Asian Poker Tour’s 17-day Festival Sets Record with Unprecedented 28K+ Entries and over USD 34M in Prize Money

APT CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 SCHEDULE | OFFICIAL RESULTS | PLAYER LISTS | LIVE REPORTING | IMAGES | WINNERS

TAIPEI, TAIWAN, November 30, 2025 – The Asian Poker Tour has stepped onto the global stage with the APT Championship 2025 officially establishing itself as the largest Asian poker festival of all time.

Playing out at the tournament tables of the cavernous Red Space 多元商務空間 and run in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP), the 17-day festival was headlined by 20 Championship Events which drew 10,561 entries and generated TWD 680.6 million (~USD 21.8 million) in prize money.

In total, the festival attracted an unprecedented 28,265 entries and awarded a gargantuan TWD 1,060,319,544 (~USD 34,203,856) in prize money!

The highlight of the series was the TWD 311,000 (~USD 10,000) APT Championship Main Event Freezeout, which drew an impressive 671 entries and generated a monster TWD 194 million (~USD 6.2 million) prize pool, making it the biggest and richest USD 10K buy-in tournament to run outside of Las Vegas in the last decade, the largest and wealthiest ever to run in Asia, and the richest in APT history.

It was Nishant Sharma who ascended to poker immortality, claiming the exclusive Gold Lion APT Championship Main Event Trophy and gigantic TWD 37 million (~USD 1.2 million) top prize to become only the third Indian player in poker history to claim over a million dollars with a single tournament win.

India’s Nishant Sharma won the largest Main Event payout the tour has ever awarded

When asked about the Main Event Freezeout during the festival, Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel captured what this moment means for Asian poker:

“I mean, I like the idea of a freezeout. I'm happy with both. It's kind of nice to have tournaments that you can rebuy into, but I also think there's room for freezeouts as well. The Main Event is a freezeout, and I think that kind of establishes this as, you know, kind of the Asian Main Event.”

Asia no longer looks westward for validation. The poker world is now looking east.

An International Affair

Proving its global reach, the Asian Poker Tour has firmly announced its presence on the world stage with the 20 Championship Event winners emerging from 15 different nations.

The tours’ inaugural 671-entry APT Championship Main Event Freezeout drew players from 47 different countries and regions from across the globe.

In total, the festival drew players from an impressive 55 nations to make the APT Championship 2025 a truly international event.

For APT Championship 2025 Festival Breakdown by Nationality graphic please CLICK HERE

Record-Breaking Tournament Action

Every tour stop of the 2025 APT season set new records, with three of the last four setting international records for field size, and the APT Championship setting an Asian record for festival entries.

The APT Championship saw 17 tournaments set new APT records, breaking 9 APT tournament entry records, 12 APT tournament prize pool records, and 9 APT tournament top prize records.

For a breakdown of prize money, player numbers, and records set during the festival you can view the APT Championship 2025 Festival Breakdown by Prize Pool, Player Numbers & Records HERE

APT Championship by the Numbers

For APT Championship 2025 Event Breakdown by Prize Pool, GTD & First Place Prize graphic please CLICK HERE

The festival drew three four-figure fields, all of which came in the Championship Events, with the largest of these coming in the 2,398 entry TWD 15,000 (~USD 495) [Event 1] National Cup Championship making it the largest non-Main Event field in the tour’s 19 year history.

The inaugural TWD 25,000 (~USD 810) [Event 3] Ultra Stack Championship drew the second-largest field of the festival and while the tournament did not set any tour records for field size or prize pool, the 1,867-entry event set a record for most diverse field the APT has ever run with an impressive 49 separate nations represented at the felt.

While the TWD 35,000 (~USD 1,120) [Event 12] Mini Main Event Championship did not set any tour records, the 1,603-entry field was the third largest of the festival, with Natural8 Ambassador Nevan Chang taming his first APT Championship Lion trophy and earning a career-best score.

Natural8 Ambassador claimed his ninth career APT title in the Mini Main Event Championship

Rich Pickings

For APT Championship 2025 Festival Event Prize Pool Contribution graphic please CLICK HERE

In total, the APT Championship saw an impressive nine events generate USD seven-figure prize pools:

• [Event 3] Ultra Stack Championship – TWD 40.3M (~USD 1.3M)
• [Event 6] Natural8 Cup Championship Freezeout – TWD 39.3M (~USD 1.2M)
• [Event 7] Super High Roller Championship - TWD 59.5M (~USD 1.9M)
• [Event 10] Superstar Championship - TWD 57.8M (~USD 1.85M)
• [Event 11] APT Championship Main Event Freezeout - TWD 194M (~USD 6.2M)
• [Event 12] Mini Main Event Championship – TWD 48.4 (~USD 1.5)
• [Event 13] High Roller Championship – TWD 75.7 (~USD 2.4M)
• [Event 17] Mini High Roller Championship – TWD 38.6 (~USD 1.2M)
• Event #125 High Roller Single Re-Entry - TWD 33.1 (~USD 1M)

When it comes to prize pool records, outside of the record-breaking Main Event, which was the richest in tournament in APT history, the festival saw the APT record for richest ever non-Main event prize pool and top prize broken not once, but TWICE in the same festival.

[Event 7] Super High Roller Championship winner Roman Hrabec’s record of winning the tour’s richest-ever top prize outside of the Main Event lasted all of 24 hours, with Calvin Lee usurping it the following day in the [Event 10] Superstar Championship.

While the Czech crusher managed to hang on to the record for winning the richest ever tournament outside of the Main Event for almost a week, this was then taken by Toby Joyce after the Irish poker professional won [Event 13] High Roller Championship – which proved to be the richest non-Main event tournament in APT history with a massive TWD 75.7 million (~USD 2.4 million) prize pool.

Ireland’s Toby Joyce wins the richest non-Main event tournament in APT history

Satellite Success

By far one of the most unexpected records set during the festival came during the Event #102 Step 2 Mega Satellite to APT Championship Main Event.

Proving players' appetite to play in the Main Event, this drew an impressive 399 entries and generated a hefty TWD 18,271,008 (~USD 585,609) prize pool – making it the richest satellite ever held in Asia.

This set a new APT record for both field size and prize pool for a satellite. It may also stand as the largest live satellite ever run in the region, though that remains unconfirmed. Regardless, no previous qualifier in APT history has ever come close to this scale.

A Milestone Victory

Julian Warhurst became the first player to win a Championship title and an APT Big Three title

It wasn’t just prize pool and field size records that fell at this festival, with Australia’s Julian Warhurst also etching his place in the annals of APT history by becoming the first player to claim an APT Championship title and an APT Big Three title.

Warhurst bagged his APT Big Three title back at the APT Summer Series Da Nang 2023 by winning the Super High Roller to tame the APT Pewter Lion Trophy.

The Aussie cashed in four Championship Events, final tabling two of them, finishing in ninth place the [Event 6] Natural8 Cup Championship Freezeout before overcoming a 303-entry field to tame the Pewter Lion APT Championship Trophy in the [Event 16] Freezeout Championship for a top three career score of TWD 2,624,300 (~USD 84,110).

APT 2026 Tour Dates

While the APT Championship wraps up the 2025 poker season for the tour, there is more topflight tournament action just around the corner.

The APT turns twenty in 2026 and the tour is marking its coming-of-age with an action-packed festival schedule comprising five exciting stops in three amazing Asian destinations.

Here are the key dates you should be penciling into your diary:

• APT Jeju Classic 2026: Jan 30-Feb 8 | Partner: Landing Entertainment Korea | Venue: Jeju Shinhwa World
• APT Taipei 2026: Apr 22-May 3 | Partner: CTP | Venue: Red Space 多元商務空間
• APT Incheon 2026: Aug 7-16 | Partner: Paradise Group | Venue: Paradise City
• APT Jeju 2026: Sep 25-Oct 4 | Partner: Landing Entertainment Korea | Venue: Jeju Shinhwa World
• APT Championship 2026: Nov 13-29 | Partner: CTP | Venue: Red Space 多元商務空間

APT Jeju Classic 2026

Start the 2026 poker season in style as the Asian Poker Tour—sponsored by Natural8 travels to the picturesque volcanic island of Jeju for the APT Jeju Classic 2026 — headlined by a KRW 2.3M (~USD 1,600) buy-in Main Event which comes with a KRW 2.2 billion (~USD 1.5 million) guarantee.

The ten-day festival features a total of KRW 4.9 billion (~USD 3.4 million) in prize pool guarantees and runs from January 30 to February 8 at LES A Casino, located at the luxurious Jeju Shinhwa World resort in partnership with Landing Entertainment Korea.

See you in Jeju!