Poker King - The Chinese Rounders?

Tomorrow, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) will start in Macau - amongst others, the film crew of Chinese director Chan Hing-Kai will be on the spot to collect scenes for the upcoming 'Poker King' movie.

If you're into poker, you will sooner or later run into 'Rounders' - the timeless classic and all-time favourite poker movie. With the likes of Matt Damon, Edward Norton and John Malkovich acting in the lead roles and an exciting storyline added on top of it, the movie hasn't just won over players and fans of the card game.

If you listen to Johnny Chan (pictured left), it was this very movie that even made the American poker boom possible; according to him, Chris Moneymaker only tried to qualify for the WSOP after seeing it. As we all know, Moneymaker later won the Main Event and quickly became the symbol of an ensuing explosive development of the poker market.

Everyone is now hoping for a similar effect of the new movie in China. Johnny Chan, who will be playing a role again, is sure that the movie with the working title "Poker King" will be the beginning of a new era of poker in China.

With over one billion Chinese speaking people in the world, the potential is definitely there and the cast holds promise, too: with names like Louis Koo, Sean
Lau Ching-Wan, Stephy Tang, Cherrie In and Josie Ho a lot of renowned Chinese actors could be won over for the project.