APT Incheon 2025 Main Event Sets Korean Attendance Record with 1,281 Entrants

The Asian Poker Tour Shatters its Previous Benchmarks in Korea with a Landmark Turnout in Incheon

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

INCHEON, SOUTH KOREA, August 6, 2025 – The Asian Poker Tour (APT) continues its unprecedented growth as APT Incheon 2025 smashes records with the Main Event drawing 1,281 entries, marking the largest field ever for the tour in Korea.

Playing out at the tournament tables of the palatial Paradise City resort and run in partnership with Paradise Group the KRW 2.5M (~USD 1,800) Main Event saw the survivors from the four starting flights combine for the first time, with the break down from the four flights as follows:

Flight A: 250 entries – 89 survivors.
Flight B: 236 entries – 99 survivors.
Flight C: 316 entries – 148 survivors.
Flight D: 192 entries – 95 survivors.

Combined with the 206 online entries from Natural8 and a further 81 Day 2 registrations, this brought the total entry count up to 1,281 (754 uniques).

In addition to setting a new tour country record for field size, this also generated a hefty KRW 2,766,660,000 (~USD 2,000,477) prize pool — over 150 percent more than the KRW 1 billion (~USD 1 million) guarantee — making this the APT’s richest-ever Korean-based Main Event, eclipsing the previous record set during the APT Jeju 2024.

The top 191 players will make the hallowed money spots, with the eventual champion walking away with a chunky KRW 483,890,000 (~USD 349,885) top prize – the most the tour has ever awarded in the country.

For Main Event Prize Pool & Payouts please CLICK HERE

Day 2 Action

The action kicked off at 11am local time (KST) where the 431 survivors from the four opening flights were joined by a further 81 Day 2 registrations to bring the total field up to 1,281, meaning there were 512 players in contention all hoping to find a chip bag in their future at the conclusion of the day’s play.

It was Flight A frontrunner Chi Hsiang Chiu returning in pole position with a chip leading stack of 540,000 with the Taiwanese native the only player to begin the day with over half a million in chips.

However, that soon changed with several players crossing this milestone as play progressed. The action played out over seven 60-minute levels with play concluding with the bursting of the money bubble right at the start of the eighth level played.

The elimination of Japan’s Takumi Nakayama at the hands of compatriot Daito Yamashita came four minutes into level 18, with the two players getting all the chips in pre-flop as play reached hand-for-hand.

The two sat patiently until the camera crew arrived, and then the cards were revealed, Nakayama’s ace jack of hearts racing against Yamashita’s pocket fives, with the latter running out four to a flush to shoot him up to fourth in the overall counts and guarantee all 191 remaining players a KRW 3,760,000 (~USD 2,720) payday.

While Nakayama will be disappointed to have missed out on making the money, he did draw a Micro Main Event ticket valued at KRW 400,000 (~USD 290) so has the potential to spin this up into a trophy, just on a smaller stage should the cards fall his way.

Bubble Micro Main Draw.jpg Japan’s Takumi Nakayama drew a Micro Main Event ticket consolation prize after exiting on the money bubble

It is Abraham Ceesvin who will be returning in the driving seat with a chip leading stack of 954,000 now the tournament has reached the business end, and the Singaporean player is a seasoned hand when it comes to circumnavigating APT Main Event fields and has three cashes in them on his poker resume.

Ceesvin finished fifth in the previous APT Incheon 2023 Main Event and followed this up with a career-best runner-up finish in the APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024 Main Event and will be hungry to go one better this time around.

Flight C front-runner Shuzo Sekine of Japan bagged the second largest stack of 867,000, with fellow countryman Kazuhiro Shirasawa (792,000) rounding out the top three.

Jun Li (673,000) is another to bag a top ten stack, and the Brit will be looking to improve on his career-best Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8 win back at the APT Taipei 2024.

MAIN EVENT DAY 2 TOP TEN STACKS

Pos.	Player	Country	Chips
1	Abraham Ceesvin	Singapore	954,000
2	Shuzo Sekine	Japan	867,000
3	Kazuhiro Shirasawa	Japan	792,000
4	Daito Yamashita	Japan	727,000
5	Jian Han	China	717,000
6	Jun Li	United Kingdom	673,000
7	Yifan Cao	China	660,000
8	Vladimir Munits	Russia	631,000
9	Tomoyuki Yoshimiya	Japan	620,000
10	Kookchunantoine Priniotakis	France	605,000

Other notables to bag big include Korean National Cup champion Kevin Choi (544,000), APT Incheon 2023 Main Event finalist Valeriy Pak (472,000), and former APT head of live poker operations Lloyd Fontillas, who spun his start-of-day 29K stack up to the giddy heights of 463,000.

Start-of-day chip leader Chi Hsiang Chiu (400,000) made it through, as did Flight D frontrunner Dongying Ling (354,000), Natural8 Ambassador Phachara Wongwichit (230,000), Former APT Incheon 2019 Main Event champion Dicky Tsang (175,000), and APT Phu Quoc 2024 High Roller champion Jason Lau (Malaysia - 151,300).

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 11:15am local time (KST) on Thursday, August 7, with the action live streamed via the official APT YouTube channel and full coverage available on the APT Blog.