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A Bluff for the Ages at the APT Championship
- John Niko Costiniano bluffed Hao Chuang into folding the nut straight.
- Nishant Kishanlal Sharma won the APT $10,000 Championship for $1,186,880.
- Costiniano's bluff became a landmark moment in the tournament.
Every so often, tournament poker delivers a hand that stops the broadcast chat, jolts the commentators out of autopilot, and forces even seasoned pros to ask, “Did that really just happen?” The APT $10,000 Championship Main Event produced exactly that moment when John Niko Costiniano convinced Taiwan’s Hao Chuang to release the nut straight, with $1.1 million in prize money still at stake.
The Filipino runner-up left the table with $732,780, a trophy photo’s worth of glory, and a bluff clip that’ll be replayed for years.
How the Hand Started: Two Misses and a Check-Raise
Eight players remained when Costiniano opened the action to 200,000 withA♣10♠. Chuang defended the small blind holdingK♥Q♦, a hand that wasn’t spectacular but had just enough future potential to see a flop.
The dealer spread J♠2♣J♦, a board that hit precisely nobody. Costiniano made a standard 260,000 continuation bet and Chuang responded with a curious check-raise to 410,000, a move built almost entirely on backdoor dreams. Costiniano, sharing similar ambitions, called.
The9♥turn nudged Chuang a little closer to a straight and he turned up the heat to 760,000. With only ace-high, Costiniano still wasn’t ready to surrender.
Commentators began to sense the hand drifting into dangerous territory, and they were right.
The River: Perfection… Until It Wasn’t
When the10♦landed, everything finally made sense, at least for Chuang.
- Chuang makes the nut straight withK♥Q♦
- Costiniano improves to a modest pair of tens
Chuang fired 1.8 million, a value bet that should have been the finishing touch. Instead, Costiniano shoved. All of it. No blockers, no full house, no mercy, just a bold river story and the hope that it sounded believable enough.
Chuang had 1.6 million behind and the correct mathematical reason to call. But poker isn’t solved in spreadsheets, and after a long tank he eventually released the winning hand.
Costiniano turned over the bluff with satisfaction, earning stunned silence followed by immediate commentary meltdown. One of the commentators said in disbelief
Who actually bluffs here? It’s suicidal.
The Event Wraps: Sharma Claims the Championship
While the bluff stole the spotlight, it was India’s Nishant Kishanlal Sharma who captured the APT Championship title and the top prize of $1,186,880. Costiniano followed in second, and Romania’s Alexandru Papazian completed the podium.
Here’s how the final table finished:
APT $10,000 Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nishant Kishanlal Sharma | India | $1,186,880 |
| 2 | John Niko Costiniano | Philippines | $732,780 |
| 3 | Alexandru Papazian | Romania | $523,770 |
| 4 | Dominik Nitsche | United Kingdom | $401,225 |
| 5 | Neng Zhao | Australia | $317,870 |
| 6 | Hao Shan Huang | Taiwan | $247,575 |
| 7 | Hao Chuang | Taiwan | $180,395 |
| 8 | Matas Cimbolas | Lithuania | $123,290 |
| 9 | Martin Finger | Germany | $97,660 |
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