APT Championship Rewrites the Record Book for Live Poker in Asia

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Championship got here in with massive ambitions to push reside poker in Asia ahead. By the tip of the 17-day competition, it had finished precisely that. With a 20-event Championship schedule backed by nearly 200 aspect occasions, the APT delivered the form of sequence that felt like a step up for the area.

It additionally turned the most important Asian poker competition ever held. Greater than 28,000 entries got here via the doorways at Purple House in Taipei, and over $34 million was paid out, with gamers flying in from everywhere in the world to get a bit of it forward of December’s Huge Three.

Loads of data went down alongside the best way, and the APT walks out of 2025 trying like one of many excursions to look at heading into 2026.

As soon as the mud settled, a handful of occasions and performances stood out above the remainder. Right here’s how the largest tales of the APT Championship unfolded.

$10K Freezeout APT Championship Smashes Expectations

The inaugural APT Championship didn’t ease its manner into the schedule. A $10,300 freezeout with a $5 million assure is a daring strategy to introduce a brand new flagship occasion, however the danger was rewarded. The sector reached 671 entries and pushed the prize pool to $6,220,550, making it the largest $10K freezeout held outdoors Las Vegas within the final decade and a transparent signal that gamers had been prepared for it.

The ultimate desk additionally delivered the form of drama the APT hoped for. John Niko Costiniano’s fearless river bluff turned some of the shared moments of the competition and shortly gained traction as a hand of the 12 months contender. He went on to take second place for $732,780 after a breakout run.

Nishant Sharma closed it out for $1,186,880 and the Gold Lion APT Championship trophy, finishing a outstanding story after reserving his seat via a $1,700 satellite tv for pc. It now stands as the most important Important Occasion payout in APT historical past.

9 Occasions Hit Seven Figures as Prize Pool Data Tumble

One of many clearest indicators of how massive this competition actually was got here from the prize swimming pools alone. 9 occasions cleared the $1 million mark. Outdoors of the Championship freezeout, occasions such because the The Extremely Stack, Natural8 Cup, Tremendous Excessive Curler, Celebrity Championship, Mini Important, Excessive Curler Championship, Mini Excessive Curler and even a later excessive curler aspect occasion all joined the million-plus membership. It was the deepest lineup of seven-figure tournaments the tour has ever produced.

The competition managed to interrupt the APT file for the richest non-Important Occasion prize pool and high prize twice in 24 hours, and 3 times total.

The primary leap got here when Roman Hrabec gained the Tremendous Excessive Curler for the most important non-Important Occasion payout in tour historical past. That mark lasted a single day, with Calvin Lee overtaking it within the Celebrity Championship. Hrabec no less than held on to the file for richest non-Important Occasion event for nearly every week, till Toby Joyce claimed the Excessive Curler Championship. That occasion hit TWD 75.7 million (about USD 2.4 million), making it the largest non-Important Occasion prize pool the APT has ever run.

Asian Poker Tour (APT) Championship 2025 Winners

What’s Coming in 2026

For those who missed out on the APT’s breakout 12 months, the 2026 season leaves little or no room for excuses. The tour turns twenty subsequent 12 months and is marking the milestone with a packed schedule that exhibits precisely how daring its ambitions are.

5 main stops throughout Jeju, Taipei and Incheon are already locked in and the APT has made it clear it needs to maintain pushing the sport ahead in Asia. To try this, it can want the continued help of the poker neighborhood that helped flip this 12 months’s championship into the largest competition the area has ever seen. If the momentum holds, 2026 has each probability of changing into one other defining 12 months for the tour.

APT 2026 Key Dates

APT Jeju Traditional 2026: Jan 30–Feb 8 — Jeju Shinhwa WorldAPT Taipei 2026: Apr 22–Could 3 — Purple SpaceAPT Incheon 2026: Aug 7–16 — Paradise CityAPT Jeju 2026: Sep 25–Oct 4 — Jeju Shinhwa WorldAPT Championship 2026: Nov 13–29 — Purple House

Calum has been part of the PokerNews crew since September 2021 after working within the UK power sector. He performed his first hand of poker in 2017 and instantly fell in love with the sport.

Calum has written for numerous poker retailers however discovered his house at PokerNews, the place he has contributed to numerous articles and reside updates, offering insights and reporting on main poker occasions, together with the World Collection of Poker (WSOP).