The Asian Poker Tour Championship (APTC) series in Taipei may be only a few days old, but it's already making waves in terms of massive fields and huge prizes, not to mention some new names on the freshly-designed winners’ trophies.
Ruiko Mamiya is one of those names, following victory in the TWD 15,000 (approx. USD $495) buy-in National Cup Championship. The former poker dealer from Japan overcame a record 2,398 entries — the largest side event field in APT history — to win the prestigious Pewter Lion trophy alongside a payout of TWD 3,087,700 (~USD $102K).
In doing so she also becomes only the third female winner of an APT marquee event, following APT Main Event winners Kitty Kuo and Dang Thi Hue, and the first female winner of an open event at the APTC.
Mamiya, who reached the final table of the $2,500 Limit O8 event at last summer’s WSOP, was the shortest of the final three stacks on Sunday when play was paused to discuss a deal. With a near-even chop agreed, she quickly turned the tide, eliminating her last two opponents to get her hands on the trophy and the slightly larger share of the prizepool.
Hong Kong’s Wilfred Yiu and Taiwan’s Wei Chun Kuo each received around USD $100K for their 3rd and 2nd place finishes, respectively.
Record-breaking field beats guarantee partway through starting flights
The TWD 12 million guarantee for this event — around USD $396K — was quickly blown out of the water as it attracted an enormous field of players from around the region, and across the world.
That guarantee was more than covered after just three of the event’s five starting flights, with another 990 entries on Day 1D and 1E pushing the prizepool to a final TWD 29,855,675 (~USD $985K).
The record 2,398 entries makes the 2025 National Cup Championship the largest field in the 19-year history of the tour outside of the Main Event, beating the previous record of 2,305 recorded at last year’s APT Taipei National Cup. The prizepool also makes it the third richest non-High Roller event that the tour has put on.
“For tournaments in this buy-in range, I had the impression that it was mostly amateurs,” Mamiya shared with the APT in her post-victory interview, “but today there were pros whose faces I recognized sitting in the field. It really made me realize firsthand how popular and highly regarded this tournament is.”
Having won her first APT title a few months ago in a 7-card stud side event in Jeju, Mamiya does not consider herself a hold’em specialist.
“I almost never enter no-limit hold’em tournaments where you can win a trophy,” she told reporters. “I never expected that I would actually win one myself. I’m really happy.”
She’ll have another chance to play hold’em for big bucks thanks to the TWD 311,000 (~USD $10K) APTC Main Event seat she picked up as National Cup Championship winner.
There’s TWD 156,000,000 — or over USD $5M — guaranteed when that kicks off on November 24.
The APTC is running now until November 30. Stay with PokerOrg for all the latest news directly from the tournament floor at Red Space in Taipei.
APT 2025 TWD 15,000 National Cup Championship — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ruiko Mamiya |
TWD 3,087,700 ($101,905) |
| 2 | Wei Chun Kuo |
TWD 3,025,000 ($99,835) |
| 3 | Wilfred Yiu |
TWD 3,036,000 ($100,200) |
| 4 | Wing Fai Kwan |
TWD 1,333,500 ($44,010) |
| 5 | Florencio Campomanes |
TWD 1,113,300 ($36,740) |
| 6 | I Hsuan Wu |
TWD 898,000 ($29,640) |
| 7 | Tsz Him Chan |
TWD 686,300 ($22,650) |
| 8 | Kevin Tang |
TWD 495,000 ($16,340) |
| 9 | Shiuan Cen Chang |
TWD 377,200 ($12,450) |
Images courtesy of the Asian Poker Tour.
