Asian Poker Tour Announces Core Schedule of Live Events for 2025

It was yet another thrilling and very successful year for Asia’s fastest growing live poker tour in 2024, as the Asian Poker Tour raised the bar across five different stops in four countries. The New Era of the brand has seen record numbers come and go with almost every festival and that sets the expectations for the next few years very high.

A few days ago early in December, the operator has announced the core schedule for the upcoming year which currently contains five festivals to mirror the figure of the current year. There is only one change to the line-up as the last live stop in Phuo Quoc / Vietnam has vanished, instead being replaced by a second stop in Manila.

“This year has been a remarkable one for the Asian Poker Tour, marked by several national and tour records.  As we look ahead to 2025, we are eager to build on this momentum with thrilling additions which have yet to be announced, “ Fred Leung, Chief Executive Officer of the Asian Poker Tour, told SoMuchPoker. “The new year will have plenty of exciting initiatives for both players and the APT alike so definitely stay tuned!”

Confirmed For Asian Poker Tour 2025

•  February 7 – 16: Manila, Philippines
• April 25 – May 4: Taipei, Taiwan
• May 30 – June 8: Manila, Philippines
• September 26 – October 5: Jeju Island, South Korea
• November 14 – 30: Taipei, Taiwan

The first stop of the new year will be in Manila from February 7 to 16, 2025, at a yet to be announced venue. Slightly more than a month ago, the APT visited the capital of the Philippines and drew a total of 1,081 entries, paying out PHP 100 Million in prize money.

Up next will be a return to Taiwan and there is very little doubt that festival from April 25 until May 4 won’t take place in cooperation with the CTP Poker Club at the Asia Poker Area in Taipei City. It has been a very fruitful partnership between the two brands and they have tested the maximum capacity of Asia’s largest permanent poker room with several side events taking place at the nearby Chinese Mahjong League (CML) as well.

Defending Main Event champion from the spring stop in Taiwan is Japan’s Daisuke Ogita, who came out on top of a 1,182 entry strong field to claim the biggest piece of the TWD 72,232,020 prize pool.

That figure was crushed during the APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024, which drew a staggering 1,991 entries albeit with a smaller buy-in to result in a prize pool of TWD 86,011,200. From November 14 to 30, 2025, the fifth and final stop of the 2025 schedule will return to Taiwan for what is expected to be another large turnout.

In between, another two festivals have been set in stone by the brand as well. The second stop in Manila for the upcoming year takes place from May 30 until June 8, right before the attention of the global poker community shifts to the chase for gold bracelets during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. South Korea’s Jeju Island then returns for the second year in a row from September 26 until October 5, 2025.

The two stops are essentially swapped by the APT compared to 2024, as the Jeju Shinhwa Resort held the spot earlier in the year. China’s Xixiang Luo topped a field of 1,089 entries for a payday of KRW 429,292,500 before then winning two WSOP gold bracelets in Sin City during the summer.

Asian Poker Tour – APT Online Series

Whether or not any further stops will make their way onto the 2025 Asian Poker Tour live schedule remains to be seen. The brand has also seen a very successful third edition of the APT Online Series across the GGPoker Network in cooperation with Natural8.

In the recently concluded USD 3,000 APT Super High Roller, 395 entries generated a prize pool of USD 1,125,750 and former EPT Sochi Main Event champion Arsenii Karmatckii, now Slovenia based, cut a deal with “Moist” from New Zealand to earn USD 191,041.30.

Sweden’s Mathias Joelsson who currently resides in Austria can mostly been found in the online arena and he came out on top of a huge 4,969-entry strong APT Online Main Event, which brought with it a massive USD 3,776,440 prize pool. Chris Rudolph and legend online crusher Niklas “Lena900” Astedt were also among the finalists, but Joelsson reeled in the USD 534,698.10 top prize without deal.

The 20 trophy events generated more than USD 12.6 Million in prize money with 50,921 total entries, an increase of more than one third year over year. Throughout the entire online series with all Side Events included, an eye-watering USD 28,191,720 in prize money was paid out.

Online and live, the Asian Poker Tour has grown to become one of the main players on the live circuit and headlines the Asia-Pacific region in a fiercely-contested market.