Heads-Up With Michael Soyza – Partner at APT Events Private Limited

The APT Taipei 2023 concluded on May 7, leaving an indelible mark as the most trailblazing series in APT history. Over ten days, 1,989 unique players from 42 countries competed across 41 events, vying for a share of the staggering TWD $225,123,032 prize pool.

As the series was culminating on May 7, with Zarvan Tumboli and Jasven Saigal striving to clinch the APT New Era trophy, PokerGuru’s Saumya Paithankar had an engaging chat with Michael Soyza.

Hailing from Malaysia, Soyza is a celebrated personality in the Asian poker scene, standing fourth on Malaysia’s All-Time Money List, boasting $12,834,514 in total live earnings. Besides his poker proficiency, Soyza is renowned as a high-stakes poker powerhouse, a Natural8 Ambassador, and a partner in APT Events Private Limited, the entity behind the Asian Poker Tour.

On the topic of the series’ triumphant run, Soyza shared his insights, saying, “We weren’t expecting the series to be this successful, which is very good, barring some logistical issues. But it’s a good problem to have. We are very happy with how it turned out.”

Although this event marked APT’s seventh time in Taiwan, it was the inaugural series held at the recently established CTP Asia Poker Arena, Asia’s largest permanent poker room.

Discussing the prospect of future stops at the CTP Asia Poker Arena, Soyza shared, “We just signed a three-year deal. That being said, it seems like we have outgrown the arena in one event. Let’s see how it goes in the next events. Hopefully, we can host even bigger events.”

Following the successful completion of APT Taipei, APT is now gearing up for the APT Summer Series Hanoi, scheduled from May 26 to June 4. “Hanoi is coming up at the end of this month, basically, almost in two weeks’ time. We plan to tier APT events into different levels. So, Taipei is a higher level, and Hanoi is a slightly smaller scale event. But we still hope it’ll be a big one. Let’s see how it goes,” Soyza concluded.

Watch the complete interview below.