The Asian Poker Tour (APT) Taipei Championship 2025 has crowned a new heavyweight champion. Irish professional Toby Joyce navigated a tough field to take down the inaugural High Roller Championship and secured the largest payout of the entire festival outside of the Main Event.
The tournament took place at the Red Space venue in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club. It attracted 173 entries and generated a massive TWD 75,782,176 (~USD 2,428,915) prize pool. This figure stands as the richest prize pool ever generated by the tour for a non-Main Event tournament.
Joyce defeated Vietnam’s Nguyen Huu Dung in heads-up play to claim the exclusive Rose Gold Lion Trophy. He walked away with a career-defining top prize of TWD 17,618,976 (~USD 564,710). This victory pushes his live career earnings past the $3 million mark.
Final Table Action and Key Hands
Day 3 began with just 12 players remaining. All returning competitors had already locked up a minimum cash of TWD 1,288,300. The field included top-tier talent like Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, though the ten-time bracelet winner was eliminated before the final day.
When the final table was set, Japanese player Jun Obara held the chip lead. However, the momentum quickly shifted toward the Austrian contingent. Gerald Karlic made a big move early by eliminating Alexander Wice in seventh place with pocket aces. Karlic then won a significant pot against Obara to take control.
Joyce stayed patient and found his spots. He eliminated Obara in sixth place and then clashed with Thailand’s number one ranked tournament player, Punnat Punsri. Punsri moved all-in with Ace-Jack but ran squarely into the pocket queens held by Joyce. The board offered no help, and Punsri exited in fifth place.
The turning point of the tournament was a massive cooler during four-handed play. Joyce looked down at pocket aces while Karlic held pocket queens. The chips went into the middle, and the aces held up. Joyce doubled through to take a commanding lead, while Karlic was left short and busted in fourth place shortly after.
Emotional Victory for the Irish Pro
After Matthias Lipp was eliminated in third place, the heads-up battle between Joyce and Dung began. Joyce held a 3-to-1 chip advantage. The duel lasted for 16 hands.
In the final hand, Joyce applied maximum pressure and put Dung all-in. Dung called off his last eight big blinds with Ace-Six. Joyce held King-Nine suited. The flop brought a king to give Joyce the lead, and he held on to secure his first APT title.
Joyce revealed a touching story behind the winning hand in his post-match interview.
“The moment I won, it felt pretty fitting that I won with the hand King-Nine suited,” Joyce said. “One of my friends passed away recently, and I was going to dedicate my win to him. We had a dog together, and we used to joke that our favorite hand was King-Nine for canine.”
Dung earned TWD 11,935,700 (~USD 382,555) for his runner-up finish. It was the largest score of the Vietnamese player’s career.
High Roller Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (TWD) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Toby Joyce | Ireland | 17,618,976 | 564,710 |
| 2 | Nguyen Huu Dung | Vietnam | 11,935,700 | 382,555 |
| 3 | Matthias Lipp | Austria | 7,957,100 | 255,035 |
| 4 | Gerald Karlic | Austria | 6,517,300 | 208,890 |
| 5 | Punnat Punsri | Thailand | 5,229,000 | 167,600 |
| 6 | Jun Obara | Japan | 4,054,300 | 129,950 |
| 7 | Alexander Wice | Thailand | 3,001,000 | 96,185 |
| 8 | Chase Cokaliong | Philippines | 2,205,300 | 70,680 |
| 9 | Nguyen Thanh Tung | Vietnam | 1,758,100 | 56,350 |
Michael Egan Leads Mini High Roller Final Table
The high-stakes action continued in the Mini High Roller Championship. This TWD 233,000 buy-in event drew 184 entries and created the eighth seven-figure USD prize pool of the series. The total purse stands at TWD 38,687,693 (~USD 1,239,990).
After a long Day 2, only nine players remain in the hunt for the Pewter Lion Trophy and the TWD 8,569,093 (~USD 274,650) first-place prize.
Australian pro Michael Egan bagged the overnight chip lead with a stack of 3,510,000. He holds 59 big blinds heading into the finale. Lithuania’s Paulius Plausinaitis is close behind in second place with 3,315,000. They are the only two players with over 3 million chips.
Several notables made the money but fell short of the final table. These included Roman Hrabec, Tobias Schwecht, and bracelet winner Michael Wang. The final table will play down to a winner on Sunday.
Trip Saver Championship Crushes Guarantee
The final Championship Event of the festival saw a massive turnout. The Trip Saver Championship attracted 394 entries on Day 1. This surge pushed the prize pool to TWD 11,914,560 (~USD 381,875), which easily surpassed the initial guarantee.
South Korea’s Gyeong Beom Kim finished the day at the top of the counts with 384,000 in chips. He leads the remaining 154 survivors. Taiwan’s Chien-Hung Chi sits in second with 349,000, and Australia’s Liam Jehu rounds out the top three.
The top 55 players will make the money. A min-cash is worth TWD 58,400, while the winner will take home TWD 2,310,960.
