APT Manila Classic Main Event Heats Up to Surpass ₱60M Guarantee

The final two starting days of the APT Manila Classic 2025 saw two bumper fields push the overall attendance to four figures and breeze past the PHP 60 Million  (~$1.1 Million) guarantee for the crown jewel of the schedule at the Crowne Plaza Manila Galleria.

APT Manila Classic Main Event Flight C

Both APT Manila Classic Main Event flights featured a more turbo-heavy structure of six 30-minute levels and four 45-minute levels with Flight C reeling in a very impressive 266 entries, of which 119 players bagged up chips. Only one player managed to increase his starting stack of 40,000 more than six-fold and that was South Korea’s Kwonhwan Mun with 288,200, followed by French player Olivier Serrie (226,600) and Australia’s Joshua Duce (223,900).

KM

Kwonhwan Mun

Korea (Republic of)

Two former APT Main Event champions reached the top ten of this starting day as Henrik Tollefsen (202,200) and Mike Takayama (173,600) bagged very healthy stacks. They will be joined by Moses Saquing (157,900), who also had a decent day at the tables as well, as did Mystery Bounty Event winner Kunal Patni with 184,500.

Other notables to advance in the penultimate flight were William Ysmael, Jansen Tiu, John Costiniano, Kim Enriquez, William Teoh, Emmanuel Derecho, Richard Marquez, John Matsuda, and Raiden Kan.

APT Manila Classic Main Event Flight D

APT Manila Classic Main Event Flight D didn’t disappoint either with a very solid 190 entrants to push the field to 1,146 total entries and ensure a seven-figure USD prize pool. Another 88 hopefuls punched their ticket for Day 2 with Austrian poker pro Matthias Lipp bagging up the most with 345,000 in chips. Second on the leaderboard was Vietnam’s Ngoc Guyen Quach with 223,000 while Yoon Kang (147,700) and Junghyun An (145,100) also made it trough with top ten stacks for this flight.

Renniel Galvez, Junnie Pamplona, Vlada Stojanovic, Emmanuel Segismundo, Zhifan Ye, Prommin Talordpong, as well as presenter Gregory “Greg Goes All In” Liow all advanced. In total, some nearly 400 players through the four live Day 1 will be back for Day 2 and the late registration will close once the cards go back in the air. It is expected that a few dozen players jump in at the last minute with 25 big blinds at their disposal.

APT Manila Classic 2025 Main Event – Chip Counts

Other Highlights

In the Side Events on Day 5 of the festival, China recorded three victories with all other countries earning one trophy each. Zhen Chen was the most notable winner as he took down the Baby Superstar Challenge.

#42 Baby Superstar Challenge (300,000 PHP)

In the Side Events on Day 5 of the festival, China recorded three victories with all other countries earning one trophy each. Zhen Chen was the most notable winner as he took down the Baby Superstar Challenge. The event's PHP 300,000 buy-in (~USD 5,155) drew 53 entries for a PHP 13,737,600 prize pool (~ USD 236,374). Seven players cashed including Sparrow Cheung, Florencio Campomanes and Emilien Pitavy. Chen defeated Kilian Kramer in heads-up to claim the top prize of PHP 4,327,600 (~ USD 74,462) while Kramer settled for PHP 3,125,000 (~ USD 53,770).

Total Prize

$236,800

Entries

53

ITM

7

#	Payout	Player
1	$74,595 4,327,600 PHP	ZC Zhen Chen China
2	$53,865 3,125,000 PHP	KK Kilian Kramer Germany
3	$34,335 1,992,000 PHP	EP Emilien Pitavy France
4	$26,045 1,511,000 PHP	FC Florencio Campomanes Philippines
5	$20,135 1,168,000 PHP	SC Sparrow Cheung Hong Kong
6	$15,395 893,000 PHP	JJ Jack Julian Maskill
7	$12,430 721,000 PHP	TT Tomoki Terashima Japan

Baby Superstar Challenge runner-up Kilian Kramer had another shot at the APT Lion’s Trophy in the PHP 120,000 High Roller Ultra Stack but bowed out in 10^th place on the final day of the event. Serbia’s Andrija Robovic secured the victory after ultimately coming out on top.

#32 High Roller - Ultra Stack (120,000 PHP)

Kramer had another shot at the APT Lion's Trophy in the PHP 120,000 High Roller Ultra Stack but bowed out in 10^th place on the final day of the event. Serbia's Andrija Robovic secured the victory after ultimately coming out on top against two well-known Pinoy poker pros in James Mendoza (PHP 1,398,000 / ~ USD 24,055) and Lester Edoc (PHP 2,150,000 / ~ USD 36,994). For his victory, Robovic was rewarded with a payday of PHP 3,181,960 (~ USD 54,750).

Total Prize

$218,040

Entries

122

ITM

17

#	Payout	Player
1	$54,850 3,181,960 PHP	AR Andrija Robovic Serbia
2	$37,060 2,150,000 PHP	LE Lester Edoc Philippines
3	$24,100 1,398,000 PHP	JM James Mendoza Philippines
4	$19,945 1,157,000 PHP	BH Beng Hong Ker Singapore
5	$16,085 933,000 PHP	ZW Zihao Wang China
6	$12,685 736,000 PHP	OY Or Yaaqov Nezer Israel
7	$9,705 563,000 PHP	SM Scott Margereson United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
8	$7,310 424,000 PHP	DB Daniel Benor Israel
9	$5,445 316,000 PHP	JW Jason Wong Singapore

Check the 17 Payouts & Results ...

Cezar Quiambao made sure the Philippines earned an APT trophy that day as he prevailed in a field of 184 entries for Event #45 NLHE.

#45 NL Hold'em (20,000 PHP)

Cezar Quiambao made sure the Philippines earned an APT trophy that day as he prevailed in a field of 184 entries for Event #45 NLHE, which cost PHP 20,000 (~ USD 344) to enter. Part of a three-way deal with Macau's Hou Sam Leong and Hong Kong's Man Lok Cheung, Quiambao earned PHP 500,000 (~ USD 8,603).

Total Prize

$54,205

Entries

184

ITM

27

#	Payout	Player
1	$8,620 500,000 PHP	CQ Cezar Quiambao Philippines
2	$8,800 510,392 PHP	ML Man Lok Cheung Hong Kong
3	$8,270 479,800 PHP	HS Hou Sam Leong Japan
4	$4,550 264,000 PHP	JF Joshua Figuerres Philippines
5	$3,620 210,000 PHP	RJ Raju Jaruplavath India
6	$2,790 162,000 PHP	YK Yuki Kawamoto Japan
7	$2,035 118,000 PHP	KM Kaito Mori Japan
8	$1,465 85,000 PHP	JM Joseph Magnotti United States Minor Outlying Islands
9	$1,205 70,000 PHP	JC John Clyde Tan Philippines

Check the 27 Payouts & Results ...

Plenty of games still ahead with APT Manila Classic 2025 festival running until February 16, 2025 in Manila, Philippines. Among the events to look forward to are the Superstar Challenge featuring a ₱1.5 Million (~USD 25.8K) buy in, Zodiac Classic by Natural8 Mini Main Event ₱6M guaranteed, Double Stack, and the APT High Roller ₱15 Million guaranteed. The APT Players Party is also a must-attend event, taking place on February 13. 

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