Shintaro Sato is playing for his maiden live tournament title on APT’s biggest stage

China’s Shuang Bao Leads Tour’s Richest Korean Mini Main Event With a KRW 841M (~USD 575K) Prize Pool on the Line

APT JEJU CLASSIC 2026 SCHEDULE | OFFICIAL RESULTS | LIVE REPORTING | PLAYER LISTS | IMAGES | WINNERS

JEJU, SOUTH KOREA, February 6, 2026 – Running at the tournament tables of tables of LES A Casino — located at the luxurious Jeju Shinhwa World resort and hosted in partnership with Landing Entertainment Korea — Day 7 of the ten-day APT Jeju Classic 2026 saw the largest poker tournament ever to play out in Korea reduced down to the final nine players.

While its bigger brother was getting close to completion, the Mini Main Event was just getting started, generating the richest prize pool the tour has ever awarded in the country. You can catch up with the action in the three opening flights further down.

In addition to Day 4 of the record-breaking Main Event, and the opening flights of the Mini Main Event, there was also the second day of the tour’s richest Korean-based Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8. While the tournament was initially scheduled to play down to a champion, an extra day has been added.

China’s Yi Feng Zhang bagged the overnight chip lead and will return to battle heads-up against compatriot Siyu Ji with the tournament now concluding on Saturday February 7.

You can read about the Day 2 action via the Zodiac Classic APT Blog coverage.

A recap of the tournament action will be available in the APT Jeju Classic 2026 Day 8 press release on Saturday when we discover which of the two remaining players will claim the richest top prize the tournament has ever awarded in the country.

Other exciting side event action saw the festival’s dedicated high roller contingent battling it out in the single day KRW 15M (~USD 10,200) Baby Superstar Challenge, and the KRW 3.5M (~USD 2,300) Single Day Big Bounty.

In addition there were a further nine assorted turbo tournaments and mixed games in action – all of which you can read about in the side event press release.

Main Event Day 4 Action

The award-winning 24K Gold Lion APT Main Event Trophy

Just 47 players out of a record field of 1,718 entries returned for the penultimate day of the APT Jeju Classic 2026 Main Event, all guaranteed a pay out of KRW 9,300,000 (~USD 6,460) from the the KRW 3,414,009,600 (~USD 2,370,840) prize pool – the second richest the tour has ever awarded in the country.

While the payouts were becoming more significant, no one was playing for ladder jumps and all players had but one goal in mind – securing their spot on the tour’s biggest stage for the climactic Final Day of the tournament.

With the top three places receiving an APT Championship (APTC) Main Event seat valued at KRW 14.4M (USD 10,000) in the tour’s USD 5M GTD season-ending showpiece running in Taipei in November, and the eventual champion claiming a monster KRW 579,649,600 (~USD 402,535) top prize — the fourth-largest APT Main Event prize ever awarded — there was a lot at stake.

While it was Haiyang Yang returning with the start of day chip lead, the Chinese player was unable to progress to the Final Day, exiting in 25th place.

It took close to eleven 60-minute levels to reduce the field down to the final nine, with the elimination of Japan’s Yasuhiro Yamamoto in tenth place concluding the Day 4 tournament action with 57 minutes remaining on the clock on level 36.

However, with a Final Table starting level guaranteed to be at a minimum of a 30 big blind average, the clock for the Final Day will be rolled back to level 34 with blinds of 125,000/250,000 with a 250,000 big blind ante.

All remaining finalists are guaranteed a payout of at least KRW 42,910,000 (~USD 29,800), with Japan’s Shintaro Sato returning in pole position with a stack of 17,175,000 – valued at 69 big blinds when play resumes at 11:15am on Saturday, February 7.

Romania’s Mihai Tabac sits close behind Sato in the counts and will be returning with a stack of 15,475,000 (62 big blinds), with APT National Cup runner up Zu You Wang making another deep run this festival and coming in with the third largest stack of 13,400,000 (54 big blinds).

Romania’s Mihai Tabac is returning second in chips

The final table is an eclectic mix of Asian players from three different countries with Tabac and Canada’s William Li adding some international flair.

Quang Minh Nguyen, who previously won the APT Taipei 2025 Super High Roller, is the only player remaining in the field with a chance to become the first player in the APT New Era to win a second Big Three tournament title and a second Mega Lion trophy. The Vietnamese player is returning sixth in the counts with a stack of 2,700,000 (11 big blinds).

Haohui Ma is another player with pedigree at the final table with multiple high roller titles on his poker resume and the Chinese player will be returning seventh in the counts with 2,550,000 in chips (10 big blinds).

On the opposite side of the chip spectrum from tournament top dog Sata is China’s Yuefeng Pan, who will be returning with just a single 25,000 chip (1/10th of a big blind) after losing a massive pot to the Japanese player near the end of the Day 4 action.

BACK (L-R): Yuefeng Pan, William Li, Quang Minh Nguyen, Arita Naohiro, Mihai Tabac

FRONT (L-R): Zu You Wang, Shintaro Sato, Lei Zhang, Haohui Ma

MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE

For APT Jeju Classic 2026 Main Event Player Profiles please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Day 4 Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Final Table Draw please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Results please CLICK HERE

While APT Super High Roller and Superstar Challenge finalist Khoa Anh Ngo was unable to make a third festival final table showing, the Vietnamese player did win the Natural8 USD 8,000 Last Longer Challenge, padding out the KRW 13,110,000 (~USD 9,100) he received for his 30th place finish with a further USD 8,000 as the last Natural8 qualifier remaining in the field.

Vietnam’s Khoa Anh Ngo won the Natural8 Last Longer Challenge

Other notables unable to make it through from Day 4 included Vietnam’s Nang Quang Nguyen (20th), APT Jeju 2025 Main Event finalist Yita Choong (29th), Norway’s Peter Da (35th), last woman standing Congya Zhang (39th), and Natural8 qualifiers Jun Li (41st), and Chongwei Liao (42nd).

All tournament information can be found on the Main Event Day 4 tournament page.

You can read all the live coverage on the Main Event Day 4 APT Blog or watch it as it happened via the Main Event Day 4 live stream on the official APT YouTube channel.

The Final Day action gets underway at 11:15am (KST) on Saturday, February 7 with the tournament playing down to a champion. Full coverage will be available on the APT Blog, and you can also watch all the tournament thrills and spills via the Main Event Final Day live stream on the official APT YouTube channel.

China’s Shuang Bao Leads Tour’s Richest Korean Mini Main Event With a KRW 841M (~USD 575K) Prize Pool on the Line

Shuang Bao is hunting his maiden live tournament title in the tour’s second largest Korean-based Mini Main Event

By far the most popular draw of the day, the KRW 1.2M (~USD 820) Mini Main Event drew an impressive 812 entries (413 unique) over the three starting flights.

This is a thirty-one percent (31.3%) increase in entries over the APT Jeju 2025 edition of the tournament, making it the second largest Mini Main Event the tour has run in Korea, and the third largest Mini Main Event of all time.

While the tournament may not be the largest Mini Main Event the tour has operated in the country, with a twenty percent increase to the buy-in it is the richest, generating a KRW 841,881,600 (~USD 574,660) prize pool, which makes it the second richest Mini Main Event the tour has ever run.

With the top 14 percent of each of the three flights making the Final Day and the paying positions, just 115 players fought their way through to compete for the title, trophy, and KRW 160,061,600 (~USD 109,260) top prize.

For Mini Main Event Prize Pool & Payouts please CLICK HERE

It is Shuang Bao who will be returning as tournament top dog after topping the counts for the 220-entry Turbo Flight C, and the Chinese player will be returning with a stack of 1,098,000 with which to make his play for a maiden live tournament title.

Hong Kong’s Ka Ho Ip returns second in the overall standings after bagging the second largest Flight C stack of 1,040,000, with the duo the only two players to conclude the three opening flights with seven-figure stacks.

It is another Flight C player rounding out the top three, with China’s Jing Wang returning with a stack of 867,000.

While it was the opening Flight A that drew the largest of the three fields with 301 entries, Flight A frontrunner Hang Xu of China will be returning fourth in the counts with a stack of 828,000, with Flight A runner-up Aleksei Sei of Russia bagging the fifth largest stack of 788,000.

The USA’s Kaifan Wang topped the 291-entry Flight B, and will be returning sixth in the pecking order with a stack of 733,000, with the top ten as follows:

MINI MAIN EVENT TOP TEN STACKS

For Mini Main Event Flight A Player List please CLICK HERE

For Mini Main Event Flight A Survivors please CLICK HERE

For Mini Main Event Flight B Player List please CLICK HERE

For Mini Main Event Flight B Survivors please CLICK HERE

For Mini Main Event Turbo Flight C Player List please CLICK HERE

For Mini Main Event Turbo Flight C Survivors please CLICK HERE

For Mini Main Event Final Day Draw please CLICK HERE

All tournament information can be found on the Mini Main Event tournament page.

Action for the Final Day gets underway at 11:15am (KST) on Saturday, February 7, with the tournament playing down to a champion.