A record-breaking field of 2,547 turned out to the Red Space in Taipei, Taiwan for what was the largest and richest Asian Poker Tour Main Event in the 19-year history of the tour.
Akira Takasugi beat Macau's Iat Man Leong in heads-up play at a final table that also included chip leader Wayne Lam and Dang Thi Hue, the lone female player on the final day and the only former APT Main Event champion.
Kuo falls short
It was a near dream run for Kitty Kuo, who entered the penultimate day as the chip leader with 48 players left. Trouble started early in the second to last day for Kuo when she surrendered a double in the second level of the day. She lost again in a hand against Marcus Law and his pocket aces before the aforementioned Hue scored a huge double from her with a backdoor flush.
Kitty Kuo fell short of a final table run. The sequence sent Kuo to the middle of the pack and she eventually bowed out in 21st place.
Takasugi dominates
A slow start to the final table set up Rintaro Kagawa's 10th-place finish before Hue was out in ninth. The rest of the field made their way to the payout desk and set up a final three between Leong, Takasugi, and final day chip leader Lam. Takasugi dominated throughout and built was proved to be an insurmountable chip lead.
Leong tried everything. Lam, who played the part of aggressor for most of the day, was tied with Leong at the base of Takasugi's big pile of chips. He soon ran into Leong's pocket queens and the final two were set with Takasugi holding a two-to-one advantage.
The advantage grew quickly and Leong got it in with queen-deuce in a last ditch effort, but Takasugi held on with king-six to raise the trophy.
Largest-ever APT Main Event
Takasugi's victory wraps the largest and richest Main Event in APT history, with a prize pool of TWD 121,033,440 (~$3.7 million):
- Flight A: 541 entries
- Flight B: 506 entries
- Flight C: 486 entries
- Flight D: 344 entries
- Day 2 registrations: 140
The event breaks the previous Main Event mega-turnouts by APT Hanoi Billions, which held 2,350 players in 2023, and the previous record-breaking APT Taipei Main Event in 2024. The next largest event is the APT Mania Classic from earlier in 2025 with 1,202 players.
Everyone will return again in what is already guaranteed to be a richer event in November: the APT Championship Main Event. Players can qualify all season long for their chance at a TWD 165,000,000 prize pool (~$5 million).
In the mean time, the APT will stop in Incheon in August and Jeju in September.
APT Taipei Main Event final table results
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize (TWD) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Akira Takasugi | Japan | 19,009,440* | $586,710 |
| 2 | Iat Man Leong | Macau | 10,133,000* | 312,750 |
| 3 | Wayne Lam | Hong Kong | 6,867,000* | $211,950 |
| 4 | Shinichiro Kano | Japan | 5,292,500 | $163,350 |
| 5 | Nishant Kumar | India | 4,419,500 | $136,400 |
| 6 | Kiwanont Sukhum | Thailand | 3,564,000 | $110,000 |
| 7 | Rintaro Kagawa | Japan | 2,721,500 | $84,000 |
| 8 | Owen Chong | Malaysia | 1,969,000 | $60,770 |
| 9 | Dang Thi Hue | Vietnam | 1,500,000 | $46,300 |
*- also receives TWD 350,000 APTC Main Event seat
Images courtesy of the Asian Poker Tour.
