• Natural8 Ambassador Nevan Chang Wins Monster-Sized Mini Main Event Championship for TWD 7M (~USD 227K)

• High Roller Championship Draws 108 Day 1 Entries; Vietnam’s Xoa Nguyen Thi Leads

APT CHAMPIONSHIP 2025 SCHEDULE | OFFICIAL RESULTS | PLAYER LISTS | LIVE REPORTING | IMAGES | WINNERS

TAIPEI, TAIWAN, November 27, 2025 – The biggest and richest USD 10K buy-in tournament to run outside of Las Vegas in the last decade, and the largest and wealthiest ever to run in Asia has reached the final table.

Playing out at the tournament tables of the cavernous Red Space 多元商務空間 and run in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP), Day 4 of the record-breaking TWD 311,000 (~USD 10,000) APT Championship Main Event Freezeout has seen the initial 671 entries reduced down to the final nine players.

Just 34 players returned for Day 4 and the action played out over five 90-minute levels, with the elimination of Singapore’s Jun Hao Wu at the hands of India’s Nishant Sharma concluding Day 4 with 66 minutes remaining on level 28.

Wu headed to the payout counter to collect a top four career score of TWD 2,484,200 (~USD 79,620 for tenth, while Sharma bagged up a tournament topping stack of 9,125,000 – valued at 152 big blinds.

All nine finalists are guaranteed to earn at least TWD 3,047,100 (~USD 97,660), from the gigantic TWD 194,080,973 (~USD 6,220,550) prize pool—the richest in APT history—with the top eight all claiming USD six-figure scores; the top three will all bank upwards of half a million dollars or more.

However, it is the Gold Lion APT Championship Main Event Trophy and the massive TWD 37,030,773 (~USD 1,186,880) top prize—the largest Main Event payout the tour has ever awarded—that all will be playing for, with the eventual champion immortalised in the APT history books for winning the inaugural APT Championship Main Event.

The Gold Lion APT Championship Main Event Trophy

If Sharma wins he will become only the third-ever Indian player to cash for over USD 1 million in a single tournament, although first he must overcome a fearsome final table lineup.

Dominik Nitsche sits second in the counts with a sizable 7,125,000 stack (119 big blinds) – the UK-based German professional is a formidable opponent, especially with a big stack.

Whatever happens, the four-time bracelet winner is guaranteed to move into the top five on the German All Time Money List, and Nitsche will be looking to claim his maiden APT title on the tour’s biggest stage.

Dominik Nitsche is hunting his maiden APT title

Neng Zhao rounds out the top three, and will be returning with 4,195,000 in chips – valued at 70 big blinds. The Australian player has already secured his best-ever live cash and is on the hunt for a second career APT title.

Bubble burster John Costiniano battled back from a short stack to conclude the day in the top four, and has the experience of playing at APT Main Event final tables having finished in third place in the APT Manila 2024 Main Event. A seventh place finish or above will grant the Filipino a career-best score.

Local Hao Chuang (3,345,000) is already guaranteed a career-best result and is returning fifth in the counts. Chuang will be looking to improve on his fifth place finish in the Ultrastack Championship and claim his maiden APT title.

Both Matas Cimbolas (2,370,000), and Alexandru Papazian (1,530,000) are hugely accomplished players, sitting second and first respectively on the Lithuanian and Romanian All Time Money Lists and are two more looking to make their maiden APT titles wins memorable.

Hao Shan Huang won his way into the Main Event for USD 350

Start-of-day chip leader Hao Shan Huang (1,395,000) has seen his once mighty stack reduced, but is still in with a shout of earning his first APT title. The former Magic the Gathering professional has already more-than doubled his previous best live cash, and is also set to make a huge ROI having won his way through via a USD 350 Step 1 satellite.

Even for a ninth place cash Huang will make a massive 27,802 percent return on investment, and should he spin up his 23 big blind stack and win then this will rise to a staggering 339,008 percent ROI.

Last, but by no means least, is Martin Finger (635,000), and while the German bracelet winner has his work cut out for him with an 11 big blind stack, should he manage to find an early double up then Finger will add a second APT title to his stacked poker resume.

Front (L-R): Hao Shan Huang, Matas Cimbolas, Alexandru Papazian, Martin Finger Back (L-R): Nishant Sharma, Hao Chuang, Dominik Nitsche, Neng Zhao, John Costiniano

MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE STACKS

For Main Event Final Table Player Profiles please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Final Table Draw please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Day 4 Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Results please CLICK HERE

All tournament information can be found on the APT Championship Main Event Freezeout Day 4 tournament page and you can follow all the action via the Main Event Day 4 APT Blog.

You can also watch all the action as it happened via the Main Event Day 4 live stream on the official APT YouTube channel. The Final Day will play out at 11:15am on Friday, November 28.

Natural8 Ambassador Nevan Chang Wins Monster-Sized Mini Main Event Championship for TWD 7M (~USD 227K)

Natural8 Ambassador claimed his ninth career APT title in the Mini Main Event Championship

The only thing mini about the TWD 35,000 (~USD 1,120) Mini Main Event Championship is the fact it is a scaled down version of the Main Event, and there was nothing mini about the field it drew.

The tournament attracted a monster-sized 1,603-entry field (771 uniques) over the four starting flights—the third largest field of the festival—with 227 players making it through to the Final Day and the paying positions.

All returning players were guaranteed a payout of at least TWD 54,500 (~USD 1,750), but it was the exclusive Pewter Lion Championship Trophy and the lion’s share of the sizable TWD 48,474,720 (~USD 1,553,675) prize pool—the third-richest of the festival so far—that all were aiming for.

It took a gruelling fourteen 35-minute levels to reach the final table, which was a real treat for the watching rail, featuring Natural8 Ambassador Yu Chung “Nevan” Chang, Natural8 Cup runner-up Rob Hollink, Mixed Game championship winner Wei Kai Lin, Taiwan’s #5 ranked tournament player Justin Chu, and two-time APT titleist Raiden Kan – with the latter coming in with the chip lead.

Seated (L-R): Justin Chu, Wei Kai Lin, Nevan Chang, Raiden Kan Standing (L-R): Kwok Chun Ng, Chang Fu Hung, Rob Hollink, Joel Singam, Soobum Kim

However, in the end after a further seven levels, it was Chang who hoisted the trophy and claimed a TWD 7,085,620 (~USD 227,100) top prize, overcoming Malaysia’s Joel Singam heads-up.

The two cut a deal once play reached two-handed, with Chang locking up TWD 6,712,038 (~USD 215,130), and Singham locking up TWD 6,250,000 (~USD 200,320), with a further TWD 373,582 (~USD 11,970) plus the trophy left to play for.

Taiwan’s Chu rounded out the top three podium places, earning TWD 3,370,300 (~USD 108,020) for third place, while Hollink (4th), who has already earned an APT title this festival, made TWD 2,451,500 (~USD 78,575) for his fifth final table showing of the series.

Kan was unable to convert his initial final table lead into a third tour title, exiting in fifth place for TWD 1,940,600 (~USD 62,200), and Lin was unable to recreate the run of form that saw him win Event #8, exiting in eighth place for TWD 820,900 (~USD 26,310).

MINI MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE RESULTS

For Mini Main Event Final Day Player List please CLICK HERE

For Mini Main Event Results please CLICK HERE

Notables to cash but come up short of the final table included Natural8 Ambassador Hua-Wei Lin (11th for TWD 525,700), Hong Kong’s Kevin Lam (19th for TWD 321,300), Taiwan’s Chein-Chih “Maggie” Weng (25th for 225,500), Hong Kong’s Vincent Li (TWD 193,100), Austria’s Matthias Lipp (45th for TWD 137,600), Germany’s Daniel Smiljkovic (72nd for TWD 94,300), Belgium’s Kristof Segers (107th for TWD 81,600), Hong Kong’s Alan Lau (115th for TWD 81,600), and Singapore’s Dhanesh Chainani (154th for TWD 62,900), and Cypriot bracelet winner Georgios Skarparis (207th for TWD 57,500) to name but a few.

Several past APT champions also cashed: APT Summer Series Da Nang Main Event champion Shixiang Khoo (36th for TWD 165,100), APT Summer Series Da Nang Super High Roller champion Julian Warhurst (56th for 110,500), APT Incheon Main Event winner Junjie He (64th for TWD 110,500), former Main Event champion Dicky Tsang (156th for TWD 62,900), and APT Taipei 2025 Main Event winner Akira Takasugi (224th for TWD 54,500).

All tournament information can be found on the Mini Main Event Championship Final Day tournament page and you can follow all the action via the Mini Main Event Championship Final Day APT Blog.

High Roller Championship Draws 108 Day 1 Entries; Vietnam’s Xoa Nguyen Thi Leads

Xoa Nguyen Thi is looking for her maiden tournament title in the High Roller Championship

Awarding the last of the festival’s exclusive Rose Gold Lion APT Championship Trophies, the three-day TWD 466,000 (~USD 14,935) High Roller Championship got underway at 12pm local time (TST) drawing an initial 108 entries (87 unique).

Like it’s Super High Rolling bigger brother, the High Roller Championship field was filled with quality players, and in addition to the champion of the former, Roman Hrabec, the likes of Austria’s Samuel Muller, former Main Event champion Punnat Punsri, the USA’s Dylan Linde and a whole host of others were in the thick of the action.

After ten 60-minute levels just 52 players were left in the running, although with late registration remaining open until the start of level 12 at 12:30pm on Friday, November 28, the field is expected to increase in size.

It was Vietnam’s Xoa Nguyen Thi who bagged the Day 1 chip lead, vaulting into the tournament top spot on the last level played after eliminating Austria’s Friedl Siegfried in a brutal aces versus kings battle between the two.

Thi, who will be returning with a stack of 646,000, is followed by Canada’s Gabriel Le Jossec (517,500) as the second largest stack, with Ireland’s Toby Joyce, Muller, and Vietnam’s Quang Minh Nguyen all tied for the #3 spot with 384,500 in chips, with the top ten as follows:

HIGH ROLLER CHAMPIONSHIP TOP TEN DAY 1 STACKS

For High Roller Championship Day 1 Player List please CLICK HERE

For High Roller Championship Day 1 Survivors please CLICK HERE

For High Roller Championship Day 2 Draw please CLICK HERE

Of the aforementioned notables, Linde (280,500), Punsri (160,500), and Hrabec (116,000) all made the Day 2 cut.

Other big names still in the running include Super High Roller Championship runner-up Alex Wice (260,000), APT All Time Money List #1 Joseph Cheong (238,000), Natural8 Ambassador Kannapong Thanarattrakul (221,500), APT Jeju Main Event champion Abraham Ceesvin (201,000), and Danny Tang (107,000).

Day 2 restarts the action at 11:15am local time on Friday, November 28, with a further ten 60-minute levels on the schedule, with the Final Day getting underway at 11:15am on Saturday, November 29 with a live stream available on the official APT YouTube channel.