With High Roller events making up 18 of the 100 scheduled tournaments at the upcoming **APT Manila Classic 2025**—running Friday, February 7 to Sunday, February 16—there is plenty of action on the cards for the tours’ dedicated high roller player base.
With buy-ins ranging from PHP 25,000 (~USD 425) for Hyper Turbo High Roller tournaments all the way up to the giddy heights of the two-day PHP 1.5 million (~USD 25,500) Superstar Challenge there has never been a better time to dip your toes into the high stakes’ waters.
With two of the festival’s three award-winning signature lion trophies up for grabs in the PHP 600,000 (~USD 10,200) APT Super High Roller and the PHP 200,000 (~USD 3,400) APT High Roller, and the two tournaments boasting PHP 20 million (~USD 340,000) and PHP 15 million (~USD 255,000) guarantees respectively, there are also opportunities to walk away with some spectacular silverware. You can read about those in more detail in the **APT Manila Classic 2025: The Preview feature**.
High Rolling Highlights
Read on as we look under the hood of the APT Manila Classic 2025 High Roller schedule and examine the tournaments on offer in more detail:
Single Day High Roller Tournaments:
Sometimes you want 60-minute levels and a chance to showcase your skills in multi-day events, sometimes you are just looking to scratch the poker itch and want to sit down for a few hours, book a win and head off with a shiny new trophy.
Doing just what they say on the tin, all seven scheduled Single Day High Roller events are designed to be played out in a day without sacrificing too much when it comes to the structure.
Buy-ins range from PHP 60,000 (~USD 1,000) for the Event #62: Turbo - High Roller - Double Stack, all the way up to PHP 300,000 (~USD 5,100) for the Event #73: Baby Superstar Challenge.
All Single Day High Roller events come with 100,000-chip starting stacks and a 30-second shot clock in effect from the start of the tournament. As per the APT tournament rules players receive two 30-second time banks and receive another time bank at every scheduled break.
Level length varies depending on the event; the Event #60: Turbo - High Roller - Double Stack comes with 30-minute levels throughout, while the Event #3: Single Day High Roller – Freezeout, the Event #11: Single Day High Roller - Mystery Bounty (₱55K Bounty), and the Event #42: Baby Superstar Challenge start with 30-minute levels, dropping down to 25-minutes after registration closes at the end of level 11. The rest of the Single Day High Rollers play out a little quicker and come with 20-minute levels.
**Event #3: Single Day High Roller - Freezeout**
Date: Friday, February 7
Buy-in: PHP 100,000 (~USD 1,700)
APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024 Single Day High Roller Freezeout champion Lester Edoc
The first of the festival's scheduled high roller tournaments is a classic freezeout, making it a great choice for those looking to dip their toes into the high stakes waters without risking multiple buy-ins, and with a PHP 100,000 buy-in it's also not too pricey for a high roller event.
The average field is 45 entries, with the current record for field size coming in at 87 entries; set during the Taipei Poker Classic back in September 2024 which was won by the Philippines' Lester Edoc for TWD 1,085,240 (USD 34,375). The prize pool ranges from five to six figures in USD, with the average coming in at just over USD 85,000.
**Event #11: Single Day High Roller - Mystery Bounty (₱55K Bounty)**
Date: Saturday, February 8
Buy-in: PHP 130,000 (~USD 2,200)
APT Hanoi Billions Single Day High Roller – Mystery Bounty champion Natalia Rozova
Boasting a PHP 130,000 buy-in with PHP 55,000 (~USD 935) going into the bounty pool, the Event #11: Single Day High Roller – Mystery Bounty tournament is one of the more exciting single day high roller events on the schedule.
The event averages just over 100 entries and a six-figure prize pool of just over USD 230,000, with the current record standing at a sizable 306 entries, set during the Hanoi Billions 2023, which generated a VND 13,356,900,000 (USD 551,670) prize pool (also the tournament’s largest) and saw Russia’s Natalia Rozova bag the three biggest bounties in addition to taking a VND 1,451,050,000 (USD 59,965) top prize – the largest this event has ever awarded.
**Event #60: Turbo - High Roller - Double Stack**
Date: Thursday, February 13
Buy-in: PHP 60,000 (~USD 1,000)
APT Taipei Poker Classic Turbo High Roller Double Stack champion Si Ng Pun
With only two prior Turbo High Roller Double Stack tournaments in the APT record books, this is a recent addition to the high roller schedule. The average field size comes in at 47 entries, with the average prize pool in the region of just over USD 109,000.
Hong Kong’s Si Ng Pun won the largest of these, besting 73 entries at the APT Taipei Poker Classic to take home a TWD 1,306,580 (USD 41,390) top prize.
**Event #42: Baby Superstar Challenge**
Date: Tuesday, February 11
Buy-in: PHP 300,000 (~USD 5,100)
APT Taipei Poker Classic Baby Superstar Challenge champion Niko Koop
First introduced in February’s APT Taipei 2024, the Baby Superstar Challenge is a slightly smaller single day version of the prestigious two-day Superstar Challenge with a USD 5,100 price point and a great structure with a prize pool averaging close to USD 290,000.
Germany’s Niko Koop defeated the largest field this event has ever drawn at the APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024, overcoming 92 entries to take the lion’s share of the TWD 11,923,200 (USD 377,365) prize pool, walking away with a TWD 3,131,200 (USD 99,180) top prize – the second largest first place prize this tournament has awarded.
Austria’s Klemens Roiter won the largest Baby Superstar first place prize after taking down the inaugural event for TWD 3,854,450 (USD 124,000) back during APT Taipei 2024.
**Event #93: High Roller - Last Chance**
Date: Sunday, February 16
Buy-in: PHP 100,000 (~USD 1,700)
Hong Kong’s Hon Cheong “Ivan” Lee won the largest-ever Last Chance at APT Taipei Poker Classic
The last of the non-turbo and hyper turbo high roller events on the schedule, the High Roller – Last Chance does exactly what the name suggests, offering the tours’ high rollers their last chance at claiming a trophy and a USD five-figure top prize.
The tournament averages a field of 64 entries and a prize pool of over USD 118,000. Natural8 Ambassador Yu Chung “Nevan” Chang holds the most Last Chance titles having won two, but it is Hong Kong’s Hon Cheong “Ivan” Lee who defeated the largest field this event has ever generated, overcoming 103 entries at the APT Taipei Poker Classic to claim a TWD 1,364,520 (USD 42,815) top prize. China’s Kun Wang claimed the richest top prize this event has ever awarded back during APT Jeju 2024, winning KRW 66,693,000 (USD 49,190).
Two-Day High Roller Tournaments:
In addition to the APT Super High Roller and the APT High Roller, playing out on Sunday, February 9 to Monday, February 10, and Saturday, February 15 to Sunday, February 16 respectively, there are a further two high roller events spanning two days; the Event #32: High Roller - Ultra Stack, and the Event #63: Superstar Challenge, both of which come with 40-minute levels.
**Event #32: High Roller - Ultra Stack**
Date: Monday, February 10 to Tuesday, February 11
Buy-in: PHP 120,000 (~USD 2,040)
A brand-new addition to the schedule, the two-day Event #32: High Roller - Ultra Stack comes with a 200,000-chip starting stack and a great structure for a very reasonable USD 2,000 price point, offering players a top notch deep-stacked poker experience. Write your name in the APT annals of history and become the inaugural High Roller Ultra Stack champion!
**Event #63: Superstar Challenge**
Date: Thursday, February 13 to Friday, February 14
Buy-in: PHP 1,500,000 (~USD 25,480)
Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier won the richest-ever Superstar Challenge at APT Taipei 2024
Boasting the biggest buy-in on the schedule—a hefty USD 25,500—the Superstar Challenge attracts some of the world’s top tournament professionals with Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier and Joseph Cheong just two of the big names to have claimed the exclusive Black Lion Superstar Challenge trophy.
Players start with 250,000 in chips and compete over 40-minute levels. The tournament averages 42 entries and a prize pool in the region of just over USD 489,000 with Grospellier holding the record for the richest-ever Superstar Challenge win, banking a sizable TWD 11,632,810 top prize back during APT Taipei 2024 – the sixth-largest APT first place prize ever awarded.
The USA’s Cheong holds the record for most Superstar Challenge wins, having claimed the title twice, most recently at the APT Manila 2024 where he walked away with a PHP 8,002,500 (USD 136,040) top prize.
Turbo and Hyper Turbo High Roller Tournaments:
There are a further seven Turbo and Hyper Turbo High Roller tournaments on the schedule with buy-ins ranging from PHP 25,000 (~USD 425) to PHP 50,000 (~USD 850): Event #6: Turbo - High Roller, Event #16: Hyper Turbo - High Roller, Event #28: Hyper Turbo - High Roller, Event #80: Hyper Turbo - High Roller - Win the Button, Event #90: Tick Tock Boom! - High Roller, Event #97: Turbo - High Roller, and Event #100: Hyper Turbo - High Roller.
All Turbo and Hyper Turbo tournaments come with 20,000-chip starting stacks, and a 15-second shot clock in effect from the get-go. As per APT Tournament Rules players will receive two 15-second time banks at the start of the tournament and will receive another time bank at every scheduled break. These are no longer reset at the Final Table so use them wisely.
The Tick Tock Boom! tournament is exactly the same aside from an interesting twist when to comes to level length, which decreases every hour from 15/10/5/2, with levels continuing at 2 minutes per level once the minimum threshold for level length has been reached.
The Turbo High Roller tournaments average 42 entries and prize pools of just over USD 35,000, while the Hyper Turbo High Roller events attract an average field of 45 entries and generate an average prize pool of over USD 25,000.
- **Event #6: Turbo - High Roller** - PHP 50,000 (~USD 850) buy-in, Friday, February 7
- **Event #16: Hyper Turbo - High Roller** – PHP 25,000 (~USD 425) buy-in, Saturday, February 8
- **Event #28: Hyper Turbo - High Roller** – PHP 50,000 (~USD 850) buy-in, Sunday, February 9
- **Event #80: Hyper Turbo - High Roller - Win the Button** – PHP 30,000 (~USD 510) buy-in, Friday, February 14
- **Event #90: Tick Tock Boom! - High Roller** – PHP 25,000 (~USD 425) buy-in, Saturday, February 15
- **Event #97: Turbo - High Roller** – PHP 35,000 (~USD 595) buy-in, Sunday, February 16
- **Event #100: Hyper Turbo - High Roller** – PHP 25,000 (~USD 425) buy-in, Sunday, February 16