APT Championship Main Event Day 3 and Mini Main: Highlights and Bubble Drama

Day 3 of the APT Championship Main Event Freezeout saw the tournament move past the money bubble, with the final 34 players returning to the tables at Red Space 多元商務空間 in Taipei. Played in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP), the TWD 311,000 (~USD 10,000) buy-in event has drawn 671 entries, producing the largest prize pool in APT history: TWD 194,080,973 (~USD 6.2 million), blowing the USD 5,000,000 guarantee out of the water.

Only 95 players would cash, leaving 38 to depart empty-handed after a tense bubble that delivered some of the day’s harshest beats. Both Sukhrat Massimov of Kazakhstan and Japan’s Shinya Maeda saw pocket aces cracked as the bubble approached. Massimov, reduced to a single 1K chip, managed to squeak into the money, while Maeda fell to John Constiniano’s queen-five after a queen flopped and a five turned, sending the Japanese pro out on the stone bubble. The drama evoked memories of the Natural8 Cup Championship bubble last week, where Seungyeol Kim also survived with only a single 1K chip.

Following the bubble, eliminations came quickly. Former APT Mystery Bounty champion Isaac Phua, PLO Championship winner Kok Wei Teoh, Massimov, poker vlogger Frankie Cucchiara, Super High Roller Champion Roman Hrabec, and former APT Super High Roller champion Julian Warhurst were among the first to hit the rail. They were joined later by Poker All-Time Money List #15 Steve O’Dwyer, Australia’s Daniel Neilson, and Natural8 Ambassador Phachara Wongwichit, all leaving with a min-cash.

At the end of Day 3, Taiwan’s Hao Shan Huang topped the counts with 2,727,000, closely followed by Romanian Alexandru Papazianwith 2,693,000. Australian Neng Zhao rounds out the top three with 1,688,000, putting them in strong positions to challenge for the TWD 37,030,773 (~USD 1,186,880) first prize and the APT Championship Gold Lion Trophy.

Other notable stacks include Lithuania’s Matas Cimbolas(1,624,000), computational wizard Dominik Nitsche (1,504,000) and India’s Nishant Sharma (1,329,000). German bracelet winner Martin Finger (1,275,000), Malaysia’s Ben Loo(1,013,000), former APT High Roller champion Martin Sedlak (893,000), start-of-day chip leader Dohang Na (867,000), and bubble burster Constiniano (318,000) will also return for the final stretch.

Main Event Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts

Mini Main Event Flight A: Wei Kai Lin Sets the Early Mark

Flight A opened the Mini Main Event Championship with 245 entries and a steady pace inside Red Space. Only 35 players made it through to Day 2, and it was Taiwan’s Wei Kai Lin who rose above the field with 831,000. Fresh off his win in the Mixed Game Championship 9-Game, Lin carried that momentum straight into the opening flight, shaping the early benchmark for the rest of the field.

Click Here for the full Day 1A Survivors List

Flight B: Kuan Yu Chen Bags the Lead After Wild Bubble

Flight B brought a surge of new entries and plenty of movement, eventually closing with 725 total runners and 102 survivors. Taiwan’s Kuan Yu Chen quietly climbed throughout the afternoon before grabbing the top spot with 1,028,000, narrowly ahead of South Korea’s Lee Hyundong.

The bubble itself played out briskly, taking only four rounds of hand-for-hand before Sergej Schuhmacher saw his queens cracked by ace-jack — the final hurdle before the field locked up a minimum cash. Along the way, several well-known names took a swing but didn’t survive, including Michael Wang and David Sommer, who fell with tens into kings just before the bubble.

Click Here for the full Day 1B Survivors List

Flight C: Daniel Benor Climbs Late to Claim the Chip Lead

Flight C ran at turbo speed with 20-minute levels, creating a fast-moving, high-variance day. The field drew 323 entries and played down to 46 survivors, with the bubble bursting quickly thanks to the condensed structure.

Israel’s Daniel Benor emerged late with a clean surge to 822,000, continuing a strong run after placing second in a Hyper Turbo High Roller earlier in the series. His biggest pot came via a well-timed double through Sean Ooi, where his overpair held against top pair to propel him into the lead. The bubble hand came and went without much delay, as the fast structure pushed short stacks into action and quickly trimmed the field to the required 14%.

Click Here for the full Day 1C Survivors List

Flight D: Yuan Lei Tops the Final Flight After Smooth Bubble

The fourth and final starting flight saw 310 entries pack into Red Space, rounding out the Mini Main Event Championship with the last batch of hopefuls. China’s Yuan Lei finished as the Flight D chip leader with 872,000 after maintaining pressure through the late levels. The bubble phase ran smoothly, ending with Hyunsik Jang bowing out in the final hand of hand-for-hand play. His elimination set the line at 44 survivors, who now join the 183 players already through from earlier flights. Behind Lei were Duhan Lee (814,000) and Loy Abdo (759,000), both close enough to apply early pressure when Day 2 begins.

Click Here for the full Day 1D Survivors List

Top Three Chip Counts in Each Flight

Single Re-Entry High Roller

Away from the noise and energy of the Main Event, the TWD 150K Single Re-Entry High Roller quietly wrapped up after two days of sharp, disciplined poker. The field may have been smaller, but the stakes were anything but. Poland’s Dawid Smolka came into Day 2 with a bang-average 359,000 stack, miles behind early leader Yi Chang Ho, yet paced himself perfectly through the later levels, picking the right spots and avoiding the chaos that claimed many around him.

By the time the final hands played out, Smolka was the last player standing, earning TWD 7,017,100 for the win. The result pushes his live earnings past $1.63 million, adding another highlight to a resume that already includes a $260,000 best score and a spot inside the top ten of Poland’s All-Time Money list. A composed performance, and one that underlined exactly why he continues to climb.

Final Table Result

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