Ming Huang

The APT Jeju 2025 is winding down its series as it has made it a few days past the halfway point. The 72nd event listed in the 10-day schedule - which runs from September 26 to October in the Landing Casino at Jeju Shinwaworld Resort - is the Zodiac Classic - Sponsored by Natural8.

A total of 449 entries (327 unique) bought-in for KRW 3,300,000 (~USD 2,300) for an opportunity to earn a share of the KRW 1,283,040,000 (~USD 916,460) prize pool that was generated.

The attendance numbers make the edition of this event the highest ever held in Korean soil and the second largest overall in APT History just behind APT Taipei 2025.

Of course, it also follows that with great attendance comes a bigger prize pool and the KRW raised for this event makes it the richest in Korean soil and the 2nd largest overall.

A total of 147 runners were able to bag up their chips after thirteen 40-minute levels of play with more to play for tomorrow as the bubble has yet to burst before the top 63 places are paid a minimum cash of KRW 5,460,000 (~USD 3,900).

Of course, the goal is the champion's loot up top for KRW 245,030,000 (~USD 175,020) which comes with an APT Lion trophy and a Main Event Seat worth USD 10,000 to the APT Championship in Taipei later this year.

Bagging the largest stack so far is China's Ming Huang with a total of 375,000 chips. Coming in second is Enson (name requested by player), also from China, with 335,000. Hugues Girard of France sits at third with 325,000. Only the top three players have made it past the 300K mark.

These are the top ten chip counts:

You can view the complete payouts HERE.

You can view the survivor list and their chip counts HERE.

The remaining 147 players in the tournament are bagging their stacks and will return tomorrow to play Day 2.

The full end of day recap will be posted shortly.

Oliver Lirio was already all in and at risk for their remaining 18,400 stack from the cutoff and against Qingtao Kong in the hijack.

Oliver Lirio: 4 4

Qingtao Kong: K K

The J 9 7 8 A runout saw Lirio leave the tournament in one of the final hands of the evening, and Kong was set to bag around double the average stack.

Min Sung Lee

The chips were all in the middle and the cards were out.

Guanglei Zhou: K T

Min Sung Lee Q Q

We didn't catch the entire board, but Zhou flopped a king and then river a ten to make it two-pair, leaving Lee with less than 10,000.

Zhou, meanwhile, catapulted his stack to roughly 70,000.

The floor has announced to the dealers that they should complete the final six hands of the night before bagging for Day 2.

Hugues Girard

As the night draws to a close, there are a number of players fighting for the top spot.

Ke Hu is the current chip leader, sitting with around 340,000.

Lante Zhang is close behind with around 310,000, shortly followed by Hugues Girard with ~283,000.

Other top stacks include Hongbo Pan (~250,000), Vamerdino Magsakay (~248,000) and Ryo Hasegawa (~235,000).

Natural8 Ambassador Kitty Kuo

Last Level of the day is on its way with some of the more desperate short stacks going all in or bust.

Some of the recent busts include - Wai Cheong Wong, Peng Jiang, Kaixiang Ye, Qiuran Huang, Kazuto Suzuki, Daniel Lee, Chuan Feng, Kitty Kuo, Chunhui Ji, Ngoc Phuong Nguyen, Woo Hyeon Lee and Yucheng Wang.

Action was followed from when Suparerk Totsaponvisad was all in from early position for 96,000 and action was on Haoyu Zhao who was sat to Totsaponvisad's direct left.

Zhao moved in his stack, of around 80,000 and the players flipped their cards.

Suparerk Totsaponvisad: T T

Haoyu Zhao: Q Q

Totsaponvisad immediately stormed ahead on the 9 T 5 flop.

There was no coming back for Zhao as the 4 turn and K river saw to his fate.

Alex Wong

We're not sure of the entire action, but Alex Wong was being shipped the chips.

In the middle of the board was a K J belonging to an unknown player and a 9 3 that belonged to Wong.

The board ran 9 7 T 4 6

After I caught the hand, Wong said, "Oh no! You'll write about it and everyone will now know how bad a poker player I am."

I answered, "Don't worry. It was your big blind. You'll be fine."

Graham Cowan

Graham Cowan open-jammed from early position for his remaining 35,000 and was called by Ledong Zhou in the big blind.

Graham Cowan: A K

Ledong Zhou: A T

Both picked up on the Q 8 K flop, with Zhou looking at a straight draw and Cowan sitting with a pair of kings.

The 2 turn didn't change much, but Zhou completed the straight on the J river, eliminating Cowan just before the last level of the day.