The Asian Poker Tour is wrapping up its time in Incheon, South Korea, on Sunday after its latest tremendously successful series.
Across 10 days and 106 events, the APT awarded its coveted Lion trophies, smashing guarantees and entry records along the way, while providing arguably the most player-friendly experience in the poker world.
Where else can you play a $10K No-Limit Hold ‘em High Roller one day, then a $400 Home Game mix the next, and hit a banger of a player party in between?
Asian Poker Tour CEO Fred Leung and his top-notch staff have built a must-play poker series since the rebirth of the tour in 2023, which they lovingly refer to as ‘The New Era.’
While the tour does bring some unique challenges, Leung and his team are determined to provide the best poker experience for players not just in this region, but for those making the effort to travel the world to see what the fastest-growing poker tour of the last three years is all about.
Fresh off the Main Event becoming the largest international poker tournament ever held in Incheon, Leung sat down with us to discuss this series’ success and what to look forward to on the APT.
Reaching a high bar
“We’ve set a very high bar, so in that respect, it's largely as expected. I mean, that's what we planned to do,” says Leung. “But with that being said, particularly this year, there's a huge surge of competition where new tours and other tours are getting a lot more aggressive.
"In the 18 years that I've been in poker in Asia, this is the height of competition. I've never seen so much competition and so many countries and tours active. So, when I take that into consideration, it's still a great result.”
Leung says he had his fist-pump moment over the Main Event’s success, but with a work ethic and high standards to see the tour continually grow, 15 minutes later, he was right back at his desk planning on how to beat the 1,393 entry number next year. Planning for upcoming series next month in Jeju and in Taiwan in November was also firmly on his mind.
He says that constant improvement and innovation are key to the evolution of the APT.
“We don't want to just do the same old thing. Even for the team, that gets boring, right? We want to push the envelope, see how far we can go with different ideas and things from different places in entertainment.
"For me, our competition isn't just other poker tours. It's the attention span of people. Poker is a form of entertainment, and anything and everything that takes people's minds away from it, whether it's sports, movies, that's just another way for people to spend their time and money. So that's what we're up against, and not poker alone.”
If you build it...
Along with trying to build a successful poker series based on event experience, Leung and the APT have the added wrinkle of appealing to a diverse player pool in Asia. Each stop has its own nuances, even within a country, as it does with Incheon and Jeju in South Korea.
“I'd say every single city we go to presents its own challenges. There are pros and cons, for instance, and in Korea, the most obvious one, whether we're here in Incheon or in Jeju, is that Korean nationals can't play. A lot of times, that represents 30-40% of the field. So that's something that's already removed straight from the top. And you see in Taipei, with the benefit of having locals able to play, that's why the numbers are significantly higher [there].”
A key to offsetting the lack of Korean players because of national gambling laws is a key partnership to bring in players from Japan, a country with its own prohibitive gambling laws. Last year, 65% of the Incheon entry total came from Japanese participation.
“Here in Incheon with our partners at the JOPT [Japan Open Poker Tour], a lot of the growth in the partnership and collaboration there is what contributes to our success here. I'd like to think that over the last two years, working together, we found a little bit more alignment to help both parties. We give a little bit more international visibility to them, while they're definitely encouraging and letting people know about the APT.”
Leung says the number of Japanese players coming to APT stops, especially in South Korea, has grown by "leaps and bounds".
But while getting the players here is one thing, giving them what they want and keeping them coming back is another. The diversity in player pools comes into play again when building a schedule for an APT stop.
“Even though it's the same country, the cities matter. So here in Incheon, it's a high percentage of Japanese players. I'd say in Jeju, there's a greater concentration of people from China. The fact that it's visa-free to get there makes it a lot more accessible.
"Typically, [Chinese players] have a higher appetite in terms of buy-ins, so you'll see much larger buy-ins that do really well in Jeju, which might not work as well in Incheon. So, they're just small adjustments we make for the player base.”
Building the big one
Another key partnership that the APT has built is with the World Series of Poker.
Through the APT’s sponsorship arrangements with online poker site Natural8, a part of the GGPoker network (owners of the WSOP), the APT had a presence in Las Vegas this past summer with a booth in the Paris ballroom and promotion on the WSOP livestreams.
This was a key promotional vehicle for the APT Championship this November in Taiwan, their marquee event each year and one for which they aim to draw more players from around the world than any other stop.
“When it comes to the APT Championship in November, we're looking at a global market. [The tour] is never restricted to Asia, but [the APT Championship] has a greater focus in terms of a 50/50 kind of dynamic.
"And that's why we've collaborated with WSOP and had a presence in Vegas, simply because that audience, obviously, is very much the same kind of players that could naturally go there. Because if you can play a $10,000 event there, you can come to Taipei and play a $10,000 event.”
The aura of the APT Championship has already begun to spread across the world, attracting many marquee names last year from across the globe such as Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau, Tony ‘Ren’ Lin, and Poker Hall of Famers John Juanda and Erik Seidel, who called it "The Main Event of Asia".
“I would say that kind of thing is priceless,” Leung says with a proud smile. “It's a really nice sense of achievement for the team. It's really nice to get player feedback, and from somebody who has seen everything. He’s travelled the world, he's seen all different events, and he's always very candid and fair. If you have a bad event, Erik will tell you. If he has a problem, he will tell you.
"I've known Erik for over a decade, and hearing him say something like that was extremely meaningful. That's the moment when we went, 'that's what makes it all worth it'.”
The 2025 APT Championship saw a record field of 671 entries and a prize pool of nearly $6.2M, crushing its $5M guarantee.
An even bigger number for the $10K buy-in extravaganza is expected this year, and while he won’t say that there’s an immediate goal for the 2026 edition, Leung says that by 2030, he wants to see the event well into four figures in terms of entries.
The boom is now
The ambition of the APT is undeniable, and they’re in the right part of the world to be building something special. If you’ve been wondering about the next poker boom, it’s here in Asia, and Leung is thrilled to be at the forefront.
“Asia is the last gold mine, per se, in terms of poker. Everyone's looking for this next rush or whatever; I'm telling you, it's happening. It's happening right now, and the rest of the world just doesn't realize it's been happening.
"I was removed from poker for four years, from the end of 2018 until early 2022. And when I came back, I could see the interest really growing, and from markets I'd never seen before. At one of the first events in Vietnam, I could not believe how many people played. It used to just be a handful of players; you might get ten, and now it's thousands.
"And you can see that in many, many different countries throughout Asia there's a huge passion for the game, and they can't get enough of it. So for me, this is exactly where I want to be.”
The Asian Poker Tour will return to Korea for the APT Jeju series, September 24 to October 4, before the 2026 season comes to a close in Taipei with the APT Championship, November 13-29.
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Images courtesy of the APT.
