Asian Poker Tour CEO Fred Leung, speaking to PokerOrg earlier this week, was clear in his assertion that those still looking for ‘the next poker boom’ simply haven’t been paying attention. “It’s happening right now,” said Leung, “the rest of the world just doesn’t realize.”
And if you’re the type of poker fan who rarely looks beyond the USA or Europe for your fix of tournament action, that’s perhaps understandable.
But turn your eyes to Asia and you’ll see a scene of seemingly limitless growth, where tournament fields and prize money keep rising, attendance records keep being broken, and the appetite for more live poker appears to be unending.
Case in point: the APT Incheon series, which just came to an end at the weekend with Stephen Pang’s $293K victory in the $1,700 Main Event.
With 1,393 entries that particular tournament set a new country record as the biggest live poker tourney ever held in mainland Korea, only for the record to be broken just days later in the same series with 1,427 entries in the Mini Main Event. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Compared with 2025, both the field and the prizepool in the Main Event were up over 8.5%, but placing those numbers next to those from just a couple of years earlier reveals a more dramatic story. APT Incheon 2026 drew over 108% more players, and awarded more than 86% more prize money, than the same festival in 2023.
Overall, 2,329 unique players from 45 different countries participated in the 10-day series in the northwestern corner of South Korea. The $11 million+ in prize money awarded was another record for APT Incheon, one of several that ensured the latest APT series was the 8th consecutive stop on the tour to set new records for entries or prizepools.
Below we break down some of the standout events and moments from the packed APT Incheon series.
The Main and the Mini
As mentioned above, the 1,393 entries for the Main Event set a new mainland Korean record for the biggest live tournament field, and also the second-biggest prizepool awarded by the APT in the country (~$2.1M).
In the end Stephen Pang of Hong Hong claimed the title, the money and the Gold Lion trophy, but it could have been one of the most egregious cases of ‘celebrating too early’ we’ve ever seen.
Down to the final two players, Pang won an all-in with even stacks, was congratulated by his opponent and approached for a winner’s interview. And then it was discovered that his opponent actually had him covered by a single big blind. The champagne was put back on ice, but with such a huge stack disparity the last hand or so would surely only be a formality.
After all, Pang’s opponent would need to double-up six times to take the lead. If Pang won any one of those hands, he’d claim the win. Pang then doubled up his opponent four hands in a row, and was a single card away from losing yet another when he hit the card he needed to finish the tourney.
Read more on this story below.
The record set by the Main Event ended up only lasting a few days, broken soon after by the Mini Main Event with 1,427 entries.
Japan’s Toru Sakiyama bagged the biggest slice of the pie with a ~$134K win, all for an outlay of around $630.
Biggest ever APT heads-up event
The buy-in for the heads-up event was around $560, with a field capped at 64. The latter in itself was a statement of intent, as the 61 players who took part represented another new high watermark for heads-up tourneys at the APT.
It was Taiwan’s Cheng-Yu Chung who eventually prevailed, winning each of his heads-up matches to take down the trophy and almost $10K. As with many of the events on the Incheon schedule, the field was heavy with Japanese players; five of the top 8 finishers were from Japan.
The land of the rising sun also provided the winner of the $3.5K APT High Roller, and the Rose Gold Lion trophy, in the shape of Chang Hwan Lee.
Lee is a WSOP bracelet winner, a successful businessman and something of a regular in the high-stakes games at Hustler Casino in LA. In seeing out the High Roller win he not only picked up a first prize of around $685K, but put a few near misses firmly in the rearview mirror; he was runner-up in the Baby Superstar Challenge at the APT Jeju Classic 2026, as well as third-place finisher in this very event in 2025.
Lee’s win came at a final table that included the likes of Malaysian high roller (and PokerOrg author) Wai Kiat Lee and APT Taipei 2026 Main Event winner Chun Shing Lau.
Back soon for more
In addition to those records already mentioned, a number of other APT country records were broken in Incheon, including for entries in the Korea National Cup, the Zodiac Classic sponsored by Natural8, the High Roller Ultra Stack and the Women’s Event.
Will those country records stand for long? It’s far from certain. The APT will be back in Korea in under two month’s time, when the island of Jeju plays host to APT Jeju 2026 from September 25 to October 7.
It may be only the mainland Korea records from Incheon that are still standing come October, but if the trajectory of the APT continues as expected, those won't last long either.
For more on the upcoming Jeju series, the APT Championship in November, or to read more about APT Incheon, head to our dedicated APT news section.
Note that all dollar amounts mentioned in this article have been converted from Korean won, are approximate and correct at time of writing.
Images courtesy of the APT.
