The APT Taipei 2023 event has been making headlines with its size and thrills. This event has promised to be the biggest and most exciting poker tournament in APT history and so far it has delivered on that promise. Aside from having the largest prize money, it has attracted stars like Ravn Teo and Doo Sik Nam to join in the tournament. The centerpiece of it is the incredible Main Event. Currently, the prize pool has reached a massive TWD 62,594,100 (~ USD 2,039,630). This has made it larger than 2008’s Macau APT prize pool of $1.5 million.
Even after that prize pool is divided up, the winner will still receive an enormous TWD 11,210,400.00, which is around USD 365,270. This is the largest prize money ever awarded in a Taiwanese poker tournament. And it seems like one player already has his eyes on the prize with Singapore’s Ravn Teo leading the event!
Ravn Teo Dominated the Previous Days of the APT Main Event
Although a record number of players joined the main event, with more than 1,400 players signing up for the main event, however, only a third of them were able to advance past day 2. By the end of the four starting flights, only 614 players remained. These players then took part in 8 60-minute levels which saw hundreds more eliminated. By the end of these levels, only 173 players advanced to the next day. They will be joined by another 27 players who earned their spot in the tournament through online qualifiers on Natural8.
Among the new additions is Doo Sik Nam, the current APT Da Nang Main Event champion. This brings the total number of players advancing to Day 3 to 200, each of whom will receive a payout of at least TWD 78,300 or $2,550.
Ravn Teo was among these 200 to advance to Day 3. After his third-place finish at the APT Kickoff, he wants to win his trophy here. It looks like he has done an excellent job in making a comeback as he has now topped the leaderboard for the Main Event. As of now, he has a massive lead of 1,105,000 chips, making him one of only two players along with second-place Nishant Sharma who has 1,064,000 chips.
Ravn Teo isn’t the only poker superstar joining this tournament so he can expect some strong competition. Among the big names competing for the Main Event title, including four former champions. Farhad Aghayev from Azerbaijan, Zhao Feng from Singapore, Natural8 Ambassador Kitty Kuo, and two-time APT winner Lester Edoc. While many of them are far behind, a major comeback from one of these players is possible.
Despite how many skilled poker players there are in the main event, only 9 will be allowed to advance to the next tournament round. The tournament is already underway as of writing this article so we will need to wait and see if Ravn Teo is one of the lucky winners.
Day 4 of the tournament is expected to happen tomorrow at 12:15 noon and will be where the top 9 players battle it out for the Main Event Title. If Ravn Teo hopes to maintain his lead, he will need all his skills and abilities to outlast his 199 opponents.
Despite his success here, Ravn Teo wasn’t able to win in the APT Kickoff Event which ended a few days ago and also broke records.
To see all the excitement that took place there, you can view our update on the APT Kickoff Event.