Calvin Lee Scores Massive High Roller Win At Asian Poker Tour Championship

American high-stakes poker pro Calvin Lee triumphed in a $50,000 buy-in super high roller at the Asian Poker Tour Championship. The bracelet winner defeated a field of 36 entries in the tournament dubbed the Superstar Championship, earning $600,210 after overcoming a stacked final table.

“I’d like to dedicate this to my mom, who flew in from Seoul with my aunt. This is her second or third time seeing me play. The first time she came, before COVID, I finished second, now she’s here and I got first, so that’s kind of cool,” Lee told APT reporters.

This was the third-largest score yet for Lee, who has been a more regular presence on the live scene in 2025. The 2015 World Series of Poker $3,000 six-max event champion has recorded four of his five top paydays so far this year, including finishing second in a Triton Poker Jeju $25,000 high roller in the spring for nearly $1.2 million and fifth in a $60,000 buy-in at the same venue this fall for another $618,000.

Lee now boasts career earnings of nearly $5.2 million. More than $3.8 million of that has come from his nine final-table finishes this year, with three titles won along the way. His first win of 2025 came at the Korea Poker Cup in an event that cost roughly $4,100 to enter and drew 109 contenders. He then beat out 24 entries in a $25,715 buy-in at APT Incheon in August for $236,376.

This latest victory came with 408 Card Player Player of the Year points. With 4,320 total points, he now sits in 42nd place in the race standings presented by CoinPoker.

Tough Sledding Down The Stretch

The prize pool for this event swelled to $1,853,925 thanks to the healthy turnout at the Red Space, Taipei. Only the top seven finishers earned a share, with plenty of notables among those who cashed. Former poker pro turned crypto investor Alex Wice was the first eliminated inside the money (7th – $87,585). Steve O’Dwyer, a European Poker Tour champion with more than $49 million in career earnings, placed sixth for $108,795. He lost a flip with pocket sevens against A-Q for Lee, who turned a queen and held from there.

Bracelet winner Webster Lim (5th – $145,670) was the next to fall, with his open-ended straight draw unable to improve against the pocket aces of Vincent Huang. Despite scoring that knockout, Hunag was the next to be sent packing. He got the last of his stack in with K♠J♥ dominated by the A♣J♠ of Lee. Neither player improved on a queen-high runout, and Huang settled for $207,445 as the fourth-place finisher.

Australia’s Daniel Neilson won a classic race with pocket deuces against the A-8 of Dylan Linde to take the lead going into heads-up play. Linde, a WPT champion and three-time bracelet winner, earned $276,590 for his podium showing. He now has more than $15.5 million in career cashes.

Neilson had nearly a 2:1 lead to start, but the lead changed hands when his bluff attempt ran into the two pair of Lee. Not long after that, Lee shoved on the river with a board of Q♦7♠6♠10♦2♣. Neilson called all-in with J♣7♦ for third pair, but was shown 10♣7♥ by Lee, who made another two pair. With that, Neilson was eliminated as the runner-up, earning $417,660 for his efforts. His career haul surpassed $5.5 million thanks to this, his second-largest score yet.

Final Table Results

Photo credit: APT.