The Asian Poker Tour has been running tournaments on the Asian continent since 2006. In those 19 years, the APT have organized and run 122 festivals at 27 tour stop locations in 16 different countries and regions, awarding hundreds of millions of USD in prize money.
The upcoming APT Incheon, running from August 1-10 at the palatial Paradise City resort and casino, will be the 123rd APT festival since the tour’s inception, and the thirteenth poker series of the APT New Era, which began in the April of 2023 with the APT Taipei 2023.
The APT Incheon 2025 will be the sixth time the tour has partnered with Paradise Group to bring topflight tournament poker to the bustling South Korean transport hub, with the KRW 2.5M (~USD 1,800) buy-in Main Event and its KRW 1.5 billion (~USD 1 million) guarantee being the focal point of a festival that squeezes 97 tournaments (including satellites) into the 10-day schedule and boasts over KRW 3.4 billion (~USD 2.4 million) in total prize pool guarantees.
You can read in more detail about the festival’s key events and explore the high roller tournament highlights via the below articles:
- APT Incheon 2025: The Preview
- Living the High Life: A Closer Look at the APT Incheon 2025 High Roller Events
Those looking for accommodation recommendations and entertainment options in Incheon should also check out our Guide to APT Incheon, South Korea 2025 feature.
With this being the tour’s second New Era visit following a hiatus in 2024, we decided to take a closer look at APT Incheon and explore a bit of the history behind this iconic tour stop which has crowned five APT Main Event champions.
The Growth of the APT Incheon Festival
There have been five APT Incheon festivals in tour history with the city of Incheon and Paradise City resort and casino making their debut as a tour stop back in August of 2017.
Those five tours stops to date (not including the upcoming festival) make Incheon the sixth most visited in terms of the number of times APT has operated a festival here, but it is the fifth busiest in terms of total entries since its introduction as a tour stop, attracting 14,783 tournament entries over the 150 tournaments the APT has run here since 2017.
In terms of prize money played for, Incheon is the fourth richest overall APT tour stop with close to KRW 15 billion (USD 11.8 million) in prize money awarded.
In terms of New Era results, there has only been one festival, putting it fifth of seven tour stop destinations in terms of New Era prize money played for with KRW 8.56 billion (USD 6.49 million) awarded during the 93 tournaments played at APT Incheon 2023, which makes up over 6 percent (6.49%) of the over USD 100 million in prize money the APT has awarded since APT Taipei 2023.
A lot has changed in the eight years since the inaugural 2017 APT Incheon made its debut, with the most recent iteration of the festival in 2023 attracting close to six times the number of festival entries and generating almost sixteen times more prize money than it did on its 2017 debut.
Since its introduction as a tour destination the APT Incheon grew at an average of 33 percent in entries year on year during the old era, with the total prize money awarded increasing at an average of just over 77 percent (77.85%) over the four festivals from 2017 to 2022.
However, it was the first and only tour visit of the New Era back in August of 2023 that saw the biggest gains, with the number of tournaments offered increasing threefold to 67 from an average of 20 per festival.
This saw an impressive 140 percent increase in tournament entries compared to the APT Incheon 2022, with players competing for a staggering 185 percent more prize money.
The 6,967 entries that comprised the APT Incheon 2023 festival makes up 47 percent (47.12%) of this tour stops’ 14,783 total entries and accounts for 58 percent of the KRW 15 billion (USD 11.8 million) in prize money awarded here.
The Main Event
Of course, in addition to looking at the total number of festival entries and prize money played for, the best way to measure any poker festivals’ pulse rate is by examining the success of the flagship tournament and celebrating its former and current champions.
The Tour Debut: APT Incheon 2017
The nine-day APT Incheon 2017 festival ran from August 12-20, 2017, and featured 18 tournaments, which attracted 1,212 total entries and generated just under KRW 550 million (~USD 486,250) in total prize pools.
The Main Event came with a KRW 1.1M buy-in—equivalent to USD 975 at 2017 exchange rates—and saw 185 entries compete for a KRW 179.45 million (USD 157,400) prize pool, representing just over 15 percent of the festival’s total entries and accounting for close to a third (32.6%) of the festival’s total prize money awarded.
It was the USA’s Albert Paik claiming the accolades, a KRW 44.86 million (USD 39,345) top prize and his first and only career APT title.
The USA’s Albert Paik won the inaugural APT Incheon Main Event in August 2017
APT Incheon 2018
The twelve-day APT Incheon 2018 festival was three days longer than its predecessor, 35 percent larger in terms of entries and 95 percent richer in terms of prize money played for when compared to the 2017 festival.
Running from August 9-19, the APT Incheon 2018 comprised 22 tournaments, which drew a total of 1,626 festival entries and generated KRW 1.07 billion (USD 974,000) in total prize money.
Once again, the Main Event came with a KRW 1.1M buy-in, although this was closer to USD 1,000 due to currency fluctuations.
This saw a 3 percent increase in participation with the tournament attracting 192 entries, which generated a prize pool close to 4 percent richer with a total of KRW 186.24 million (USD 166,562) in the purse.
The Main Event represented close to 12 percent (11.8%) of the total festival entries and accounted for just over 17 percent of the total festival prize money played for, with Japan’s Iori Yogo claiming the KRW 40,463,000 (USD 36,187) top prize and his maiden APT Main Event title.
The win represented Yogo’s 22nd live career APT title victory at the time, with the Japanese player going on to claim a further seven APT titles over the following two years, including another Main Event victory at the December APT Manila 2018.
Japan’s Iori Yogo claimed his 22nd career APT title with his 2018 APT Incheon Main Event victory
APT Incheon 2019
Like its 2018 counterpart, the APT Incheon 2019 spanned twelve days, running from August 2-13, and comprising 23 tournaments. Total festival entries increased to 2,079; close to a 28 percent (27.85%) increase from 2018, and over a 71 percent increase in entries from the tour stops debut two years prior.
This saw the total prize money played for balloon to KRW 1.64 billion (USD 1,409,063), bringing the total to over seven figures USD for the first time in the festival’s history – close to an impressive 53 percent (52.95%) increase on the prize money of the previous year.
The 2019 APT Incheon Main Event came with a slightly increased KRW 1.32M buy-in, equivalent to USD 1,135 at the 2019 exchange rate and drew 236 entries—an increase of close to 23 percent (22.91%) on the 2018 tournament—which accounted for just over 11 percent (11.35%) of the total festival entries.
The KRW 274.7 million (USD 228,150) prize pool represents close to 17 percent (16.76%) of the total festival prize money – an increase over just over a 47 percent (47.5%) in prize money from the 2018 Main Event.
APT regular Dicky Tsang of Hong Kong earned the plaudits, taking a KRW 59,485,000 (USD 49,405) top prize and earning his (at the time) best career cash and third live APT title.
Tsang has since gone on to claim a further four live APT tournament titles and surpass his personal best result with a runner up finish in the APT Taipei 2024 High Roller, which was good for TWD 3,422,000 (USD 108,950).
APT regular Dicky Tsang claimed a career-best score with his APT Incheon 2019 Main Event win
APT Incheon 2022
Following a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour returned in October of 2022 with the APT Incheon 2022 spanning nine days and running from October 18-26. The festival comprised 20 tournaments, three less than the 2019 edition, but attracted 2,899 entries in total – an increase of just over 39 percent (39.44%) on the previous festival, with the KRW 3.04 billion (USD 2.36 million) in prize pools played for representing an impressive 85 percent increase in prize money on the previous pre-COVID festival.
The APT Incheon 2022 Main Event saw a 70 percent increase to the buy-in to KRW 2.2M, which came to USD 1,700 at the 2022 exchange rate, and saw over double the number of entries from the previous festival with the 486 entries representing a 105 percent increase in entries, accounting for close to 17 percent (16.76%) of the total festival entries.
The KRW 942.84 million (USD 659,850) prize pool represented close to one and a half times more—150 percent (147.22%)—than the other three previous APT Incheon Main Event prize pools combined making it almost two and a half times richer than the 2019 edition of the tournament – a substantial increase of 243 percent in prize money, which accounted for just over 13 percent (13.34%) of the total festival prize money played for.
It was the Japan-based Farhad Aghayev etching his name into the annals of APT history, with the Azerbaijani player claiming a career-best KRW 170,228,000 (USD 119,134) top prize and his maiden APT title.
Aghayev almost repeated chance two months later in the APT Da Nang Vietnam VSOP 2022 Main Event, cashing in sixth place for a further VND 398.66 million (USD 16,900) and has since gone on to claim a further three more career APT titles in the New Era.
Azerbaijan’s Farhad Aghayev earned a career-best score with his APT Incheon 2022 Main Event win
New Era: APT Incheon 2023
Following the launch of the APT New Era in April 2023, the tour returned to Incheon for what proved to be the tour stops largest and richest festival yet. The APT Incheon 2023 festival ran from August 25 to September 3 and comprised over three times the number of tournaments offered by the 2022 edition of the festival, with 67 tournaments packed into the ten days played.
In addition to offering three times the number of tournaments, the festival attracted 6,967 total entries for a massive 140 percent increase in participation.
The KRW 8.69 billion (USD 6.65 million) in festival prize pools represented a staggering 185 percent increase in prize money on the 2022 edition of the festival; close to six times the number of festival entries and almost sixteen times more prize money than it did on its 2017 debut.
Of course, a record festival meant a record Main Event, with the APT Incheon 2023 Main Event proving to be both the largest and richest ever played at this tour stop.
The KRW 2.3M (USD 1,760) buy-in was a 4.5 percent increase from the previous edition, with the 930 entries representing a massive 91 percent increase on the 2022 Main Event.
This generated a tour stop record prize pool of KRW 1.86 billion (USD 1.41 million) making the 2023 Main Event almost double (98 percent) richer than its 2022 predecessor, and almost ten times (940 percent) richer than the tour’s 2017 debut tournament!
The APT Incheon 2023 Main Event accounted for just over 13 percent (13.34%) of the total festival entries, and over a fifth (21.48%) of the total festival prize money played for.
Japan’s Shoichiro Tamaki won the first 24K Gold Lion APT Main Event trophy ever awarded in South Korea, earning his maiden live tournament title and a career-best score of KRW 271,447,000 (USD 205,025) in the process.
Japan’s Shoichiro Tamaki claimed a career-best score in the largest and richest APT Incheon Main Event in tour history
New Era: APT Incheon 2025
While the future is yet to be written, with the upcoming APT Incheon 2025 festival offering close to 50 percent more (45%) tournaments than the record-setting 2023 edition of the festival, and the Main Event boasting a sizable KRW 1.5 billion (~USD 1 million) guarantee, it’s a fair bet that this edition of the festival is set to be the largest APT Incheon yet. Especially when you consider the seven seats on offer to the APT’s largest-ever guaranteed Main Event—the USD 5M GTD Asian Poker Tour Championship Main Event—with the top three places in the APT Incheon Main Event, and the champion of the APT Super High Roller, the APT High Roller, the Superstar Challenge, and the Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8 all claiming a ticket to this fantastic tournament.
You can read about how to qualify for what promises to be the APT’s biggest festival yet in our Ways to Qualify to the APT Championship 2025 feature.
See you in Incheon!