APT Championship Day 5; Daily Recap and Highlights

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN, November 18, 2025 – Day 5 of the APT Championship 2025 brought another full slate of action inside Red Space, with three major Championship Events unfolding across the floor. The last two flights of the #1003 [Event 3] Ultra Stack Championship played out today, giving players their final chance to secure a spot for the Final Day. In addition, the #1004 [Event 4] 7-Max Championship reached its conclusion and crowned a new champion.

Rounding out the day’s headline action was Day 1 of the #1005 [Event 5] PLO Championship, a perennial favourite among our high rollers. With big stacks, big swings, and plenty more still to come, Day 5 continued to deliver action and competition that has defined the APTC thus far.

Championship Heat Rises Across the Floor

The 7-Max Championship concluded today, and Malaysian Choi Eng Loong took that down. His reward for a long and grueling final day was TWD 4,275,460, in addition to a ticket to the APTC Main Event. You can read more about his road to the title in our live reports here.

Choi Eng Loong will take on the summit at the APTC Main Event

On to the other Championship events, the PLO Championship managed to build the richest-ever prize pool for a PLO event in APT history. The Ultra Stack Championship meanwhile gathered 1,867 entries, the second largest field at the Championship so far after the National Cup championship on Day 1.

At the felts, APT blogger Kai Cocklin caught up with Abhinav Iyer, the 2019 APT Ho Chi Minh Main Event champion, who is back on familiar ground this week and grinding his way through Flight D of the Ultra Stack Championship. With deep roots in the Asian circuit and a strong affinity for its biggest stages, he arrived in Taipei ready to dive into another full APT series.

Looking back on his 2019 win, Iyer reflected on just how far the tour has come since then. “It’s been a while since I won! I’ve always been a fan of APT. That was my first ‘big win’, as people like to call it,” he said. “Since the new era started, there have been major improvements in the structure and the way tournaments are run. It’s not happening every month where people get overloaded. It happens five or six times a year, which is great because you can plan a proper schedule.”

Abhinav Iyer is looking forward to playing the full schedule of the APTC, as well as looking forward to next year’s tour

Iyer also praised the direction and vision that have shaped the tour’s recent growth. “The new era has taken over, and now as you can see, the numbers have become bigger. They’re growing the game in the right way,” he noted. “They’ve also started doing a lot of mixed games, which is great. I think the new era has really changed the game for Asia and Asian poker.”

You can catch the rest of the interview here.

The side events also saw some love by APTC attendees, with four events going past the hundred-mark, including the Single Day High Roller - Mystery Bounty event, covered below.

Hishinuma Claims First APT Title in SDHR Mystery Bounty

Hishinuma’s first career title comes in a high roller event

Japan’s Hikaru Hishinuma captured her first career title and first APT title in Event #46: Single Day High Roller – Mystery Bounty, rising above a 129-entry field to claim TWD 1,907,580 (USD 61,723).

Fellow countryman Hajime Watanabe came close to claiming his second APT title, ultimately finishing runner-up for TWD 1,788,300 (USD 57,880). The all-Japanese podium was completed by Jun Obara, the well-known pro who was chasing his fourth APT title but settled for third, taking home TWD 806,400 (USD 26,095).

Meanwhile, Shiina Okamoto narrowly missed out on her first final table of the APT Championship series, bowing out in 10th place just short of the final nine. Malaysian pro Wai Kiat Lee meanwhile can add a final table to his APTC record here, eventually finishing in seventh.

Single Day High Roller - Mystery Bounty Final Table Payouts