APTC Main Event sets new records as $1M+ first prize confirmed

Play will continue all week at Red Space in Taipei, Taiwan, until a winner is crowned on Friday.

The event is being run in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold'em Poker Club.

‘A milestone moment for poker in Asia on the world stage’

The season-ending Championship series here in Taipei is a new initiative for the tour, which has been going from strength to strength over the past few years with attendance and prizepool records falling on a regular basis.

In setting an ambitious Main Event guarantee of $5M, organizers were going all-in: the biggest ME prizepool the tour had ever awarded prior to this month was $3.73M, at APT Taipei in April. With the public confirmation of $5M in prize money they knew that, whatever happened, they would be setting a new prizepool record.

The question was, would that be covered by paid player entries, or could those ambitions backfire with a costly overlay — potentially running to millions of dollars?

Thanks to the enthusiastic participation of the players here in Taipei, that question has been answered in emphatic fashion.

“It’s a tremendous result and a milestone moment for poker in Asia on the world stage,” APT CEO Fred Leung told PokerOrg. “The support from the poker community has been amazing for Year 1 and we’re confident that there will be significant growth in the coming years.”

Fred Leung, right, was joined by commentator and player Henry Kilbane to announce the final prizepool to the room.

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Unmatched appetite

This year I’ve been fortunate enough to visit several major live poker events across the world, from the European Poker Tour in Monte Carlo to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, and while each series shares much in common, there are several factors which make the APT Championship a different beast.

And not all of them are obvious signposts to the type of success being celebrated today as the record-breaking numbers are confirmed.

The venue — Red Space in Taipei — is suitably large, clean, comfortable, centrally located, easy to find and surrounded by hotels. Staff and dealers are well-trained, professional, helpful and numerous. As plenty of players have told me, the games have been friendly, competitive and well-run.

But there’s no welcoming on-site bar, player lounge or ‘poker kitchen’. No 24/7 sportsbook around the corner, or TV screens showing live football, basketball or hockey. No smoking area with a view of the sun-kissed Mediterranean, or Bellagio fountains across the street.

What is here in abundance, is appetite.

There’s a buzz in the air, a steady stream of players moving quickly from the fast-moving lines at the registration desk to the many, many red-felted tables that take up almost every foot of floorspace in this functional temple of poker.

If it's not poker, it's not here.

It’s why a single tournament on Sunday generated a prizepool of $585K, larger than almost every APT Main Event of 2022 — but it wasn’t a trophy-awarding championship, it was a Main Event satellite. It’s why this series can host tournaments in obscure variants like ‘Rivers’, ‘Quadruple Super Stud’ and ‘Atomic Pineapple’, and draw good numbers for them all.

Unlike the tournament areas of the Horseshoe, you’ll find no banners hanging from the ceiling showing poker legends of days gone by. This is a celebration of what live poker is, not what it has been.

And as only the first incarnation of this new Championship series, it’s also surely a portent of what poker in the region will be. The bar has been set high, and it’s difficult to imagine where we go from here, but with the levels of appetite, enthusiasm and ambition on display — from both the players and those behind the scenes — I wouldn’t count on those records set today standing for long.

APTC runs to November 30, with the Main Event concluding on Friday, November 28. Stay with PokerOrg for all the news and updates from Taipei.

^{Images coutesy of the APT/Enzo Arceo.}