Bayview Technnologies, a local online gaming firm owned by a company based in the British Virgin Islands called AsianLogic, said that although the elimination games are being held in about 70 online poker rooms, the actual Asian Poker Tour is a land-based tournament and is sanctioned by Pagcor.

Pagcor, short for Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation, is the sole agency allowed to operate games of chances, including online, in the country.

The Asian Poker Tour (www.asianpt. com), which dangles $ 1 million for each four events this year, will kick off in Manila after Bayview Technologies acquire recently the rights to the tournament from its previous owner.

The tour will start in the Philippines on May 27 to June 1. It will be followed by similar events in Macau, Asia’s gambling capital; South Korea; and Singapore.

An estimated 400 poker players from all over the world are expected to compete for the $ 1,000,000 pot, the highest guaranteed prize pool offered in Asia to date.

Some of the world’s biggest online poker rooms, including PartyPoker.com and PKR, have given the event their backing by providing online qualifiers to the contest.

iPoker, the world’s largest poker network, has also shown its support. iPoker member sites such as DafaPoker, Tila Poker, Titan Poker, BetFred, VC Poker and ChiliPoker are running online qualifying tournaments for seats at the Manila event.

To participate in the tournament, players need to pay the buy-in of $ 2,500 or win a seat for as low as $ 2.20 by competing in the many qualifying events taking place online.

Set over a period of six days, the Philippine leg will also feature a number of $ 300 Freezeout tournaments and cash games. In addition, the event will host Asia’s first-ever 13 Card Poker Tournament.

The organizers said the tournament Tour will also take on a humanitarian side, inviting ten of the country’s biggest celebrities to play poker for the winning pot of R400,000. The prize money will be donated to the charity of their choice.