Yu Huang Topped Day 2 of Korea's largest-ever poker tournament

After a relatively short bubble period in the 2025 APT Jeju Main Event, 247 players have locked up a payout and secured their spots in Day 3.

The APT Jeju Main Event is officially the largest international poker tournament ever to play out in Korea, with a massive 1,693 (905 unique) entries generating the tour's richest Korean-based prize pool of KRW 3,761,155,200 (~USD 2,686,540).

All remaining players are guaranteed a minimum pay-out of KRW 4,020,000 (~$2,870) but all will be eyeing up the first-place prize of KRW 649,835,200 (~$464,170).

The first player to earn a minimum cash payout is Iceland's Adalsteinn Karlsson who cashed in the OnLive event as well as bagging a stack of 501,000 in today's live Day 2 meaning he will carry through this stack through to Day 3 and also earn the OnLive cash. Due to this only 246 players will be taking their seats tomorrow.

For a full list of all payouts click here

Iceland's Adalsteinn Karlsson guaranteed two min-cashes

It was Taiwan’s Yu Huang who finished Day 2 with a massive 869,000 chips. Hot on Sun’s heels is China’s Jieming Xu with 867,000 followed closely by Cypriot Andreas Christodoulou with 810,000 who rounds out the top three.

Huang has just over USD 400,000 in lifetime earnings, and Xu has just over USD 500,000 and is looking for his first major title after numerous close misses.

Christodoulou has just over $150,000 in lifetime earnings and is also hunting down his first major title.

Also sitting in the top ten and not too far behind the leaders is Georgios Skarparis (803,000). Skarparis has just over USD 1,500,000 in lifetime earnings and holds a WSOP bracelet.

Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts

For a full APT Jeju Main Event Day 3 Survivor List Click Here.

American player Christopher Park will be looking to take his lifetime earnings to over $1,200,000 and is sitting just in the top forty in 39th place with 468,000 chips.

Other Notable Players Bagging Up

WSOP Bracelet holder China’s Peng Zhou is taking a healthy stack through to Day 3 with 676,000 in chips. WSOP Ring Holder, Brit Guy Taylor, takes through 569,000 and the Netherlands’ Tom Verbruggen made it through with 369,000.

The Czech Republic’s Roman Hrabec who has nearly USD 13,000,000 in live earnings takes a healthy 454,000 chips through to Day 3 and will be looking to add to his plethora of Asian tour titles and final tables.

Germany’s Martin Sedlak will be looking to break the one milly mark in lifetime earnings by hitting a final table spot and takes through 450,000 in chips.

Thailand's Punnat Punsri still in the hunt

Thailand's Punnat Punsri with over $30,000,000 in lifetime earnings sits in 150th spot with 186,000 in chips.

APT Manila 2025 Super High Roller Champion and Flight 1B Chip leader, Malaysia’s William Teoh, is sitting pretty in 12th spot on 700,000 chips and will be looking to make a deep run. APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024 Main Event runner up Singapore’s Abraham Ceesvin will be looking to better that finish and is taking through 595,000 in chips.

Abraham Ceesvin looking for another deep APT Main Event run

APT Taipei Poker Classic Main Event winner Germany’s Rene Von Reden has a nice stack of 573,000 and China’s Mincong Chen will be looking to make it a double Flagship Trophy winning trip and add the Gold Lion APT Main Event Trophy to his Pewter Lion APT Super High Roller Trophy already picked up earlier in the series, however he has work to do sitting in 116th spot with 244,000 in chips.

Start-of-day chip leader Russian Maxim Sorokin (509,000) has made it through to Day 3 along with Flight D frontrunner China’s Chao Ting Cheng (396,000).

Day 3 kicks-off tomorrow at 11.15AM Local Time (KST). Stay tuned for live updates straight from the floor.

To view the full seat draw for Day 3 click here.

Natural 8 Ambassador Kitty Kuo the Unfortunate Bubble Girl

Action folded to Natural 8 Ambassador Kitty Kuo in the hijack who open jammed for her last 85,000. Action folded to Peng Zhou in the big blind who made the call.

Kitty Kuo: 9 9

Peng Zhou: K Q

Not the flop that Kuo wanted to see as the dealer peeled off K A A and the Natural 8 Ambassador had two outs to stay alive unless miracles were to happen.

The 8 turn was close but no cigar and when the river bricked out with the 2 Kitty Kuo was sent to the rail in 249th place as the unfortunate bubble girl. She did receive a Ultra Stack Ticket worth KRW 850,000 as a consolidatory bubble prize though!

Seung Jennens opened for 12,000 in late position and got a three-bet from Can Wu in the cutoff. Shuo Li four-bet to 60,000 pushing Jennens out of the pot. Wu called to see a flop.

Nearing the bubble and with such a big pot, Wu and Li checked through the river on a board of 8 8 2 Q 6 .

Li showed A J and Wu tabled A K for the winning hand.

Jie Zheng

Andreas Christodoulou opened with 14,000 under the gun and got two callers Jie Zheng and Zhouyi Wang in the big blind.

The flop came 5 T 4 . Wang and Christodoulou checked the flop and folded after Zheng bet 12,000 into the pot.

Action was picked up with the blinds Junquiang Lyu and Zhongmin Xia with their cards and chips in the middle of the table.

Junquiang Lyu: 5 5

Zhongmin Xia: K Q

Despite Xia hitting the board with a pair, Lyu reinforced his lead when he caught a set on the flop 5 Q T .

The turn gave Lyu's a full house when it dropped Q , but also improved Xia to trips giving him a few outs.

The river 9 was a not one of them.

Lyu doubled up and could continue his run nearing bubble time.

Xiaosheng Zheng

Xiaosheng Zheng was the chip leader as the players were nearing the bubble, but he lost a bit of that stack after doubling up Daisuke Takeomi with Kings Vs Ace-Queen.

Xiaosheng Zheng: A Q

Daisuke Takeomi: K K

Takeomi got his remaining ~100,000 stack in and held on the J Q T J 8 runout.

With 251 players remaining we are nearing the bubble.

When one more player is eliminated the floor will pause the clock and the play will be hand for hand with three minutes deducted per hand.

Jiangpu Jin and his opponent Bizhen Li were already all in with the cards face up, waiting for the board to be dealt.

Jin was in the cutoff and Li in the big blind, they had roughly the same size stacks of around 230,000, with Jin only just covering Li by 45,000.

Jiangpu Jin: A Q

Bizhen Li: T T

Jin wasn't behind for long as the flop came K 8 A .

The J turn made things interesting as it brought in Li the straight draw.

A Q river saw Li shout "Nice!" as he locked the double up. Jin was left very short, just ten players away from the money.

Emi Oike

Action folded to Emi Oike on the button who raised to 15,000 only to face a three-bet from Maxim Sorokin in the small blind to 48,000.

Oike countered with a four-bet to 125,000.

Sorokin clicked it back with a five-bet to 200,000.

Oike went into the tank now and pushed out her stack of time-banks being charged two of them before releasing her hand and sending the pot to Sorokin.

Another 15-minute break.

Just a few more eliminations before we hit the 247 magic number for the director to say "Congratulations, you are all in the money!"