Record Breaking APT Taipei Main Event Draws 2,547 Entries Generating TWD 121m (~USD 3.7m) Prize Pool

Hong Kong's Nicholas Go leads the largest APT Main Event in history

APT TAIPEI 2025 SCHEDULE | OFFICIAL RESULTS | PLAYER LISTS | IMAGES | WINNERS

TAIPEI, TAIWAN, April 30, 2025 – It’s official, the APT Taipei 2025 Main Event is the largest field in the Asian Poker Tour’s 19-year history!

Playing out at the tournament tables of the brand-new Red Space 多元商務空間 and run in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP), the TWD 55,000 (~USD 1,700) Main Event saw the survivors from the four starting flights combine for the first time, with the break down from the four starting flights as follows:

• Flight A: 541 entries (203 survivors)

• Flight B: 506 entries (222 survivors)

• Flight C: 486 entries (231 survivors)

• Flight D: 344 entries (176 survivors)

Combined with the 530 OnLive qualifiers who won their way through on Natural8, that brought the field up to 2,407 entries, which was padded out by a further 140 Day 2 registrations to bring the total field up to 2,547.

This set a new record, making the APT Taipei 2025 Main Event the largest and richest poker tournament ever to play out in Taiwan, and the largest poker tournament in Asian Poker Tour history.

You can read about this in more detail in Tim Baker’s excellent APT Taipei 2025 Sets New Benchmark as Largest Main Event in APT History feature.

The 830 combined Day 1 survivors and the 140 Day 2 entries saw 970 players take their seats when the tournament got underway to the susurration of riffling chips at 11:15am local time (GMT+8), with the action playing out over seven 60-minute levels.

Play concluded right at the close of level 17, with the elimination of David Berlin to a brutal runner, runner outdraw at the hands of Chun-Yu Wu guaranteeing the 375 remaining players a TWD 85,000 (~USD 2,620) pay day.

The eventual champion will walk away with a massive TWD 19,009,440 (~USD 586,710) top prize, in addition to an Asian Poker Tour Championship (APTC) Main Event seat valued at TWD 350,000. This is the largest first place prize ever awarded in a Taiwanese poker tournament, and the largest prize of the APT New Era (which began at APT Taipei in April 2023.

For Main Event Prize Pool & Payouts please CLICK HERE

It’s not just the winner who earn this extra windfall, with four APTC seats in total being awarded during the Main Event, which you can read about in more detail HERE.

It is Superstar Challenge runner-up Nicholas Go who will be returning in the driving seat when Day 3 resumes after bagging up a tournament leading 1,281,000 in chips following a massive aces versus kings confrontation against APT Taipei Poker Classic Main Event champion Rene von Reden that saw Go power into the tournament top spot and von Reden hit the rail.

Go was the only player to crack the seven-figure stack milestone, with Taiwan’s Wu Chun Yu (932,000), and South Korea’s Juyub Lee (871,000) rounding out the top three.

Natural8 Ambassador Hua Wei Lin also concluded the action with a top ten stack, as did Taiwan’s Chen An Lin, with the top ten Day 2 stacks as follows:

MAIN EVENT DAY 2 TOP TEN STACKS

Pos.	Player	Country	Chips
1	Nicholas Go	Hong Kong	1,281,000
2	Wu Chun Yu	Taiwan	932,000
3	Juyub Lee	South Korea	871,000
4	Keng Yong Tan	Singapore	824,000
5	John Matsuda	Japan	815,000
6	Chi Ho King Lai	Hong Kong	813,000
7	Luke Dainton	United Kingdom	799,000
8	Hua-Wei Lin	Taiwan	779,000
9	Chen An Lin	Taiwan	753,000
10	Huang Mu Shiang	Taiwan	716,000

While Rene von Reden won’t be winning a second Main Event title this series, other former Main Event champions still in with a shout include Hong Kong’s Dicky Tsang (311,000), Japan’s Mikiya Kudo (168,000), the Philippines John Tech (95,000), and two-time Main Event champion Lester Edoc (44,000), with APT Taipei 2023 Main Event champion Punnat Punsri (114,000) coming in as one of the OnLive Day 3 qualifiers who made the money on Natural8.

Other past and present APT champions to make it through include reigning APT Super High Roller champion Quang Minh Nguyen (602,000), APT Manila Classic 2024 High Roller champion Daniel Neilson (444,000), APT Summer Series Hanoi 2023 Super High Roller champion Shung Er Sua (428,000), Natural8 Ambassador Eric “Six Poker” Tsai (386,000), Taipei Poker Classic High Roller champion Martin Sedlak (349,000), APT Taipei 2024 High Roller champion Stanley Weng (322,000) and APT Phu Quoc 2024 High Roller champion Jason Lau (132,000).

More notable players to find a chip bag at the end of the evening were the Netherland’s Tom Verbruggen (448,000), the USA’s Christian Harder (443,000), the USA’s Benjamin Jacobs (403,000), Germany’s Manig Loeser (387,000), David “Spade” Erquiaga (149,000), India’s Sumit Sapra (109,000), APT host Greg Liow (100,000), bracelet winner Alex Lindop (74,000), Germany’s Martin Finger (71,000), and Ireland’s Mark Gruendeman (63,000).

For Main Event Day 2 Player List please CLICK HERE.

For Main Event Day 2 Survivors please CLICK HERE.

For Main Event Day 3 Draw please CLICK HERE.

You can follow all the Main Event Day 2 action via the APT Blog or watch the action as it played out via the Main Event Day 2 live stream.

All tournament information can be found on the Main Event - Day 2 tournament page.

The Day 3 action gets underway at 11am local time on Thursday, May 1, with the action live streamed via the official APT YouTube channel and full coverage available on the APT Blog.