With five record-breaking tour stops in a row, the Asian Poker Tour (APT) is rapidly becoming one of the premier series in live poker.
It doesn’t hurt that the APT regularly stops off in some of the continent’s most exciting places, from Manila in The Philippines to Incheon and Jeju, South Korea, and Taipei, Taiwan, where the next series runs from April 22 to May 3.
A large — and growing — contingent of international players is now a staple of the APT, making the journey to Asia from the USA, Europe and elsewhere. Attracted by the big fields, huge prizes and variety of game types available on the tour, more and more international players are traveling to take part.
For many, though, the trip may only be truly worthwhile if there are enough high buy-in events to suit their needs. In which case it’s good news, as the APT has been increasing the number of high roller events on its schedule. What's more, many will be awarding tickets to the $5M GTD Main Event at the season-ending APT Championship in November.
On that note, let’s take a look specifically at the larger buy-in events coming up at APT Taipei 2026.
Multi-day high rollers
APT Taipei 2026 runs from April 22 to May 3 at two venues in the Taiwanese capital, Red Space and the Asia Poker Arena, with 172 different events on the schedule.
Of these tournaments 33 have buy-ins of around $1K and up, including the largest buy-in event of the series, the $25K Superstar Challenge.
This festival highlight generates some of the biggest prizepools on the tour, with the previous running of the event in Jeju, Korea building a pot of over $1.1 million. China’s Ren Lin took it down on that occasion for more than $320K.
The two-day event sees players start with a stack of 250K chips, playing 14 x 40-minute levels on Day 1 and on to a winner on Day 2. The action runs on April 27-28.
Before then, and kicking off the fun on the first day of the upcoming series in Taipei is the High Roller — Ultra Stack.
The buy-in for this two-day tourney (April 22-23) is around $2K, and across the seven times it’s been held on the APT to date it’s attracted an average of 185 entrants and top prizes of around $90K.
The first Ultra Stack’s structure — 200K starting stack and 14 x 40-minute levels on Day 1 — is repeated for the second running of the event later on in the Taipei series. Running April 27-28, the second High Roller — Ultra Stack features a slightly higher buy-in of around $2.3K.
At last year’s APT Taipei series the Ultra Stack drew a huge 354 entries, creating a prizepool of over $700K and awarding its winner, Chang Hwan Lee, more than $135K.
A two-day $2.2K High Roller, April 29-30, was first introduced at APT Incheon in 2025, and since then has drawn an average of over 200 players and prizepools of around half a million dollars.
At Jeju in January the most recent edition of this tournament was the richest so far, with China’s Renji Mao winning more than $120K and the Gold Lion trophy for outlasting a field of 174.
Single-day high rollers
Those who prefer the type of tournament they can start, play and win in a day will be well catered to at APT Taipei, with nine one-day high rollers on the schedule (excluding turbos).
Last year John Juanda (pictured at the top of this article) won the biggest-ever single-day high roller in Taiwan, banking more than $110K for his day's work.
If you’re playing these, be prepared for an action-packed day and we advise getting there on time for the first hand. Not only does it ensure you get the most bang for your buck, but the first 16 players seated before the first hand is dealt will receive 50% of their tournament fee back, in cash.
Single-day high rollers all use a shot clock, to keep the action moving, with blind levels set at either 20 or 30 minutes. Starting stacks for each of them is 100K, with the exception of the Single Day Super High Roller (April 24).
This single re-entry tourney, with a buy-in of around $16K, is a new addition to the APT schedule, and allows for some deeper stacked play with starting chips of 250K.
Other high rollers planned to be done and dusted in one day include the PLO High Roller ($2K, April 25), a Mystery Bounty ($2.5K, April 26) and the Women’s High Roller ($1.1K, April 29).
The Baby Superstar Challenge has a buy-in of $5.2K and takes place towards the end of the series on May 1, while the High Roller — Last Chance lives up to its name with a $2K buy-in on the final day, May 3.
Three other single-day high rollers are set for April 23, 24 and 28, with buy-ins ranging from $1.9K to $2.8K. These usually draw around 90 players each with top prizes around the $55K mark.
Turbo time
15-minute levels keep things moving at a brisk pace in the nine turbo high rollers on the schedule.
From April 22 to May 1 these will be running regularly at both the Red Space and Asia Poker Arena, each at around the $1.1K price point. May 3 offers the chance to bump up the buy-ins, with a $5.2K Turbo Super High Roller.
And if even these fast tourneys are not quite quick enough for your liking, get involved in the hyper-turbos. 10-minute levels make these quick to play from start to finish, but with average top prizes around the $10K mark it can be a productive day!
Running from April 22 to May 3, almost daily, the buy-ins for these events range from around $1K to $1.5K.
Stick with PokerOrg for more news from APT Taipei 2026, April 22 to May 3.
Note that buy-in and prize amounts above have been converted from New Taiwanese Dollars, are approximate and correct at time of writing.
Images courtesy of the Asian Poker Tour.
