The Asian Poker Tour (APT) is back in action with live events, after hosting two online editions via the GGPoker Network. The Asia-Pacific region hosted the APT Taiwan festival in Taipei, with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Association (CTP Club) playing host. During the festival, the highlight was the Main Event. The field was competitive and in the end it was Kitty Kuo, an ambassador for Natural8, who claimed the first-place win.

Main Event Details

The Main Event of the poker tournament began on February 26 and featured a NT$16,500 buy-in. This equals $590. The total prize pool was NT$2,000,000 ($71,500). A total of 196 people competed which boosted the prize pool to a whopping NT$2,851,800 ($102,320).

Once the starting days were over, 46 players came in on Day 2 during the registration period. At the end of Day 2, only 25 players remained. Kitty Kuo was second in chips and close to the leader Cheng How Pan. Eventually, the field would narrow down, Cheng would lose the lead and eventually exit the competition.

In the end, it was Kitty Kuo and Chi Ying Tsai battling it out in the heads-up round. The two females had dominated and wanted the win. Tsai had a big lead with 68 big blinds to Kuo’s lowly 12. However, Kuo was not giving up. She battled for 90 minutes to build up a slight lead.

The final hand then went down with Kuo earning a top pair with K-7 to beat out a King-high flush draw. Kuo won the event, earning NT$724,200 ($25,980) in prize money along with the APT Golden Lion Main Event Trophy and the APT Champions’ Ring.

Final Results:

Place Player Prize
First Kitty Kuo NT$724,200
Second Chi Ying Tsai NT$482,200
Third Po Cheng Yang NT$335,600
Fourth Kun Yu Chiang NT$242,400
Fifth Yu Sheng Lin NT$181,300
Sixth Zhi Hao Huang NT$139,900
Seventh Chen Yi Liu NT$111,100
Eighth Kar Wee Chee NT$90,500

The Asian Poker Tour Taiwan stop took place from February 19 to March 15. A total of NT$13,696,500 ($491,430) in prize money was awarded across the many tournament events. The stop also included the APT Player of the Series awards with $1,000 in prizes provided.

The series kicked off with the Mini Main Event which was won by Kun Han Lee. This was the first time that Lee won an APT event, so the title was even sweeter! Lee went on to earn a second title during the tour, winning Event #2, a High Rollers Single Day tournament.