Taiwan owns richest APT series

TAIPEI — With 2,223 players from 44 countries generating 13,153 total entries over 106 trophy events, the recently concluded Asian Poker Tour Taipei 2024 that offered a staggering TWD 383.49 million (USD 12.19 million ) in prize money has officially become the biggest and richest series ever to play out in Taiwan.

Run in partnership with Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP) from February 28 to March 10 at the Asia Poker Arena — Asia’s largest permanent poker room — and the CML (Chinese Mahjong League, the 12-day festival drew 3 four-figure fields, with the APT Main Event the biggest of them all.

Multiple records were broken during the series. The Superstar Challenge set a new standard for largest first-place prize ever awarded in Taiwan, with France’s Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier claiming the honors.

However, this was immediately broken by the APT Main Event, which set a new all-time Taiwan record for prize pool and first-place prize.

The tour’s two other signature events, the APT Super High Roller and APT High Roller, also raised the bar; the Super High Roller set a new event record for prize pool and first place prize, and the High Roller record for the top prize.

The Mystery Bounty Hunter set a new APT standard for prize pool and first-place prize, as did the Sunday Super Stack, the Zodiac Classic, the Mini Main Event and the Micro Main Event.

Close to a fifth of the series prize money (18.8 percent) was awarded in the recordbreaking Main Event, which saw 1,182 entries (737 unique) from 34 countries/regions compete for Taiwan’s richest prize pool of all time — a sizable TWD 72,232,020 (~$2,286,275).

It was Japan’s Daisuke Ogita who claimed the largest first-place prize ever to be awarded in the region — a mammoth TWD 12,944,020 (~409,730)!

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SOMUCHPOKER.COM THE U Series of Poker returns to the coastal paradise of Danang in Vietnam today with a multi-million USD guarantee on the plate. In partnership with Crown Poker Club Hanoi and Lucky Poker, players have a total of 71 tournaments to battle for over two weeks. Buy-ins range from the lowest of VND 3,000,000 (~USD 123) to the highest of VND 250,000,000 (~USD 10,288). In 2023, the USOP emerged as the most promising new brand with prize pools soaring at each of its stops. By the end of the year, it generated back-to-back seven-digit Main Event prize pools. This trend continued at the brand’s 2024 season opener in Taiwan with another million-dollar pot. For the upcoming USOP Danang Part 1 series, the Main Event guarantee is VND 15,000,000,000 (~USD 614,500) which is expected to be crushed with the past prize pool in Danang reaching VND 34.8 billion (~USD 1.4 million).

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF APT POKER legend Isaac Haxton won the richest APT Super High Roller of all time.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF APT JAPAN’S Daisuke Ogita claimed the largest firstplace prize ever to be awarded in the region – a mammoth TWD 12,944,020 (~USD 409,730) in the APT Main Event.

PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF VPL FILIPINO poker guru Dave Spade Erquiaga captured the Vietnam Poker League Superstar Challenge over the weekend to run away with the LP 1.7 billion (USD 70,833) and the prestigious trophy in Hanoi.