Although it’s not the first stop for the second season of the tour, the APPT will kick off its main event in Manila on Thursday. It will mark the bringing together of the APPT with the Filipino Poker Tour. Since the APPT hit Manila last year, the Philippines has matured into the strongest poker market on the continent, according to PokerStars

The $300+$22 Mixed Hold’em tournament, hosted by Roland De Wolfe, sported a $250,000 prize pool. With only 677 buying their way into the event, Full Tilt graciously added over $30,000 to the prize pool, making for a healthy overlay

Members of President George W. Bush’s administration are working to finalize a number of legislation before they leave the White House in January.

On Sunday, Gus Hansen was playing Pot-Limit Omaha on three different tables and managed to drop some big bucks. It appears that most of the big pots that Hansen played at during his sessions on Sunday, he ended up on the losing end.

More than 750 poker players came out to participate in the qualifiers for the HPT stop, and 171 players ponied up the buy-in for the main event. The result was a $274,089 prize pool for the event