APT Taipei 2026 Sets APT Non-Championship Record With 26,009 Entries

APT Taipei 2026 closed as the largest non-Championship festival in Asian Poker Tour history, drawing 26,009 total tournament entries and 3,890 unique players across 12 days in Taiwan.

The festival was run in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club at Red Space 多元商務空間 and Asia Poker Arena APA. Across 161 trophy events and four satellites, players from a combined 51 countries and regions competed for TWD 598,932,533, or about USD 19.1 million.

The result extended APT’s record-breaking run to seven straight festivals, with each stop setting a new country or region record in either entries or prize money. That streak began with APT Manila Classic 2025.

APT Taipei 2026 Raises the Non-Championship Benchmark

APT Taipei 2026 improved on last year’s Taipei festival in both total entries and unique players. The series recorded more than a 13.5% increase in total entries and more than a 9.6% increase in unique entries compared with APT Taipei 2025.

By total prize money awarded, the festival finished behind only APT Taipei 2025 and APT Championship 2025 in tour history.

Event #1 APT National Cup, sponsored by DeepRun, delivered the largest tournament field ever recorded by APT. The event drew 2,940 entries and generated a TWD 28,929,600 prize pool. Its Flight E alone attracted 956 entries, setting a new tour record for the largest single starting flight.

The festival produced four tour records and two international records. Event #40 Mystery Bounty Hunter, sponsored by Natural8, became the richest Mystery Bounty event in APT history. The APT Super High Roller also became the richest edition of that event in tour history.

Event #73 High Roller Ultra Stack became the largest non-APT Championship edition of the tournament and set a new Taiwan tour record for both prize pool and top prize.

Two more records came through Mind Sports Week. Event #70 combined Chinese Chess and poker, while Event #104 combined Go and poker. The Go and poker event drew 31 entries, setting a new world record for a combined poker and mind sports event.

Top 10 APT Taipei 2026 Events by Prize Pool

Note: The First Prize figure listed for Event #149 APT High Roller reflects the published event prize-pool breakdown. The final amount paid to champion Ritwik Khanna was TWD 5,336,300 after an ICM deal was agreed at heads-up.

Walter Lau Wins the APT Taipei 2026 Main Event

Hong Kong’s Chun Shing “Walter” Lau won the APT Taipei 2026 Main Event, taking the Gold Lion trophy and TWD 16,640,100, or about USD 533,340.

Lau, a 31-year-old real estate agent, topped a 2,354-entry field in Event #54. The tournament created a TWD 111,862,080 prize pool, about USD 3.58 million, making it the second-richest APT Main Event ever by prize pool.

His payout was also the second-largest first prize ever awarded in an APT Main Event. The event was also the second-largest APT Main Event of all time.

Lau entered heads-up play against Australia’s Joshua McCully with a 4-to-1 chip lead and went on to close out the title. The final table also included Ching En Chen, Kristof Segers, Kazuma Ishihara, Miki Shiraishi, Chia Lin Huang, Tony Ren Lin and Pakinai Lisawad.

The Main Event awarded eight APT Championship 2026 Main Event seats in total, including seats for the top six finishers. APT Championship 2026 is scheduled for Nov. 13-29, 2026, in Taipei with a USD 5 million guarantee.

Taiwan Leads Main Event Field Breakdown

The APT Taipei 2026 Main Event drew 1,300 unique players from 42 countries and regions.

Taiwan accounted for the largest share of the field with 578 entries, or 24.6%. South Korea followed with 274 entries, or 11.6%, ahead of Hong Kong with 256 entries, or 10.9%, Japan with 255 entries, or 10.8%, and Thailand with 195 entries, or 8.3%.

Singapore was next with 134 entries, followed by the Philippines with 87 entries, or 3.7%, Malaysia with 77 entries, or 3.3%, Vietnam with 74 entries, or 3.1%, Australia with 51 entries, or 2.2%, and the United States with 50 entries, or 2.1%.

India was listed with 49 entries. China had 32 entries, or 1.4%, while the United Kingdom had 31 entries, or 1.3%. The remaining 27 countries and regions made up the rest of the field.

Five Events Cross Four-Figure Entries

APT Taipei 2026 included five tournaments with four-figure fields, while four events generated seven-figure USD prize pools.

The APT National Cup led the festival with 2,940 entries. The Main Event drew 2,354 entries, while Event #171 Labor Day Monster Stack attracted 2,135 entries and generated a TWD 6 million prize pool, about USD 191,000.

Event #133 Mini Main Event drew 1,542 entries and built a TWD 39.9 million prize pool, about USD 1.2 million. Event #40 Mystery Bounty Hunter drew 1,540 entries and generated a TWD 25.8 million prize pool, about USD 829,000.

Ritwik Khanna Wins APT High Roller After Heads-Up Deal

India’s Ritwik Khanna won the TWD 120,000 Event #149 APT High Roller, earning TWD 5,336,300, or about USD 170,490, after a heads-up ICM deal.

The High Roller drew 329 entries and created a TWD 34,110,720 prize pool, about USD 1,089,800. Only 62 players returned for the Final Day, with the top 47 places paid.

Khanna defeated defending Taipei High Roller champion Trung Quan Nguyen heads-up. He rallied from a severe chip deficit and won key all-ins before securing the title.

The final two players agreed to an ICM deal once play reached heads-up. Nguyen finished second for TWD 5,335,420, about USD 170,460, while Vietnam’s Tran Anh Tuan Le took third for TWD 3,107,400, about USD 99,280. Khanna also received an APT Championship seat.

Other listed High Roller cashers included Rob Hollink, Mike Takayama, Rudy Edenata, Joseph Cheong and Abraham Ceesvin.

APT Taipei 2026 ended with a new non-Championship festival benchmark for the tour, a second-richest APT Main Event and major wins for Lau and Khanna during APT’s 20-Year Anniversary season.