Taiwan’s Chia Wei Kuo bagged the chip lead in APT’s richest-ever tournament

• Calvin Lee Locks Up Largest APT First Place Prize Ever Awarded with Superstar Championship Win

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

TAIPEI, TAIWAN, November 24, 2025 – 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 APT Championship 2025 is hitting its stride with records continuing to tumble in Taipei.

With the hors d'oeuvres served, Day 10 of the 17-day festival saw the arrival of the largest guaranteed tournament ever to run in Asia, with the TWD 311,000 (~USD 10,000) APT Championship Main Event Freezeout breezing past the ambitious TWD 156 million (~USD 5M) guarantee to take the tour into uncharted territory.

With registration remaining open until the start of level 11 at 1:45pm (TST) on Day 2, Tuesday, November 25, both the field and prize pool are expected to grow further, but the Main Event has already made APT history as the richest tournament the tour has ever run.

The Day 1 action got underway at 11am local time with 74 players already in their seats as APT CEO Fred Leung and APT President Neil Johnson took to the stage, with the latter saying a few words to mark the momentous occasion: “Fred, thank you for dreaming big".

APT President Neil Johnson (left) and APT CEO Fred Leung

And with that, the cards were in the air; early arrivals included APT Taipei 2025 Super High Roller champion Quang Minh Nguyen, Mystery Bounty Championship winner Sofia Lovgren, former APT Main Event winner Dicky Tsang, APT regular David “Spade” Erquiaga, and APT Incheon Super High Roller champion Milos Petakovic.

They were soon joined by some of the game’s greats; ten-time bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, five-time bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Famer John Juanda, APT All time Money Winner Joseph Cheong, APT Taipei 2023 Main Event winner Punnat Punsri, and high stakes tournament crusher Steve O'Dwyer were just some of the stars to enter the field as play progressed.

Erik Seidel in action in the APT Championship Main Event Freezeout

The field quickly grew, with the guarantee hit fifteen minutes into the fifth 75-minute level played as the 540th player took their seat.

By the time the tournament clock ticked into the red at the end of level 8, the number of entries had climbed to an impressive 595 – which guarantees the eventual champion a top prize of at least ~USD 1 million!

Just 343 players survived the first day, but still have a long slog before the paying positions with the money bubble expected to burst close to the end of Day 2, as has historically been the case at past APT Main Events.

It is Taiwan’s Chia Wei Kuo who is sitting at the summit of the tournament leaderboard at the conclusion of play, bagging up 434,100 with which to fuel his Day 2 run.

Japan’s Eisuke Katsuren (329,500), and Nobuaki Sasaki (283,300) rounded out the top three, with Taiwan #1 ranked tournament player James Chen (245,800), and the USA’s Michael Wang (220,100) also bagging top ten stacks.

MAIN EVENT TOP TEN DAY 1 STACKS

For Main Event Day 1 Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Day 1 Survivors please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Day 2 Draw please CLICK HERE

Notables to make it through outside the top ten include Germany’s Martin Finger (182,000), Hong Kong’s Dicky Tsang (162,100), Vietnam’s Quang Minh Nguyen (115,400), the USA’s Brian Green (81,000), Steve O’Dwyer (73,100), Joseph Cheong (72,600), Erik Seidel (65,700), John Juanda (40,100), and Roman Hrabec (36,800) to name but a few.

Natural8 Ambassadors Yu Chung “Nevan” Chang (196,000), Chih Wei Fan (133,500), Kitty Kuo (81,000) and Sparrow Cheung (68,400) also made the cut.

All tournament information can be found on the APT Championship Main Event Freezeout Day 1 tournament page and you can follow all the action via the Main Event Day 1 APT Blog.

A Main Event live stream on a 30-minute delay will be available on the official APT YouTube channel from Day 2 onwards.

Day 2 restarts at 11am (TST) on Tuesday, November 25, with eight 75-minute levels scheduled. Day 3 continues the action at 11:15am on Wednesday, November 26 with six 90-minute levels scheduled, with Day 4 following the same format on Thursday, November 27.

The exclusive Gold Lion APT Main Event Trophy will be awarded on the Final Day, which will play out at 11:15am on Friday, November 28.

Calvin Lee Locks Up Largest APT First Place Prize Ever Awarded with Superstar Championship Win

Calvin Lee tamed the second Rose Gold Lion APT Championship Trophy of the festival

While the Main Event was making tour history, the USA’s Calvin Lee was also playing his way into the APT record books.

The US player overcame the 39-entry TWD 1.5M (~USD 50,000) [Event 10] Superstar Championship field to tame the second of the festival’s Rose Gold Lion APT Championship Trophies.

Just 18 players returned for the Final Day to battle it out for a share of the TWD 57,842,503 (~USD 1,853,925) prize pool—the second largest of the festival so far outside of the Main Event—although only seven of them would make the paying positions.

Lee defeated final boss Daniel Neilson of Australia to claim the richest top prize the APT has ever awarded—at least until the conclusion of the Main Event on Friday, November 28—besting the record set by Super High Roller Championship winner Roman Hrabec on Sunday by banking a massive TWD 18,726,503 (~USD 600,210) top prize!

In an eerily similar recreation of his APT Incheon Superstar Challenge title win back in August, Lee bagged the overnight chip lead and after returning in pole position, maintained his lead on the grid right up to the final table.

Top Row (L-R) Bao Qiang Ho, Alexander Wice, Chin Wei Lim, Dylan Linde, Daniel Neilson. Bottom Row (L-R) Stephen O'Dwyer, Vincent Huang, Punnat Punsri, Calvin Lee

SUPERSTAR CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

Final Table

Lee started this strong by sending former APT Main Event champion Punnat Punsri out in ninth on the sixth hand played, although it was Chin Wei “Webster” Lim who popped the money bubble by busting the unfortunate Bao Qiang Ho in eighth.

Neilson began to make his play for the top of the leaderboard shortly afterward, railing Super High Roller Championship runner-up Alex Wice in seventh place 32-hands into the final table action when the two got all the chips in pre-flop.

Lee responded by busting high stakes specialist Steve O’Dwyer in sixth shortly after the first final table break, his ace queen winning the race against O’Dwyer’s pocket sevens.

Steve O’Dwyer makes his first career APT final table appearance

New Zealand’s Vincent Huang scored the next elimination to keep his title hopes alive, finding pocket aces to send Lim out in fifth place after the Malaysian player missed his open-ended straight draw.

Lee claimed his third final table scalp on the 69th hand played, ousting Huang in fourth after the two got all the chips in preflop with ace jack and king jack respectively.

For a moment, it looked like Lee lost control with Neilson trapping the US player with slowplayed pocket aces to edge in front.

A rampant Neilson then pulled further ahead sending US high stakes professional Dylan Linde to the rail in third to bring close to a 2-to-1 chip lead into heads-up.

Calvin Lee and Daniel Neilson share a fist bump before battling heads-up

Neilson stepped on the gas to pull further away, but Lee dug deep into his bag of tournament tricks to bluff the Aussie off a hand and regain some momentum, before taking to the streets to battle back pot by pot.

The duo fought it out over 24 heads-up hands in total, with Lee regaining the lead on the 20th hand of the match after picking off an ambitious Neilson bluff to leave the latter short. Four hands later, it was over, with Lee claiming his third APT title.

“It means a lot,” said Lee after securing the largest cash of his poker career. “This is the biggest event that APT has in the new era, and to come to the Championship and win it against such a tough field means a lot.”

“I think everyone plays tournaments for the glory,” Lee added. “When you win a tournament, it happens so rarely that you really appreciate it. I feel very fortunate to have done it twice this year. The most challenging part is always the opponents. Being a 50k event, it brings out some of the best players in the field — a lot of professionals.”

Calvin Lee celebrates the biggest win of his poker career with his mother

The win carried extra meaning with his family in attendance. “I’d like to dedicate this to my mom, who flew in from Seoul with my aunt. This is her second or third time seeing me play. The first time she came, before covid, I finished second, now she’s here and I got first, so that’s kind of cool.”

Lee seemed happy with the shiny new addition to his trophy collection: “It’s a nice one, it’s got a lot of weight to it. It’ll be a great addition to my office back in Seoul. Thanks to APT for running such a great series. It’s been a really enjoyable experience, and I’m looking forward to playing more.”

For Superstar Championship Final Day Player List please CLICK HERE

For Superstar Championship Results please CLICK HERE

All tournament information can be found on the Superstar Championship Final Day tournament page and you can follow all the action via the Superstar Championship Final Day APT Blog.

You can also watch all the action as it happened via the Superstar Championship live stream on the official APT YouTube channel.