Sun scorches the field in red-hot APT Jeju Main Event finale

Jianfeng Sun ran hot, but kept his cool.

He’s been here before — literally — reaching the final table of the APT Jeju Main Event back in 2024. Then, he finished as runner-up to his countryman Xixiang Luo.

This time, he went one better to scoop the prestigious gold mega lion trophy reserved for APT Main Event winners.

Sun grabs the lion, Ng takes the lion’s share

There’s only one small shadow on a day when Sun shone near continuously; at the moment when play reached the heads-up phase, he had momentarily lost the chip lead to his opponent, Steve Ng of Singapore.

It was at that moment that play was paused and an ICM deal agreed. Ng was ahead by some 33M to Sun’s 20M, and locked up the larger share of $334K. Sun took $300K, and the pair agreed to play for the additional $17.5K and the trophy.

The two finalists quickly agreed an ICM chop.

It wouldn’t take long for Sun to regain the lead he’d held for so long and power through to the win. So while Sun gets the lion trophy, Ng leaves with the lion’s share.

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3 KOs in 20 hands

It was a final table dominated by Chinese players, and won by China’s Sun, but 4 of the 5 men from China would be the first ones to hit the rail. And it wouldn’t take long.

First to go was Shuang Qiu (8th, $39K), on just the 4th hand of the day. Dealt , he got all his chips in the middle preflop against Sun’s .

All he had to do was fade an ace. Spoiler: he didn’t. The board ran out . It may have been painful, but at least it was quick.

Shuang Qiu's day was over after just 4 hands.

It would not be long before Erdun Xu (7th, $55K) followed him to the payout desk. A shortstack from the get-go, Xu found under the gun and figured it was good enough with which to make a stand. Ng looked him up with , and his ace-high was all it took after the board brought no improvement to either of them.

Then, another Chinese casualty as Jiawei Wan understandably put his last 12 big blinds in preflop with . Weimin Chen had pocket jacks, and they held.

Wan (6th, $73K) was the third player out within the first 20 hands of the day. 8 were down to 5, and it was barely lunchtime.

Flopped trips can’t hold for Chen

There was no meal-break, though, and Sun was clearly hungry for more. He continued to chip up, opening up a growing lead — and plenty of pots.

The ICM implications couldn’t be ignored, as the pay jumps grew larger and more significant. It would likely take a cooler to separate a player from the bunch, and that’s just what happened.

With blinds at 125K/250K with a 250K big blind ante, Sun opened for a min-raise from the hijack, which had become a regular occurrence. Ng called from the button, and Chen defended his big blind.

Sun:
Ng:
Chen:

Flop:

The stoic Chen contained his excitement as he checked, Sun bet 575K and Ng made it 1.2M to go. Chen raised to 2.4M, Sun folded and Ng called.

If the on the turn was a red flag, Chen wasn’t ready to surrender. He check-raised Ng’s bet of 2M for the rest of his stack, 6.2M.

With the nut flush, Ng insta-called. Chen had full house outs, but the on the river wasn’t one of them.

Chen (5th, $97K) was out, leaving Sun as the sole surviving Chinese player left in the mix against Ng and Kwang Chung Tan, of Singapore, and Ireland’s Toby Joyce.

Chen flopped it all, then lost it all.

The lead changes hands at the wrong time for Sun

Ng started to build a lead of his own, which was bolstered when he added Joyce’s chips to his stack after a good old-fashioned flip.

With in the small blind, Ng open-shoved to set Joyce all-in in the big. Joyce had , certainly good enough to stand up to Ng’s aggression, and the race was on.

The runout was no help to the Irishman, as the board came down leaving Ng’s pocket nines in front.

Joyce (4th, $124K) collected his winnings, then pulled up a chair in the APT High Roller, joining players including Erdun Xu for one more shot at a mega lion this trip.

No time to spare: Toby Joyce hopped straight into the APT High Roller.

That left Tan as the short stack still mixing it with the two giants, and it wasn’t long before he himself hit the rail. Holding , Ng opened from the button with a min-raise, and Tan defended with , and very few chips behind.

The flop of was pretty much exactly what Tan was hoping for.

He was quick to get the rest of his chips in, Ng was quick to call, and the on the turn was quick to turn things upside down.

The on the river was not the 5 or 6 Tan needed, and he too was out (3rd, $168K — plus a $10K ticket to the APT Championship Main Event).

Sun comes out on top in heads-up duel

The journey from the start of the final table to heads-up took a little over four hours. Ng had Sun outstacked by around 33M to 20M, and the players paused to agree their ICM chop, with Ng capitalising on his lead to lay a claim to the bigger chunk.

With blinds still at 150K/300K, both players had plenty of ammunition. That’s the thing about a fast final table; it can end with a very deep-stacked heads-up clash.

In the end, though, it would not be a marathon finish to a day that started with a sprint. Play began cagily, but soon the Sun came out.

Steve Ng didn't get the trophy, but did get the most money.

With the same aggression he’d displayed all day, the man from China took swing after swing at Ng, eventually regaining the lead and turning the screws on his opponent.

The end came after 90 minutes of heads-up play, and just 90 hands into the final day. Having steadily built a lead of around 45M to 9M, Sun 3-bet Ng’s button open for the rest of his stack. Ng called off with . Sun had .

It was the first all-in-and-call between the pair, and it would be the last. Ng needed a king or a ten, but the runout of was clean for Sun.

Ng, who made the final table of the APT Taipei Main Event back in 2024, notched a new career best of $334K thanks to the ICM deal.

Sun, who also has prior experience in the APT Main Event having finished runner-up here in Jeju in 2024, now knows what it takes to see off a huge tournament field and emerge victorious. He takes home $317,500, the mega lion and a $10K ticket to the APT Championship Main Event.

Now that's what I call a Sun run.

Note that dollar amounts have been converted from Korean won, are approximate and correct at time of writing.

^{Additional images courtesy of the APT.}