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2025 CPG Championship Roars Back Stronger After Typhoon

Tricia David
Tricia DavidSenior Journalist & Live Event Specialist

When typhoon warnings swept across Sanya, Hainan Island on August 23, 2025, the 13th CPG Championship Finals taking place at Howard Johnson Resort in Sanya Bay was forced into a standstill. The festival that had built its reputation on clockwork precision and massive crowds suddenly had to hit pause. However, for China Poker Games, the story is never about the setback - it’s about the comeback.

CPG Championship Roars In After Typhoon

2025 CPG Championship Finals Main Event Day 1B
2025 CPG Championship Finals Main Event Day 1B

With the typhoon well out of the way, and play resuming one day later, the CPG Championship Finals Main Event roared back to life with a surge that proved the popularity of its annual games. Compared with Day 1A, which saw 327 players take their seats at the start of Level 1, Day 1B had nearly twice as many seated at the starting buzzer with 615 players.

  • Day 1A at Level 1 start: 327 players

  • Day 1B at Level 1 start: 615 players

Just imagine what it would have been if not for the typhoon! After just 60 minutes, Level 2 started with the field easily breaching 1000 players.

  • Day 1B at Level 2 start: 1,067 players

  • Day 1A at Level 2 start: 799 players

And by the first break, Level 2 ended with 1,339 players, more than 200 players in comparison to Day 1A's 1,111 players at the break.

To further emphasize the magnitude of this turnout, all Day 1 flights are freezeouts, meaning no re-entries allowed. The tournament structure is also one of the deepest. Players start with a 30,000 starting stack and blinds running 60 minutes. Opening blinds are 100-100 ante 100. Registration closes at the start of Level 9.

Two days prior, at Day 1A, the brand set a new opening flight record of 1,657 players. Only 680 players survived the ten levels. The current flight record is 1,766 players and the current entry record is 4,406 set in 2023.

Main Event Numbers

Year

Entries

RMB Prize Pool

In USD reference

Buy-In (RMB)

2025

12,000

2024

3,787

35,976,500

5,000,040

10,000

2023

4,080

38,760,000

5,454,580

10,000

2022

4,405

41,857,000

5,754,600

10,000

2021

3,282

31,179,000

4,809,000

10,000

2020

3,352

31,844,000

4,620,000

10,000

2019

3,132

29,754,000

4,169,585

10,000

2018

1,926

15,408,200

2,264,545

10,000

2017

1,322

10,367,000

1,557,060

10,000

2016

1,294

9,758,000

1,480,200

10,000

2015

1,075

8,300,000

1,300,000

10,000

2014

966

6,000,000

973,475

8,000

2013

878

10,000,000

1,620,000

13,000

Links: 

13 Years Strong
China Poker Games revealed

About the Editor

Tricia David

Tricia David is Somuchpoker's Senior Journalist and Live Event Specialist, covering major poker festivals and tours across the Asia Pacific region. She has been reporting on the region's poker scene for more than a decade, starting with the Asian Poker Tour in 2010 and the Philippine Poker Tour in 2012, and has been a core contributor at Somuchpoker since 2014.