The final table is set in the historic largest Main Event in APT Incheon history.
From a field of 1,393 entries, just nine remain to battle for the massive $374,085 first prize and one of the most coveted trophies in all of poker, the APT Golden Lion.
More than half the final table will be represented by Japanese players, but contenders from China, Thailand, and the United States will all be trying to chase down the chip leader from Hong Kong, Stephen Pang, who was involved in two of the most exciting hands of the day.
Have a look at how he got here, along with his competitors, as we meet the final table of the APT Incheon Main Event.
Seat 1: Yifu He (United States) – 3,450,000 (22bb)
The lone American at the final table has one of the most successful resumes amidst his competitors. With $1,681,142 in recorded Hendon Mob earnings, He has results dating back to 2017. His best finishes though, have come in the past 18 months.
Not only does He have eight top-five finishes since April 2025, but he also final-tabled the Millionaire Maker at the 2026 WSOP for the most recent of his four six-figure cashes, all of which have come in this recent stretch.
A Main Event win for his first-ever APT cash would be an incredible addition to that run.
Seat 2: Phachara Wongwichit (Thailand) – 5,610,000 (35bb)
A player who will forever be linked to the annals of Asian Poker Tour history could soon add to his lore.
Wongwichit won the 2023 APT Taipei High Roller to become the first player to win one of the Rose Gold ‘Mega’ Lion Trophies (awarded to champions of APT High Roller events).
If he were to win the Main Event here in Incheon, he would become the first player in APT history to claim two of the Mega Lions, awarded only to champions of an APT Main Event (Gold Mega Lion), APT High Roller (Rose Gold Mega Lion), or APT Super High Roller (Pewter Mega Lion).
With 32 APT final tables and eight total wins (including the Superstar Challenge in Taipei earlier this year) Wongwichit may not have the biggest stack, but he’s still one of the favorites.
Seat 3: Shoumin Zhang (China) – 10,585,000 (66bb)
A champion already this series in 7-card stud mix, Zhang will be looking to add a big golden parent to the baby Lion Trophy he won for that event.
Along the way to the final table on Day 4, Zhang was the beneficiary of Peng Chen sailing off his tournament on a massive 50+ big blind bluff.
On a 
flop, Chen bet 300K into 700K and was raised to 1M by Zhang. Chen moved in for over 2M and was snap-called.
Zhang had 
for top pair; Chen had 
for total air! The board ran out cleanly for Zhang, and early in the day he had 5M chips.
He then ended the day with his elimination of Daming Kang to boost his stack over 10M and put himself in shape to eclipse his $85,422 in live tournament earnings on Saturday.
Seat 4: Stephen Pang (Hong Kong) – 13,550,000 (85bb)
Another massive beneficiary of a bluff gone wrong is the chip leader at the final table.
Pang won a huge pot early in the day, turning kings full of sixes against Yoko Sasaki, who bluffed into him with just pocket threes.
A bit later, he was then on the right end of the most dramatic hand of the day versus Nozomi Ota.
In a 3-bet pot to a flop of 
, bets and raises were exchanged until over 6M chips were in the pot.
Ota held aces with the 
, but Pang had flopped top set with pocket queens.
The turn brought the 
, giving Ota the nut flush, but the board paired on the river with the 
to eliminate Ota in the biggest pot of the day.
Pang held an overwhelming lead at that point and still holds it for Saturday’s final nine as he tries to add a second Lion Trophy to his collection, plus a healthy boost to just under $150K in career tournament earnings.
Seat 5: Kazuki Koyama (Japan): 2,775,000 (17bb)
The least heralded player at the final table – according to his Hendon Mob resume anyway – is Koyama.
Poker in Japan is somewhat mired in regulatory issues, and as such Japanese players can often have misleading tournament records. With just a single recorded $730 result for a 5th place finish in Cambodia last May, little is known about this player who stealthily made his way through Day 4 to the final table.
From the final three tables onward, Koyama did not score a single knockout, but he did manage to do something few were able to do on Friday: take a significant pot off of Stephen Pang.
With 14 players remaining, Koyama needed to double up his 1.4M chip stack, and did so through Pang with pocket kings against the chip leader’s pocket nines. Koyama will now try his best to make much more noise at the final table.
Seat 6: Tempei Kotani (Japan) – 6,935,000 (43bb)
With a collection of results totalling just $23,204 and none better than $6,162, this Japanese player has already made a run to remember, especially considering that over half of his recorded results have come in mixed games, including a pair of APT Triple Draw final tables.
Kotani also has another final table to his name in this series, in a $400 Turbo NLH for just under $1,200, but this is the one that he and everyone wanted to make, as he looks to add to his best-ever recorded tournament payday.
Seat 7: Shinichiro Kano (Japan) – 6,190,000 (39bb)
Kano entered Day 4 with the chip lead and rode it to a decent spot at the final table where he’ll try for a second time to claim a Golden Lion.
At APT Taipei in 2025, Kano scored his best-ever cash with a fourth-place finish in the Main Event, the tour’s largest ever, for $162,673.
While Kano has cashed each APT Main Event this year, since that 2025 result he hasn’t added any five-figure scores to his resume until this week.
Seat 8: Ryo Fujita (Japan) – 2,130,000 (13bb)
He may be the shortest stack on Saturday, but Fujita is no stranger to APT final tables.
This will be his ninth time making it this deep on the APT, and with no finish better than second place, this would undeniably be an amazing time to finally claim his first Lion Trophy.
To do so will be a daunting task with just 13 big blinds to work with as he looks to boost his $57,800 in career earnings in a major way.
Seat 9: Takeru Endo (Japan) – 4,215,000 (26bb)
Finally, another Japanese player who not much is known about.
With just one official Hendon Mob-recognized cash for $3,267 in 2024, to go with several non-monetary results in his homeland, a run through the APT Incheon Main Event final table would be quite the breakthrough.
Time to crown a champion
Play will resume at 11:15am local time Saturday inside the Paradise City Casino, with the APT livestream starting 30 minutes later.
Blinds will be 80K/160K (160K) with 30:32 remaining in Level 32.
We’ll have a complete wrap-up of the final table for you once the Golden Lion and the $374,085 first prize have been awarded, so stay with PokerOrg for continuing coverage from APT Incheon.
APT Incheon Main Event final table payouts:
- $374,085
- $214,120
- $150,850
- $111,180
- $87,040
- $66,030
- $50,530
- $35,800
- $27,560
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.
