APT MANILA CLASSIC 2025 SCHEDULE| OFFICIAL RESULTS | PLAYER LISTS | IMAGES | WINNERS

MANILA, PHILIPPINES, February 10, 2025 — The APT Manila Classic 2025, run in partnership with the Metro Card Club, keeps delivering on the high octane tournament action as the festival enters its fourth day. Once again the tournament tables in the Grand Ballroom of the prestigious Crowne Plaza Galleria were packed out with a total of thirteen events running over the course of the day.

In addition to Flight B of the PHP 60,000 (~USD 1,030) Main Event, the crowds were also in to watch the thrilling conclusion of the record-breaking PHP 600,000 (~USD 10,300) APT Super High Roller, with Germany’s Tobias Schwecht claiming his first live APT tournament title and the third-largest non-Main Event first place prize the tour has ever awarded in the country.

Schwecht also become the first player to book poker’s hottest ticket to the tour’s end of year extravaganza—the TWD 350,000 (~USD 10,700) **APT Championship (APTC)**—which boasts a hefty TWD 165 million (~USD 5 million) guarantee and runs from November 14 to 30, 2025 in Taipei, Taiwan.

Day 1 of the brand-new PHP 120,000 (~USD 2,060) Event #32 High Roller – Ultra Stack also garnered a great deal of attention and you will be able to read all about that in today’s side event press release.

Main Event Action

It was Flight B of the Main Event that proved to be the biggest draw of the day, with the action getting underway at 11am local time (GMT+8) and 270 entries (208 unique) anteing up and battling at the baize over six 45-minute levels and four 60-minute levels. This brings the total number of entries up to 690 with two more flights left to play.

Of these 270 hopefuls, 105 found a chip bag at the end of the evening’s play. It was Germany’s Lars Kamphues who topped the flight; despite losing a sizable pot after running ace-queen into the pocket kings of Pawnat Inthuyos close to the end of the last level played to double the Thai player up Kamphues finished strong, pushing China’s Lifu Huang off a big pot to win just over 60,000 in chips without showdown and conclude the action at the top of the Flight B leaderboard with a stack of 259,800.

Guam’s Joshua Chargualaf concluded the action a close second in the counts, filling his chip bag with a stack of 252,900, with the Philippines’ Weslian Alvaran rounding out the top three with a stack of 215,700.

Other notables to finish with a top ten stack included local legend **David “Spade” Erquiaga** who will be looking to replicate his deep Main Event run from the recent APT Phu Quoc 2024 where he brought the chip lead into the final table, eventually finishing in fifth for VND 1,202,500,000 (~USD 47,340). Erquiaga ended the Flight B action seventh in the counts with a stack of 205,800.

APT Manila 2024 National Cup champion Marco Espela is another local who runs well at APT Manila events, bagging up 201,900 in chips to bring through into Day 2.

Another former APT champion to bag big was APT Incheon 2023 High Roller winner Thanisorn Saelor, with the Thai player sitting on a 200,500 stack after the tournament clock ticked into the red.

MAIN EVENT TOP TEN FLIGHT B STACKS

Several former APT Main Event champions fought their way through to Day 2, with the Philippines’ Vamerdino Magsakay following up his Event #11: Single Day High Roller - Mystery Bounty win with a hot run at the Main Event tournament tables to bag up 197,500 in chips.

Two-time Main Event winner Lester Edoc (88,000) also made it through, as did Natural8 Ambassador and APT Taipei Main Event champion Punnat Punsri (73,400), who jumped straight into the Main Event action after finishing eighth in the APT Super High Roller for a PHP 1,656,000 (~USD 28,455) payday.

Other notables to make the Day 2 cut included Hong Kong’s Stephen Lai (197,000), the Philippines’ Florencio Campomanes (195,600), the Netherland’s Joris Michl (185,200), Philippines National Cup champion Raju Jaruplavath (114,100), Germany’s Martin Finger (103,900), Hong Kong’s Sparrow Cheung (87,600), and APT Manila 2024 High Roller champion Daniel Neilson (67,300).

For Main Event Flight B Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Flight Survivors please CLICK HERE

With two more starting flights left to play out, there are still opportunities for those unsuccessful in their endeavors to win their way through. The final two starting Flights C & D —both boasting six 30-minute levels and four 40-minute levels each— get underway on Tuesday, February 11, at 11am and 6pm respectively local time, although late registration remains open until the start of Day 2, which kicks off at 11am on Wednesday, February 12.

You can follow all the action as it played out via the APT Blog.

All tournament information can be found on the Main Event - Flight B tournament page.

Germany’s Tobias Schwecht Wins Record-Breaking APT Super High Roller

Claims First APTC Ticket & PHP 12.1M (~USD 208K) Top Prize

APT Super High Roller champion Tobias Schwecht

Just 16 players returned for the Final Day of the record-breaking APT Super High Roller out of a field of 81 entries (58 unique) – the largest Philippines-based field this tournament has ever attracted.

These high rolling hopefuls were playing for a share of the second richest APT non-Main Event prize pool generated in the country—a hefty PHP 44,784,900 (~USD 769,500) purse—although with only the top 11 places played, five of them would be departing empty handed.

The action played out over ten 40-minute levels, with Australia’s Yoon Koo Kang, Germany’s Nils Pudel, Serbia’s Vlada Stojanovic, Austria’s Samuel Muller, and China’s Zhen Chen all hitting the rail in the first three 40-minute levels played, and in that order, to guarantee the remaining field a tournament cash of at least PHP 1,104,000 (~USD 18,970).

It was Scott Margereson leading the pack at the start of play, with the Brit looking to win his first live tournament title on Asian soil.

Natural8 Ambassador and APT Taipei 2023 Main Event champion Punnat Punsri and APT Manila 2024 APT Super High Roller champion William Teoh were also in the mix, with the duo both looking to make APT history and become the first player to claim a second signature award-winning APT lion trophy.

William Teoh and Punnat Punsri face off

Punsri was looking to collect a Pewter Lion to accompany his Gold Lion Main Event trophy, and Teoh was looking to win back-to-back APT Super High Roller titles.

Unfortunately for all three, these dreams went unfulfilled with Punsri falling at the hands of third-place finisher I-Chun “Charlie” Chiu and hitting the rail in eighth place for PHP 1,656,000 (~USD 28,455), with Teoh also falling victim to the Taiwanese player later that same level to bust in seventh place for PHP 2,119,000 (~USD 36,410).

Margereson came the closest to realising his dream, but fell victim to eventual champion Tobias Schwecht after the latter rivered a disguised two pair to hit the rail in fourth place for PHP 4,349,000 (~USD 74,725) and Schwecht moved up to second in the counts.

While it was Chiu in the driving seat with the chip lead a key hand played out that changed everything; Schwecht called Chiu’s all-in shove on a nine-high flop with top pair only to discover the latter had him on the ropes with pocket tens.

However, a nine on the turn flipped the script giving the German the chip lead and the momentum and Schwecht punched Chiu’s ticket three hands later to take play heads-up against Australia’s Ricky Huang.

Schwecht came into the heads-up confrontation with over a three-to-one chip lead he would not relinquish, with the match all wrapped up in four hands with the German player winning three of them, padding out his over USD 2.5 million in live tournament winnings with the PHP 12,143,900 (~USD 208,658) top prize – the third largest the tour has ever awarded in the country.

“Until heads up it was like just a huge rollercoaster,” Schwecht stated in his post-match interview, “And then I got really lucky; just before the heads up is where I suddenly spun up my stack. Getting into that spot I was feeling really good, just because I felt like I had the momentum on my side.”

“Poker is booming here in Asia in general and the APT just gets bigger and bigger fields, a lot of great tournaments. So that's why I came here, and I was not disappointed,” a buoyant Schwecht confided.

In addition to claiming his first live tournament title on Asian soil, his maiden APT title and the third-largest cash of his live poker career, Schwecht also became the first player to claim his place in the tour’s end of year extravaganza - the TWD 350,000 (~USD 10,700) **APT Championship (APTC)**.

“It sounds great. The last time I was in Taipei, I thought the city is really great. I really love it there, so I'm excited to go back and the series it sounds like it will be a lot of fun in the huge tournaments, so looking forward to it.”

APT SHR RESULTS

For APT Super High Roller Results please CLICK HERE

You can read about all the action via the APT Blog or watch it as it played out via the APT Super High Roller Live Stream on the official APT YouTube channel.

All tournament information can be found on the APT Super High Roller Final Day tournament page.