Yosuke Miki

The APT Super High Roller has concluded its Day 1 chapter at the LES A Casino in Jeju Shinhwa World, South Korea. After the close of registration, a total of 115 entries were recorded, generating a total prize pool of KRW 1,589,587,500 (~USD 1,103,880), making it the largest and richest Super High Roller ever run in Korea by the APT.

After sixteen 40-minute levels, it was Japan's Yosuke Miki who emerged as the chip leader, amassing a total of 2,985,000 chips. One of Miki's early highlights in the tournament was during Level 11 when his pocket nines won a flip against the Big Slick of Huu Dung Nguyen, which pushed his stack close to the million mark. From then on, Miki just applied proper aggression and continued to build.

Top Ten Chip Counts

Teeraphat Rangkatekarn

Ending the night with the second-largest stack was Thailand's Teeraphat Rangkatekarn with 2,605,000 chips and the only other player to cross the two-million mark. Rangkatekarn found a huge triple-up during a three-way all-in that saw his pocket nines make a set on the river to rocket him to the chip lead at one point.

Japan's Ryuta Nakai managed to end the night with 1,935,000 chips to round up the podium. In the final level of the night, Nakai was at risk for his last 445,000, but found pocket aces to double against the jacks of Hon Cheong Lee. Nakai would then tear through the rest of the level to boost his stack even further, finally ending in the top three after all were counted.

John Juanda

Some of the other big names moving on include Poker Hall of Famer John Juanda of Indonesia with 1,450,000, Two-time APT Superstar Challenge winner Calvin Lee of the USA with 1,050,000, APT High Roller winner Dylan Foster of Australia with 850,000 and the world-renowned Tony Ren Lin of China with 605,000. Lin finished as the runner-up in this event during APT Taipei 2024 and has some work to do as he sits at the bottom of the pack tied with Leokoichiro Tamaru of Japan.

Quang Minh Nguyen

Quang Minh Nguyen of Vietnam won the APT Super High Roller during APT Taipei 2025 and may be the first one to win the event twice should he triumph come Day 2. Nguyen has a stack of 1,485,000 and is inside the top ten with a solid chance at making it to the final table.

There were three ladies who participated on Day 1, but unfortunately, WSOP International Circuit ring winner Yuxi Huang of China didn't make it through, bowing out in Level 15. Making it through were Japan's Yoko Sasaki with the fourth-largest stack at 1,775,000 and Thailand's Nirunrut Rachburom, who made good use of her max entries to bag 1,160,000.

Yoko Sasaki

Some of the big names who failed to make it through included 2025 GPI Player of The Year Punnat Punsri of Thailand, APT All-Time Money Leader Joseph Cheong of the USA, Natural8 Ambassador Nevan Chang of Taiwan, former APT Super High Roller winner Nguyen Trung Quan of Vietnam, and WSOP bracelet winner Alexandru Papazian of Romania among others.

Nevan Chang

A juicy champion's purse of KRW 396,317,500 (~USD 275,220) awaits the champion along with the coveted APT Pewter Lion trophy. The champion will also receive a seat to the APT Championship Main Event in Taipei at the end of the year worth around USD 10,000. The top 17 players will earn at least KRW 24,730,000 (~USD 17,175). With 23 players returning to Day 2, there will be 6 players who will be leaving empty-handed.

Play resumes on Sunday, February 1 at 11:15 AM local time. There will be a feature table and final table shown via 30-minute delayed live stream on the APT Official Youtube Channel.

Click HERE for the complete chip counts

Full Payouts

Be sure to check the APT Blog for all the latest action from this rest of the APT High Roller and other key events throughout the festival.

Play has been paused for the evening with the remaining 23 survivors bagging their chips. The 23 advancers to the Day 2 final will still have some work to do with only 17 spots left for a share of the prize pool.

Recap of the day's events to follow soon.

The clock has now been paused and the floor has announced that the players will be dealt five more hands before bagging up for the night and returning for day two tomorrow.

Quang Nguyen

Quang Nguyen moved all in for his last 135,000 from under the gun and was looked up by Dylan Foster, the last Australian standing.

Action folded to Nirunrut Rachburom in the small blind who went into the tank before she announced that she was also all in. Foster didn't take long to fold his cards showing A J .

Quang Nguyen: J T

Nirunrut Rachburom: 9 9

Not the flop Nguyen wanted to see of 5 9 8 but he was still drawing to a straight when the 6 peeled off as the turn.

The T came on the river to seal the deal for Rachburom's set of nines and Nguyen was sent to the rail.

Hon Cheong Lee

Hon Cheong Lee first lost most of his stack against Ryuta Nakai.

Lee committed his chips with pocket jacks, but ran into the aces of Nakai.

The board of 5 Q Q 4 3 offered no help for Lee and he paid off the 445,000 of Nakai to be crippled and left with just 35,000 chips.

A few hands later, he would shove those chips all-in from the cutoff. Paulius Plausinaitis would push in 50,000, but Ryan Plant on the small blind would shove all-in to isolate.

Plausinaitis would indeed fold and Lee went to showdown against Plant.

Hon Cheong Lee: 3 3

Ryan Plant: T T

Board ran T 3 Q A Q

Despite Lee hitting a full house, Plant hit a higher one to finally end Lee's run.

A Merry Christmas From Ren Lin

Ren Lin raised it up to 50,000 from the cutoff and was looked up by Leonard Ng in the big blind.

The dealer peeled off the flop of 8 5 5 and Lin continued for 25,000, Ng made the call.

The action went check check on the 2 turn for the dealer to flip over the 3 as the river.

Ng fired out for 50,000 and Lin made the call. Ng tabled K 8 for top pair and Lin tabled Q 9 for total air.

'Happy Christmas' exclaimed Lin, 'I thought I had an eight!'.

Jimmy Chun

According to the very professional and accommodating OG APT tournament director Jimmy Chun, the top three big stacks belong to:

Weiran Pu

Some more players who recently moved on to the other side of the rail include Chunlung Wong, Yuxi Huang, Alexandru Papazian, Atsushi Yokoyama, Yiheng Luo and Wiran Pu.

There are 29 players still with chips and a seat.

Nice Flop For Peng Deng

Peng Deng made it 40,000 to play from late position only to face a three-bet to 100,000 from Dung Nguyen in the hijack. Deng thought for a while and tossed in the call leaving himself about 100,000 behind.

The flop came 9 4 9 and Deng checked to Nguyen who bet out enough to put Deng all in. Deng snap called.

Peng Deng: 9 8

Dung Nguyen: A Q

No miracles for Nguyen on the 5 turn and 4 river and Deng was shipped the pot for a full double up.

Yosuke Miki

A rather heavy pot of 250,000 had been built pre-flop between Yosuke Miki from under the gun and Quang Dinh Do on the hijack.

The flop arrived K 6 Q

Miki tapped his option over to Do, who didn't shy from puttin in a chip worth 100,000.

Miki made an easy surrender, tapping the table for "nice hand" as he gave up his cards.