The next Asian Poker Tour (APT) series is fast approaching, with Incheon, South Korea the place to be from August 7-16.
And while we’ve already explored the huge range of mixed games on the schedule, it’s worth noting an increased focus on bigger buy-in tournaments when the series returns to the Paradise City casino resort in a little over a month’s time.
With the World Series of Poker coming to a climax in July — for all but nine players, that is — APT Incheon provides the perfect opportunity to keep your poker summer rolling, and an ideal spot in which to do it.
But while tournaments at all levels can be fun, professionals need to know the stakes (and rewards) are high enough to justify travel.
At APT Incheon there are plenty of tournaments across the nine-day festival with buy-ins over $1,000, and a $2.7 million prize guarantee for the series as a whole. Sweetening the pot is the promise of free seats to November’s APT Championship $5M GTD freezeout Main Event. More on that below.
If you’re a poker player who has always wanted to visit Korea, August may just be the perfect time.
Let’s dig a little deeper into some of the higher stakes highlights you can look forward to in Incheon.
The big ones
We’ll start with the biggest buy-in event on the schedule: the Superstar Challenge.
This tourney has a buy-in of around $24K and attracts top players from around the world. Previous winners of the Black Stealth Lion trophy include Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Ren Lin and Joseph Cheong.
The starting stack is 250K and levels are 40-minutes long, which means two days is all the time you need to win it and etch your name in the history books. This one runs August 14-15.
The next biggest ticket in Incheon is the APT Super High Roller, running August 8-9 with a buy-in of $10K. This event generally produces some of the largest prizepools at every APT stop, and awards the prestigious Pewter Lion trophy.
Another two-day event not to be missed is the $2K APT High Roller, August 12-13, which made its debut at last year’s stop in Incheon. Since then fields have reached the 260-player mark, with top prizes around $100K. Another APT High Roller runs August 15-16, this time with a ticket price of around $3.4K.
The Zodiac Classic — Sponsored by Natural8 has a $2K buy-in and runs August 13-14. Last year’s winner, Shigeji Kusakabe of Japan, scored over $250K for the win.
Also running over two days is the High Roller — Ultra Stack, a $3K buy-in tourney that starts players off with a stack of 200K chips. That runs August 10-11.
The Superstar Challenge has a little sibling, by the way, known as the Baby Superstar Challenge. With a buy-in of around $7K, it is the third most expensive event on the 2026 Incheon schedule.
This one-day event has averaged a six-figure top prize since it first ran in 2024, making it a potentially hugely profitable way to spend a day at the tables.
The biggest field for this tournament to date is the 151 entries recorded at APT Taipei 2025, but as with everything on the APT, this record is expected to fall sooner rather than later. It takes place on August 11.
Pressed for time? More single-day high rollers
Some say time is money, and APT Incheon offers plenty of opportunities to spend a little of one to win a lot of the other.
Single-day tournaments are a great option for those who want to take in the sights beyond the poker room, who need to space out their play to maintain stamina and focus, or who simply want to cram in as much poker as possible.
Below are seven more tourneys at APT Incheon that fit this description, each offering something slightly different..
- August 7: $2K High Roller (20-minute levels)
- August 8: $2.6K High Roller (30-minute levels)
- August 9: $2K PLO High Roller
- August 11: $2.4K Mystery Bounty High Roller
- August 13: $1K Women’s High Roller
- August 14: $2K 9-Game Mix High Roller
- August 16: $2K Last Chance High Roller
Even quicker? Check the turbo high rollers
Finally, if you’re the type who finds it hard to resist the pull of the pool, the buzz of the boutiques or the fun of fine dining, you’ll want a tournament that has the potential to pay off even faster.
(And hey, no judgment here; Paradise City has plenty of distractions that should not be missed — as enticing as the packed tournament schedule is.)
To that end, turbo tourneys are what you need, and APT Incheon has five of them at the $1K+ price point. These all have levels of 15-minutes or less and use shot-clocks from the very start to keep things moving along nicely.
- August 7: $1K
- August 9: $1K
- August 13: $1K
- August 14: $1.3K
- August 16: $1K
APT Championship seat giveaways
As has been traditional across the APT’s 20th anniversary season, APT Incheon will see free tickets given away for the end-of-season APT Championship Main Event.
Each ticket is worth $10K, and buys the holder into the $5M GTD freezeout running in Taipei, Taiwan from November 23-27.
These will be awarded to the winners of:
- The APT Super High Roller
- The APT High Roller
- The Superstar Challenge
- The High Roller — Ultra Stack
- The Mini Main Event
- The Zodiac Classic — Sponsored by Natural8
In addition, the top three finishers in the APT Incheon Main Event will also receive APT Championship seats.
For full details of the APT Incheon schedule, visit the APT website.
Note that buy-ins and prize amounts are converted from Korean Won, are approximate and correct at time of writing.
Images courtesy of the APT and Paradise City Casino & Resort.
