Inside the APT’s New Era: How Vision, Variety, and Inclusion Are Redefining Asian Poker
The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Championship is only a few weeks away. The 17-day festival will be held at the Red Point Business Center in Taipei from November 14 to 30. The APT Championship 2025 is the APT's most ambitious festival yet, boasting approximately $8.7 million in combined guarantees, including the $5 million guaranteed Main Event, the tour's largest-ever single guarantee.
This massive festival is the culmination of years of hard work and dedication behind the scenes from everyone connected to the APT. From hosts and dealers to floor staff and bloggers, everyone at APT has pulled together to ensure the APT Championship 2025 will be remembered as one of the greatest poker events in Asian poker history.
PokerNews recently had the opportunity to chat with APT CEO Fred Leung and APT President Neil Johnson, who shared some insight into why the APT continues to go from strength to strength.
"There's been a multi-year plan we've been using as a roadmap since 2022. While I can't reveal the details of the plan itself, everything we've done — from talent acquisition, strategic partnerships, venue selections, tech enhancements, and overall operations – has been a series of decisions to bring our vision of the APT New Era to life," said Leung.
"Some things are straightforward, such as some of our high-visibility sponsors. We want to work with the best. In the online world, Natural8 / GGPoker were clearly No. 1, and they have been nothing short of amazing to work with. Copag has recently become the official APT card sponsor. While other options were available, these were easy decisions to make.
Clarity between ownership and top management has kept the organization aligned. We know what we want the tour to be, and that's our compass, which helps us navigate the challenges of delivering high-impact growth in a relatively short time."
One of the most visible changes is the APT's transition from running stops with a handful of events to 10-17-day festivals with enormous guarantees. Leung told PokerNews that it was always his intention to expand the APT's tournament offerings and that such schedules have become a unique selling point. Johnson expanded further on this.
"While it might sound simplistic, in my experience, poker players want to play poker. The goal behind the expansion of the schedule has been to give them those opportunities. While all our destinations have amazing things to see and do, the majority of our players are there to play poker first and experience the city second. So, we've chosen to really lean into the idea of giving as much poker as possible for the duration of the poker festival."
Today's poker players demand variety from a tournament schedule, and they certainly enjoy that when they head to an APT festival. Mixed game tournaments have exploded in popularity across Asia. Before the APT offering almost every mixed game you can imagine, Asian mixed game specialists had to either grind them online or wait for the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) to enjoy their favorite games. Those days are long gone.
We're proud of the fact that we have something for everyone within the APT festivals
"We're proud of the fact that we have something for everyone within the APT festivals," said Johnson." Whether they like Hold'em or non-Hold'em, big buy-ins or little buy-ins, male or female, or even home game style variations, we want to offer something for all players. It also allows us to separate ourselves from the competition with the variety we offer. Everyone has a Main event, a High Roller, a Super High Roller, an Opening and a Closing event, but not everyone has a daily Women's event, daily non-NLH events, daily High Rollers as well as those core events."
"As someone who loves mixed myself, we (mixed players) really feel like nobody loves us. As you commented, the majority of festivals, even our own old ones, are/were NLH-focused, with an occasional PLO tossed in. Like the women's tournaments APT runs, we believe non-NLH players are also an untapped market that deserves its own "mini-festival" inside of the larger APT. The players, thankfully, have responded very well and are excited to help shape one of the core pieces of an APT festival. There is even an APT Mixed Games WhatsApp group, started by Allen Kessler, to talk over ideas, structures, formats, etc."
Johnson mentioned that offering many women's events helps set the APT apart from other tours. During the upcoming APT Championship 2025, there will be a women's event almost daily. Having many women-only events has resulted in female participation in APT events going through the roof. This is not something that has happened by accident.
"Women are vastly underrepresented in tournament poker. While being 51% of the overall population, they are usually ~5% of the poker population (~10% on the APT)," Johnson explained. "We want to do everything we can to encourage more women to participate in poker in general and the APT in specific. By offering the daily women's event, we hope to continue to grow that market and get more women excited about playing in all of our events."
According to Leung, the APT has something up its sleeve regarding women's poker.
"We're about to make a significant announcement that furthers the commitment APT has to support the growth of women's participation in poker. It's something that we've been meaning to do for some time, but wanted to ensure we had the right partnership for the collaboration."
APT schedule sizes, attendances, and female participation are not the only things soaring right now; the tour continues attracting an ever-increasing number of international poker players. These Rest of the World (ROW) players are flocking to APT festivals in record numbers. Why?
"It's everything we do for our core product, which is the live poker experience," Leung explained. "While Neil and I are both obsessed with analytics, there is an immeasurable benefit in having all the key decision-makers at APT being absolute poker fanatics."
"Whenever we are exploring improvements or new initiatives, it's always coming from a player's perspective because we are also players and love the game. Wide range of buy-ins and poker variants? Yes! Massive prize pools? Yes! Great locations with the best operators? Yes!"
"So it's not any one thing. It's about everything that delivers the APT live poker experience, and we're thankful that the players have really embraced those changes. While we've seen growth in players outside of Asia the past three years, we expect a significant surge with the introduction of the APT Championship."
Our attention turned to the huge APT Championship 2025 in Taipei, the APT's most ambitious project yet. The $8.7 million in guarantees is enough to attract players from far and wide, but, money aside, why does Leung think the APT Championship is a must-play event?
"The players in the Asia-Pacific are very much aware of the Asian Poker Tour's recent growth, and word has quickly spread since 2023. However, that news is only just getting global attention more recently as the results reach the levels of the world's largest tours."
"APT Championship is that poker festival that's truly deserving of global attention. We are continuing to maintain our base players in the region with tournaments and buy-ins they're accustomed to from the modern APT. But the higher buy-ins and prize pool guarantees now provide a great motive for those travelling from the rest of the world to come and see for themselves."
"There are 200 events on the schedule with more than USD $8.7 million in guarantees. The actual payouts will far exceed the guarantees by the time the series has concluded."
As Leung and Johnson returned to their busy schedules and put together final preparations for the APT Championship 2025, they told PokerNews that there is much more work to do on the APT as they strive for perfection and to make the APT a global brand.
"The last three years have seen a lot of transition for the APT. We're in a much better place than we were at the start of the process, so on one hand, there will be more stability," Leung said. "Stability is important in the sense that players need to know what events to expect and reliably plan what to play in the calendar year.
"On the other hand, there is always that desire to improve. All areas are constantly being reviewed, and we will continually tweak to make things better and meet the demands of our players."
"The High Roller segment has already been growing since the APT New Era began. It first started at the USD $5,000 mark. We have then slowly introduced 10k, 25k, and now, at the APT Championship, we are offering a 50k buy-in in the Superstar Championship event – which, last I checked, already has 15 players pre-registered, including the likes of Erik Seidel, Danny Tang, and Joseph Cheong."
Stay tuned to PokerNews throughout the APT Championship 2025 as we bring you the latest news and results from the APT's biggest and richest festival yet.
