APT Jeju Main Event cruises past guarantee with $2.3M+ prizepool

For the APT Jeju Main Event that number was KRW 2.2 billion, or around $1.6 million. I use the word ‘was’ because that’s a number we’ve now moved well beyond.

The action has been non-stop in the LES A Casino.

With the passing of the first level in Wednesday’s Day 2, registration closed and the final numbers were confirmed. An increase of close to 50% on the guaranteed prize money means there’s now more than KRW 3.2B in the pot to be won — almost $2.4M in US dollars.

198 in the money and heading through to Day 3

In terms of attendance, 1,375 entries at ~$2K a shot have made this the 4th largest APT event to take place in Korea since the tour’s ‘New Era’ began, behind only the same event last year and the two to have run in 2026 — here in Jeju at the start of the year and in Incheon during the summer.

And in terms of prizes, it’s become the 2nd richest Korean Main Event in that period, while the top prize of KRW 556,340,000 (~$415K) will be the 8th largest in the APT’s 20-year history.

200 players have made the money, with a min-cash worth KRW 4,180,000, or around $3K.

Two players who will be chopping that min-cash are Francis Anderson of the USA and China’s Shurong Huang, who both went out in a double bubble elimination 9 hours into the day.

That leaves 198 players to head into Day 3.

China's Ma Kaihong currently holds the chip lead with 1.135M, good for 189 big blinds when action resumes on Thursday, partway through the 3K/6K level.

A selection of other notable names still in the pack includes Christian Harder of the USA (663K), Japan's Daisuke Ogita (536K), Lee Wee Liew of Malaysia (362K), Poland's Dzmitry Urbanovich (213K) and Australia's Daniel Neilson (202K).

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Onlive qualifiers to join the fray

Those surviving players can look ahead to — in the best-case scenario — three more days of play before the event crowns a winner on Saturday night.

Before then, two lucky survivors will receive a gift worth more than 3x a min-cash, as random prize draws will award a $10K APT Championship Main Event seat on both Day 3 and Day 4. If you’re still in your seat and still in the tourney, you’re still in with a shot.

Also adding to the spice on Thursday’s Day 3 will be the arrival of the ‘onlive’ qualifiers; 31 players who secured their seats online at Natural8, GGPuke and GGJP, with the added benefit of skipping straight past the bubble and right into the payout spots.

Renji Mao.

Jess Beck

And these qualifiers will not exactly be dead money. Among their number are:

• Renji Mao (above), the two-time WSOP bracelet winner from China with almost $5M in lifetime tournament earnings, who final-tabled the APT Superstar Challenge here on Tuesday.
• Stephen Pang, the Hong Kong-based player whose last outing on the APT saw him win the Main Event in Incheon for almost $300K.
• Yita Choong, a former GPI Player of the Year for his native Australia, a high roller winner in Incheon, and final tablist in the APT Super High Roller last weekend.
• Chih Wei Fan (below), a Natural8 pro from Taiwan whose APT resume features wins in the Superstar Challenge, the Baby Superstar Challenge and high rollers, and who came close to winning his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 NLH 6-Max a couple of years ago.

Chih Wei Fan, left, with Daniel Neilson.

Together with the rest of the online qualifiers, these four will bring their stacks into play on Thursday, when they’ll play 10 x 60-minute levels or down to 48. The action resumes at 11:15am local time.

Stick with PokerOrg for the latest from APT Jeju.

Note that dollar amounts have been converted from Korean won, are approximate and correct at time of writing.

^{Additional images courtesy of the APT.}