With a full schedule now confirmed for the Asian Poker Tour Championship 2026, we speak to some of the players we expect to see challenging for the $5M GTD freezeout in November.
“Winning the Championship in Seoul in 2019, in my first APT, was probably what ignited my fire for tournament poker.”
That fire still burns within Punnat Punsri, reigning GPI Player of the Year and multiple Triton Super High Roller winner.
Before his win in Seoul, the former cash game specialist had accumulated less than $50,000 in tournament winnings. Since then, he’s added more than $35 million to that total.
“I remember after winning that, I looked at the Thailand all-time money list. I cashed for $50K or so at APT Seoul, and I think that got me in the top 15. I wanted to be number one.”
Punsri now tops that list, comfortably, but despite becoming a fixture on the Triton tour, playing the highest buy-in events there are, he still returns to the APT on a regular basis.
“I have a sentiment for the APT. I get to enjoy time with my friends here, particularly from Thailand. The Triton price point might be too high for many people who are getting into the game and enjoying the tournament process.”
Punsri is just one of many international tournament players who make a point of returning to the APT, and who we’re all-but-guaranteed to see compete in the season-ending $5M GTD freezeout at the APT Championship.
Joseph Cheong: Plenty here for high-stakes players
Another familiar face often found in the ever-growing APT tournament fields is Joseph Cheong, third-place finisher in the 2010 WSOP Main Event won by Jonathan Duhamel.
Cheong has a bracelet of his own, won in 2019, as well as six-figure scores picked up everywhere from the WPT to the EPT, the Venetian, and the Triton SHR Series.
But more recently he’s been making waves on the APT and tournament series around Asia, having relocated after 15 years in Las Vegas.
“I live in Asia, and the APT is one of the biggest tours here,” says Cheong. “Asia is blowing up these days, and a lot of the Asian stops are good.
“Plus it’s cool to go to new places. Taipei is great; we're in the middle of the city here, playing tournaments, so when you bust, there are lots of things to do. You’re not doing the same things over and over.
“In America, for example, a lot of stops are just casinos in the middle of nowhere, whereas we’re right in the middle of downtown Taipei, which is a big metropolis.”
While Punsri highlights the more affordable aspects of the APT, particularly when compared to the rarefied air of the Triton tour, Cheong points out that the tour has a lot to offer high-stakes players too.
“It’s kind of the same everywhere: at low stakes, people are bad. At high stakes, they’re generally better. But in a place like Vegas there are not many recreational players at higher stakes, whereas here there are a lot of rich people that will come play because this is a vacation for them.”
Longtime pro Cheong has now become a regular on the APT circuit and made two final tables at the tour’s February stop in Jeju, Korea. He's also one of just two 2-time winners of the APT Superstar Challenge, traditionally the biggest buy-in event on the tour, as well as the only double-winner to date of the APT Zodiac High Roller.
Having spent a significant time in Las Vegas, he doesn’t appear to be missing it.
“I think a lot of the high rollers who stay in Vegas probably have families, so they can't travel,” says Cheong. “It's not like they want to just play PokerGO events.”
Lester Edoc: The veteran who's seen it all
While the APT has a long history — it’s currently celebrating its 20th anniversary — new ownership came in and relaunched the tour three years ago, kick-starting the recent trend in booming prizepools, record fields and tournament schedules packed with interesting and unusual poker variants.
But many of the tour’s regulars were present before that watershed moment, including Lester Edoc of the Philippines.
Edoc’s first recorded cash in an APT event came all the way back in 2011 and — aside from the COVID era — he has played and cashed in every season since.
“Now, there are a lot of players,” says Edoc. “It’s like every year, they upgrade it. More players, more prize money. More is better!
“I see a lot more players now on the APT from Europe, from America... even the Triton guys are coming.”
Edoc points to the increased prize money on offer as the prime reason for the tour’s international growth. His own best tournament score came in Taipei in 2024, when he finished runner-up in the Superstar Challenge for $265K.
He also has two Main Event wins to look back on, but one of his most cherished memories in his history with the APT has nothing to do with money.
“I can’t forget the day in 2014 when me and my wife both won tournaments on the same day. I proposed on the stage.”
Decorated pros keep returning
Phachara Wongwichit, winner of this year’s APT Taipei Superstar Challenge, is another player with experience of both the old and new eras of the tour.
In a career that has seen him run deep at the WSOP, Triton events, the EPT and more, his first APT result came back in 2018, in Macau.
“The modern era, the post-COVID era, is very different,” says Wongwichit. “The prizepools are now beyond 10X what they were. I like it, although the schedule is very packed. Before it was very chill; in the evenings you would go out, but this is a different thing.”
One player known for being chill at the APT tables is Australia’s Daniel Neilson, who can often be seen making deep runs with a bottle of whisky at his side.
“The first APT event I played was probably around 15-20 years ago,” says Neilson. “I think I went to one or two of the original APTs, but then I’ve played a fair few of the ones from the last 2 or 3 years.”
Neilson has multiple WPT titles to his name, as well as high roller victories on the APT in Manila and Taipei.
The last time he was in Taiwan for November’s APT Championship, he made the final two of the $50K. He finished second to Calvin Lee and collected around $414K, though he confesses he doesn’t remember it (“I find poker more fun when I’m drunk," he explains).
These days Neilson is based in Mexico but continues to spend a big chunk of his time in Asia, and the APT seems to provide a natural home for a man of his talents and interests.
“I haven't been home in 3 months,” he says. “In the last 2 or 3 years, I’ve just kind of been hanging out here in Asia a bit, enjoying traveling more and having more fun.”
Neilson has close to $6M in recorded tournament earnings, with his biggest score to date of $900K coming in a third-place finish at the WSOP Paradise Main Event in 2023. He’ll be returning to Las Vegas for the summer series but won’t play a full schedule.
“I’ll just go for the Main Event, because I’m pretty sick of Vegas,” says Neilson. But he is sure he’ll be back in Taipei for the APT Championship later this year.
“I have a lot of American friends who come to a lot of events [on the APT]. When people start playing the same events a lot, you get a bit of that camaraderie.”
Chasing lions
That bond between players is also something that continues to draw Punnat Punsri back to the tour that started his tournament career in earnest.
“I think the camaraderie between the players here at the APT, the mutual respect, and the fun nature make it very unique,” he says.
“Poker in Asia in general, especially at the mid-to low stakes, the atmosphere is not as intense. The people are competitive, but it makes for a fun atmosphere.
“It's something I feel quite lucky that I get to experience regularly, because at somewhere like the World Series or Triton, it can get very intense.”
Don’t let the convivial atmosphere trick you into thinking the competition is not for real, though.
When Punsri sits down, he’s playing to win. Whether it’s the Gold Lion (the Main Event), the Pewter Lion (the Super High Roller) or the Rose Gold Lion (the High Roller), he has his sights set on the full collection.
“Winning all three colors is something I want to do – that’s become my goal. I've won the hardest one [the Main Event] so I have two left, but obviously it's harder than it looks.
“I've been doing that for 3 years now, picking a clear goal to work for. For example, the Player of the Year award last year was a goal I completed; a WSOP bracelet is something I’m still working on, and I think the three lions could also be something that I look to do.
“It's good to have different goals in poker; sometimes if you're fixated on only one goal and you don’t achieve it, it's going to be heavy. So it's good to have diverse goals, and I'm glad I have one here at the APT.”
As a man from Asia who has traveled the world playing poker, Punsri leans on his own experience when we ask why more people from the US, Europe and beyond should travel to play the APT.
“I’ve just been to Prague [for WSOPE], I really liked that city, and I probably never would have gone if it wasn’t for the poker.
“So I hope a lot of foreigners who have never been to Asia before take the chance to come here and enjoy the poker, but also enjoy our countries and have a great experience.”
APT Taipei runs to May 3, with the tour returning to the Taiwanese capital in November for the annual APT Championship. A $5M GTD Main Event will feature, in a freezeout format - see below for more.
Images courtesy of the APT.
