Level 2: 200-300/300 Entries: 76/79 Remaining

The action is starting to pick up as several players were already spotted all-in. Not all resulted in a call but Kun Han Lee and Jia Cheng Chu have been confirmed as the second and third casualty on Day 1a.

South Korea's Kyungsun Jung jammed for around 32,000 on the 8 7 5 Q 5 river into Gyumin Kim and his opponent folded.

Level 2: 200-300/300 Entries: 63/64 Remaining

Three ways to the A 8 3 5 6 river, Jung Min Kim bet 4,000 when checked to out of the blinds and Lan Peng called whereas Shih Yu Chiao folded.

Kim tabled his Q T for a bluff and Peng won the pot with the 9 8 for the second pair.

Taeheon Lee

The blinds are now 100-300 with a big blind ante of 300 and according to the tournament info screens, there are 46 players out of 47 entries remaining.

With the sole elimination so far, Taeheon Lee is the early chip leader as he was the one to score the knockout over on table five before he was moved to a new seat assignment to balance the growing field.

Nishit Jain

The Day 1a field has now reached 33 entries with 32 players remaining and among the most notable recent entries is well-known Taiwanese player Chi Jen Chen. On his table, a three-way pot had reached the A 8 5 9 turn on which Poyang Huang bet 1,200 when checked to. Only Nishit Jain check-called and checked the K on the river.

Huang bet 2,000 to get called and declared "ace" before showing his A 2 for the top pair. Jain, however, collected the pot with the K 9 for rivered two pair.

In a three-bet pot to the Q 9 7 flop, Akimitsu Uesugi check-called a bet of 1,000 by Jin Ling Yong and did so again for 2,500 on the 9 turn. Both players then checked the 6 on the river and Uesugi tabled his K T for the busted straight and flush draw.

Yong only had A 4 but the ace was enough to win the pot.

The field for Day 1a is starting to fill up with now up to 24 players and Bulgaria's Nedelcho Karakolev already managed to lose his entire stack to become the very first casualty of the 2026 APT Championship in an official event when not taking into consideration yesterday's Casino Industry showdown.

New faces in the field include Akimitsu Uesugi, Toru Tano, Takumi Nakane, Hong Wei Li, Jaesoon Kim, Sze Long Fan, and Shih Yu Chiao.

Ruben Korab

Several tables have started short handed and among them was also table seven on which Yii Fei Si limped in and Ruben Korab checked to the Q 8 7 flop. Si check-called for 200 and did so again for 500 on the 4 turn.

The 9 river was checked by Si again and Korab bet 1,000 to win the pot.

Thai player Prin Snitmacharo three-bet to 1,200 preflop and was called by Jung Min Kim, who then check-called the 9 6 4 flop for 2,000. Both checked the K turn and Kim check-called another 2,000 on the 6 river to muck when he was shown the Q Q .

The action has kicked off right in front of the registration desk and even though there are only a handful of early entrants, that number is expected to rise significantly.

So far, there are only 12 players registered with a diverse mix of countries from Asia and Europe. For example, Ruben Korab from Austria and Nedelcho Karakolev from Bulgaria are joined by several players from South Korea whereas four other nationalities are in the mix as well.

The blinds are 100-200 with a big blind ante of 200 and that gives everyone 200 big blinds in the first level of play. The button is in seat eight and the cards are now officially underway.

Furthermore, several players are expected to jump into the action right away as there is a waiting line at the registration desk now already.

2025 champion Ruiko Mamiya

The first day of the 2026 Asian Poker Tour Championship (APTC) has arrived and thousands of card game enthusiasts from all over the world will be heading to Red Space in Taipei City to take part in Asia's largest live poker festival of the year. Held once again in cooperation with the Chinese Texas Hold'em Poker Association Taipei (CTP Club), a total of 209 events will be available, from low to high-stakes action throughout the 17 day festival.

More than TWD 256,000,000 (~USD 8,100,000) in guaranteed prize pools awaits during the festival, and several key events are part of the schedule, including 23 Championship Events and 23 High Roller Events. The first low-stakes highlight kicks off on the very first day of the series with the National Cup Championship, which boasts a TWD 20M guarantee for a buy-in of only TWD 16,000.

A total of five starting days are available with varying level durations and the longest levels of 35 minutes each will unfold on Flight A, which is slated to commence at 11.00 a.m. local time on Friday, November 13. Flight B follows later this evening at 8 p.m. local time with a 15-minute clock.

The defending champion of this very event is Japan's Ruiko Mamiya, who came out on top of a 2,398-entry field one year ago after a three-way deal with local Taiwanese player Wei Chun Kuo and Hong Kong's Wilfred Yiu. The trio took home the largest slices of the TWD 29,544,600 prize pool, whereas well-known Filipino poker pro Florencio Campomanes bowed out in fifth place for TWD 1,113,300.

All initial flights will play to 14% in the money and players must make the Final Day in order to cash. If several participants bust during bubble play, they will thus not receive a cash prize. Late registration for Flight A will be open until approximately 6.35 p.m. local time following the 75-minute dinner break. All players receive 40,000 in chips and the blinds at the end of the registration period will be 1,000-1,500/1,500.

The first Championship Event of the festival is scheduled to play down to a winner on Saturday, November 15, and the APT live updates team will provide as many key hands as possible on the way there.