The Asia Pacific Poker Tour is coming back to the Philippines. PokerStars has locked in APPT Manila for July 28 to August 10, 2026, at Cove Manila inside Okada Manila, with more than ₱132 million guaranteed across the festival — and the full schedule is now live.
The headline number sits at the end of the trip: the APPT Main Event, running August 6–10 with a ₱80,000 buy-in and ₱60 million guaranteed. It is the richest single guarantee on the Manila schedule and the obvious target for anyone planning a shot at a career score without leaving Southeast Asia.
The schedule, from ₱9,000 to ₱300,000
The festival opens on July 28 with a Super Qualifier at ₱9,000, guaranteeing 20 Main Event seats worth ₱1.6 million. From there the ladder climbs steadily: the Okada Kickoff (₱10,000, ₱2M GTD) on July 28–29, the APPT National (₱30,000, ₱8M GTD) from July 29–31, and the PokerStars Red Dragon — the tour’s cult favourite — from July 31 to August 3 at ₱50,000 with ₱15 million guaranteed.
The second week stacks up quickly. The APPT Open (₱60,000, ₱15M GTD) runs August 3–6, a ₱25,000 Mystery Bounty lands August 5–6, and the high-stakes crowd gets a ₱300,000 Super High Roller on August 6–7 plus a ₱150,000 High Roller to close the festival on August 9–10. A Survivor Knockout on August 2 rounds out the mid-stakes menu with ₱50K bounties.
Why Manila keeps drawing the region
Cove Manila is not a typical card room. The venue is a 9,000-square-metre indoor beach club under a 30-metre glass dome overlooking Manila Bay, and during APPT week it converts into one of the largest tournament floors in Southeast Asia. Okada Manila itself holds the country’s biggest gaming floor, which means cash games run around the clock while the festival plays out.
For players across the region, Manila remains one of the easiest majors to reach — short flights from Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore and most of Southeast Asia, no visa hurdles for most APAC passports, and buy-ins that start at roughly US$160 for the Super Qualifier. The Red Dragon’s history as Asia’s signature mid-stakes trophy gives the stop a pull that goes well beyond the guarantees.
Last-minute planners have a month to sort flights and rooms. If the recent run of Philippine festivals is any guide — Filipino players swept 10 of 14 titles at the PokerStars Manila Special in June — the home crowd will be the story to beat when the cards hit the air on July 28.