The silver lion silhouette APT National Cup - Sponsored by Deep Run Trophy

The Asian Poker Tour’s 20th year milestone has wasted little time adding another major chapter to the tour’s record books, with the APT Taipei 2026 National Cup - Sponsored by DeepRun producing the largest field ever seen in an APT event.

The TWD 12,000 APT National Cup attracted 2,940 entries across six starting flights at Red Space, generating a prize pool of TWD 28,929,600 (~USD 927,230). That figure made the tournament the largest-ever opening event in the APT’s 20 year history, and the richest opening event that the tour has ever seen.

The scale of the achievement becomes even clearer when compared with the other largest opening events in APT history. Taipei has dominated the top end of the list in recent years, with the National Cup growing from a festival starter into one of the tour’s most important record-setting events.

APT Taipei Opening Event History

The previous opening event field record came at APT Taipei 2024, when the TWD 10,000 APT National Cup drew 2,305 entries and generated a TWD 19,899,065 (~USD 629,650) prize pool. At the time, it was the largest opening event in APT history and the second-largest tournament the tour had ever run.

APT Taipei returned even stronger in 2025 from a prize pool perspective. The APT Taipei 2025 National Cup drew 2,161 entries, slightly below the previous year’s field size, but its TWD 21,264,240 (~USD 656,000) prize pool made it the richest opening event in tour history at that point.

The prize pools may be getting bigger, but the trophies come in all sizes at APT Taipei 2026

The APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024 National Cup also played a major role in the National Cup’s rise, attracting 1,680 entries and creating a TWD 14,353,920 (~USD 454,375) prize pool. That result was another clear sign that the opener was becoming a major event in its own right rather than simply a warm-up for the rest of the schedule.

The growth is even more striking when compared with the start of APT’s New Era. Back at APT Taipei 2023, the tour-opening APT Kickoff drew 751 entries and generated a TWD 7,005,130 (~USD $220,600) prize pool, setting an opening event record at the time.

How Much Bigger Was This Opening Event?

The jump from 2024 to 2026 is significant. Compared with the 2,305 entries recorded at APT Taipei 2024, the new record represents an increase of 635 entries, or around 28%.

Against the 2,161-entry APT Taipei 2025 National Cup, the 2026 edition drew 779 more entries, a rise of roughly 36 percent. The prize pool followed the same upward trend, climbing from TWD 21,264,240 to TWD 28,929,600.

Players battle at the APT Taipei 2026 National Cup - Sponsored by DeepRun

The comparison with the APT Taipei Poker Classic 2024 National Cup is even sharper. The 2026 edition drew 1,260 more entries, making it 75 percent larger than the 1,680-entry field recorded less than two years earlier.

Viewed against the APT Taipei 2023 Kickoff, the growth is enormous. The 2026 National Cup was almost four times the size of that 751-entry opener, showing just how quickly APT’s opening events have expanded during the tour’s New Era.

APT's Opening Event Success

The APT National Cup has become more than just an opening event. It is now one of the main indicators for where a festival is heading, and in Taipei, that signal has been unmistakable.

What once served just as a starting point for a series has developed into a record-breaking event in its own right. The 2024 edition set a new field benchmark. The 2025 version set a new prize pool standard, while this year's 2026 edition has taken the next step by breaking both the field size and prize pool records.

For a tour celebrating its 20th year, it shows how far APT has come from its early years into its current era of huge guarantees, packed tournament rooms, and record fields.