PHP 61.6M (~USD 1.1M) in the Prize Pool; Taiwan’s Po-Shou Huang Leads Day 2

APT MANILA CLASSIC 2025 SCHEDULE| OFFICIAL RESULTS | PLAYER LISTS | IMAGES | WINNERS

MANILA, PHILIPPINES, February 12, 2025 — The APT Manila Classic 2025 Main Event has officially set an APT record as the tour's largest ever field in the Philippines!

Playing out in the Grand Ballroom of the prestigious Crowne Plaza Galleria and run in partnership with the Metro Card Club, Day 2 of the PHP 60,000 (~USD 1,030) Main Event saw the combined 377 survivors from the four opening flights joined by a further 56 entries before play resumed at 11am local time (GMT+8).

This brought the total number of entries up to 1,202 (673 unique) to surpass the previous tour record for largest Philippines tournament set during the recent APT Manila 2024.

With a massive prize pool of PHP 62,311,680 (~USD 1.07M) on the line, a total of 175 players will cash, with the eventual champion taking home the award winning Gold Lion APT Main Event trophy, a PHP 11,069,680 (~USD 190k) top prize, plus an APT Championship (APTC) ticket worth ~USD 10,700!

For APT Main Event Prize Pool & Payouts please CLICK HERE

The action played out over seven one-hour levels, with play concluding with the elimination of Singapore’s Kenneth Anthony on the money bubble at the hands of Spain’s Javier Zarco.

This guaranteed the remaining 175 players a PHP 94,000 (~USD 1,615) payday and pushed the Spaniard—who boasts over USD 3.8 million in live tournament winnings—up to second in the end of day chip counts with a stack of 959,000.

Spain’s Javier Zarco and Singapore’s Kenneth Anthony share a fist bump

However, it is Po-Shou Huang who will be returning with the Day 3 chip lead with the Taiwanese native the only player to bag a seven-figure stack, concluding play with 1,168,000 in chips.

Other notables to bag top ten stacks included Austrian high roller Samuel Muller (834,000), Australia’s Dylan Foster (700,000), and the Philippines David “Spade” Erquiaga (680,000), with the top ten stacks as follows:

MAIN EVENT DAY 2 TOP TEN STACKS

Flight D frontrunner Matthias Lipp (640,000) narrowly missed out on making the top ten, bagging the eleventh biggest stack. Flight B frontrunner Lars Kamphues (592,000) also made it through, as did start-of-day chip leader Tomoki Terashima (147,000), but Flight C top dog Kwonhwan Mun was not so fortunate.

The Philippines’ Mike Takayama is the only two-time former Main Event champion remaining in the field with both Lester Edoc, and Henrik Tollefsen falling by the wayside as play progressed.

With a stack of 577,000 Takayama will fancy his chances at yet another deep Main Event run and will be looking to make history by becoming the first player to win a record third APT Main Event title.

Other former champions unable to make the cut included APT Taipei 2023 winner Punnat Punsri, and the Philippines Christopher Mateo, John Tech, and Vamerdino Magsakay, with the only other previous Main Event winners remaining being the Philippines Moses Saquing (124,000), and Peru’s Yohn Paredes (71,000).

Vietnamese poker vlogger Ngoc Huyen Quach, aka “Gemmy” maintained her position as the top stacked female player, fighting through with 226,000 in chips, with five other women still in contention for Day 3:

Thailand’s Nattamon Kaweesorasak (206,000), Natural8 Ambassador Hua-Wei Lin (203,000), Thailand’s Wipawadee Kanaraksapong (179,000), Japan’s Seina Asagiri (117,000), and China’s Cai Xin Wong (59,000).

Notable qualifiers coming in for Day 3 include Iceland’s Adalsteinn Karlsson (428,000), APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024 Main Event runner-up Abraham Ceesvin (353,000), Australia’s Joshua McCully (321,000), India’s Rishi Mehra (266,000), and Malaysia’s Isaac Phua (266,000).

The Philippines #1 ranked tournament player Marc Rivera also made an impressive 37th APT career cash, and will be coming in with a 242,000 stack, alongside computational wizard Dominik Nitsche (180,000), and the UK’s Asa Smith (135,000).

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 as it played out 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, February 13, with the action live streamed via the official APT YouTube channel and full coverage available on the APT Blog.