did you have any legal concerns and/or how did you circumvent it?

Taiwan Poker Tour :We use the same model as other big cities where gambling is illegal. It is free. The players cannot gamble money because they pay no money and we give no money away. Legally speaking, based on our review of the law in Taiwan, the league is on safer ground than pub quizzes. We don’t even go near gambling. We don’t even charge a “membership” fee like some other promotions, and they’ve made it to TV, so we’re very comfortable with our legal footing.

Taiwannights: What is the appeal behind a free tour? How does it benefit both experienced and novice players and how can a player improve his game?

Taiwan Poker Tour :If you’ve played poker online or in a casino, you’ll know that no matter how expensive a game you play, there will be all skill levels at the table. That’s the nature of the game, so there is room for all kinds.

The appeal of the tour is that it’s live poker, that you can play FOR FREE, with the chance to win airfare to Macau and entry into a tournament where, ultimately, you could play for the chance to win hundreds of thousands of dollars.

On top of prizes, the appeal is in playing live poker, with the feel of the felt and real poker chips, and all that goes with the live game. Playing behind a computer screen and playing live are as different as night and day. Finally, if you play a TPT event, we can almost guarantee you that you will have fun, will meet some new friends, and will want to come back and do it over and over again.

Taiwannights: Tell me about the Asian Poker Tour briefly

Taiwan Poker Tour :What we know is that the APT is Asia’s biggest tournament poker company. They are hosting a series of events in Macau in August modeled after the famous World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. The winner of the APT main event is projected to win over $500,000 (U.S.). And the winner of the TPT will be entered into a tournament at the APT in Macau. Who knows? A string of good play and that player could return to Taiwan $500,000 richer.

Taiwannights: Can you give us a few poker tips for beginners?

Taiwan Poker Tour: PLAY!!! Come to a TPT event, knowing you won’t be the only beginner. Come early, and our Tournament Director will teach you the game and deal you live hands that will help you become comfortable with the basics.

Research. Look into what good hold ‘em poker hands are first. Different poker games have different kinds of hands that are considered decent. But Hold ‘Em is about betting, not cards. Look into where you are in relation to the dealer and where you are in the tournament.

What are the blinds? How are the players at your table betting? Develop some betting strategies to get you through the early rounds. The key for our tourneys are to get to the final table. Everyone gets points for entering, but being at the final table gets you a share of the point pool.

Thanks guys, and hopefully we’ll see some more new faces at the felt soon!

Visit www.taiwanpokertour.net for more info.

Or join them on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=95850494545&ref=ts

If you don’t know how poker works, you can visit Youtube.com or

www.pokertube.com for free tutorials and televised events.

Written by WV