Ren Lin's rowdy comeback jump-starts milestone celebration at APT Jeju

Ren Lin powered back to beat a record-breaking APT Super High Roller field.

Lin bounces back from two big blinds

The supersized high-stakes field included 75 unique players and it added up to the largest Korean-based APT Super High Roller. A host of big stars sat down, like five-time WSOP champ John Juanda, Superstar Challenge winner Calvin Lee, all-time APT money winner Joseph Cheong, and former APT Main Event champs Punnat Punsri and Rene von Reden. 

In the end, Lee, Juanda, and and Lin survived to sit among the 23 remaining players on Day 2, but it was Lin who stole the show. With only three players left, Lin was down to just two big blinds after a dominant chip lead went to dust against Quang Dinh Do and Ryuta Nakai. An epic heater ensued, with doubles and shoves that led to a climactic showdown where Lin flopped the world for the chip lead.

It started when Nakai raised and Lin shoved. Nakai snap-called and the cards couldn't flip over fast enough. Lin had (of course) and Nakai had , and it looked like curtains until the flop put Lin in the driver's seat. A appeared on the turn to make the set into quads and Lin had the top stack. 

Lin soon closed out the deal in a heads-up match with Nakai that only lasted four hands, booking a $275K win, a Mega Lion trophy, and a ticket to the APTC Main Event later this year.

Seven winners from the APT Jeju Classic will claim a seat in the season-ending APT Championship.

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Huang battles back for National Cup

Elsewhere at the 2026 APT Jeju Classic, the APT National Cup kicked off a schedule of Silver Lion events with a 690-entry field that awarded $65,855 to its winner, Junyu Huang. The champ was among the 97 players who returned for Day 2, mounting a clever comeback to secure victory. Huang entered heads-up play with a 3-to-1 chip deficit against Zu You Wang, but the fortunes flipped right away to deliver his first-ever APT victory. 

Meanwhile, Chao Tang won the first women's event of the series, which drew 57 players to the beginning of a women's tournament schedule that features an event every day. 

Chao Tang captured the first tournament of a daily women's event schedule.

Dozens of events pack the APT Jeju Classic schedule for the next week, but a lot of the excitement now shifts to the APT Main Event, where four opening flights will pack players in for a chase at the $1.5 million guarantee. The first flight is already in the books, with 421 entries so far. That's a big increase over the first flight of last year's APT Jeju Main, which drew 390 entries. 

The opening flight yielded 145 players for Day 2 on February 4, and three more flights will add more throughout the week. Also on tap for February 2 is the Women's Bounty Hunter event and Day 1 of the Superstar Challenge, a marquee event with another seat to the APT Championship in Taipei waiting for the winner. 

For more APT Jeju Classic 2026 action, check out their livestreams on APT TV. 

^{Images courtesy of the Asian Poker Tour.}