Walter Lau returns with a commanding lead while Tony Ren Lin is hunting his second APT Mega Lion

• Japan’s Eisuke Katsuren Leads Final 3 in Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8 as Tournament Goes into Extra Time

APT TAIPEI 2026 SCHEDULE | OFFICIAL RESULTS | PLAYER LISTS | IMAGES | WINNERS

TAIPEI, TAIWAN, May 1, 2026 – Run in partnership with with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP) across two venues—the cavernous Red Space 多元商務空間 and the Asia Poker Arena (APA)—Day 10 of the APT Taipei 2026 saw the 2,354-entry Main Event reduced down to the final nine players.

While Hong Kong’s Chun Shing ‘Walter’ Lau holds over a third of the chips in play, he must overcome a stacked final table line-up featuring Chinese poker superstar Tony Ren Lin, DeepRun coach Joshua McCully, and Thailand’s #6 ranked tournament player Pakani Lisawad.

Players and the watching rail will have to wait another suspenseful 24-hours for the conclusion of the festivals’ flagship tournament, and for another of the festival’s high-octane key events, with an extra day added to the Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8.

Just three players remain in contention for the lion’s share of the Zodiac Classic's TWD 35.6 million (~USD 1.1 million) prize pool and the two Asian Poker Tour Championship (APTC) Main Event seats – more on this and the action in the Main Event below.

Red Space also played host to the opening three flights of the TWD 25 million (~USD 800,000) guaranteed Mini Main Event, which drew a sizable 1,542-entry field and generated a hefty prize pool in excess of TWD 39 million (~USD 1.2 million).

Then there was the conclusion of the last two of the six TWD 6M GTD Labor Day Monster Stack flights playing out over at the Asia Poker Arena and you can read all about the action in both of these last two in the Day 10 side event press release.

APT Taipei 2026 Main Event Final Table Set; Hong Kong’s Chun Shing Lau in Pole Position

Chun Shing ‘Walter’ Lau holds over a third of the chips in play in the Main Event

The APT Taipei 2026 Main Event has reached the business end, with the 2,354-entry field reduced to the final nine players.

All nine finalists are guaranteed at least a TWD 1.3 million (~USD 44,000) share of the TWD 111,862,080 (~USD 3,585,320) prize pool, with the top six finishers all taking home payouts in excess of TWD 3.2 million (~USD 100K).

In addition, the top six will also claim a USD 10,000 seat to the USD 5M GTD APTC Main Event running in November with a further two seats having already been awarded via a lucky draw; the first to Russia's Sergei Zakharov on Day 3, and the second to the Netherlands Joris Michl at the start of Day 4.

Joris Michl made two pair in a hand of Super Hold’em to win an APTC Main Event seat

While a five-figure USD minimum payday sounds great for five days of poker—coming in at USD 8,800 per day—it is the gigantic TWD 16,640,100 (~USD 533,340) top prize and the award-winning Gold Lion APT Main Event trophy all nine finalists will be aiming for.

For APT Main Event Prize Pool & Payouts please CLICK HERE

A total of 46 players returned for the penultimate Day 4 of the TWD 55,000 (~USD 1,700) buy-in APT Main Event and it took over seven gruelling 60-minute levels to whittle the field down to the last nine.

The USA’s Alan ‘Ari’ Engel was the first of a slew of eliminations, exiting 30-minutes into the first level played but plenty more joined him as the tournament continued its inexorable march towards the final table.

Day 4 climaxed in scintillating fashion with a double elimination in a four-bet pot closing the action with 34 minutes remaining on level 34.

South Korea’s Jaejoong Kim and Haeil Jung committed all their chips pre-flop with pocket jacks and queens respectively, only to lose out to the ace-king of Chun Shing ‘Walter’ Lau when the Hong Kong player spiked a king on the flop.

Kim and Jung departed in 11th and 10th place respectively, while Lau rocketed into a commanding lead with over a third of the chips in play, finishing the day at the top of the leaderboard with a stack of 33,275,000 - valued at a sizable 133 big blinds.

However, before Lau can claim his maiden APT title on the tour’s biggest stage, first he must contend with the likes of current Global Poker Index (GPI) #1 Tony Ren Lin, online crusher and former Superstar Challenge champion Joshua McCully, and Thailand’s #6 ranked tournament player Pakani Lisawad, amongst others.

Tony Ren Lin is aiming to make tour history in the APT Main Event

While Lin comes into the final table with the shortest stack of 5,925,000 (24 big blinds), the Chinese player is currently on a heater having already made two final table appearances so far this series in the Event #29 Single Day Super High Roller, and the Event #45 APT Super High Roller.

Lin is on a blistering run of APT form, having previously claimed back-to-back APT Super High Roller and Superstar Challenge titles at the APT Jeju Classic 2026. Now he has a second signature APT lion trophy in his sights.

The final table promises to be an epic top billing that will have poker fans slavering in anticipation and Saturday can’t come soon enough.

Top (L-R), Miki Shiraishi, Ching En Chen, Pakinai Lisawad, Chia Lin Huang, Kristof Segers Bottom (L-R), Kazuma Ishihara, Tony Ren Lin, Chun Shing Lau, Joshua McCully

MAIN EVENT FINAL TABLE

Notables to come up short of the final table included last woman standing Netnapit Muksatean (12th), Taiwan’s Chi Jen ‘Justin’ Chu (13th), India’s Nishant Kumar (15th), the Philippines’ Michael Concepcion (24th), APT All-Time Money List #1 Joseph Cheong (34th), and the USA’s Alan ‘Ari’ Engel (46th) to name but a few.

For Main Event Day 4 Player List please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Results please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Final Table Draw please CLICK HERE

For Main Event Final Table Player Profiles please CLICK HERE

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

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

The Final Day action resumes at 11:15am local time (TST) on Saturday, May 2, with the tournament playing down to a champion.

Japan’s Eisuke Katsuren Leads Final 3 in Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8 as Tournament Goes into Extra Time

Japan’s Eisuke Katsuren has already locked up a career best score in the Zodiac Classic

Just 156 players out of the 486-entry (357 unique) TWD 85,000 (~USD 2,700) buy-in Event #124 Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8 field returned to action for what was supposed to be the Final Day.

However, with only 71 players making the paying positions and hefty TWD 35,691,840 (~USD 1,143,970) prize pool and not one, but two seats to the USD 5M GTD Asian Poker Tour Championship (APTC) Main Event on the line, none of the remaining field seemed keen to give up without a fight.

This resulted in an epic nineteen 40-minute level long day of tournament poker featuring a punishing money bubble spanning two levels, with South Korea’s Wooram Cho eventually departing in poker’s most unenviable position at the close of level 19.

It took an exhausting further eight levels once the bubble burst to reach the final table, with start-of-day chip leader Darius Nass (61st), former Zodiac Classic champion Alan Lau (63rd), APT Taipei Classic 2024 Main Event champion Rene von Reden (47th), APT High Roller champion Martin Sedlak (37th) and a whole host of others hitting the rail as play progressed.

Top(L-R), Jeffrey Lo, Tran Le, Trong Ngo, Eisuke Katsuren, Hon Lee Seated(L-R), Ichiro Hamada, Ranno Sootla, John Tech, Leo Pang

With the average stack coming in at 27 big blinds and high calibre players the likes of Hong Kong’s Jeffrey Lo (4th), former Main Event champion John Tech (5th), and Hong Kong’s Hon Cheong ‘Ivan’ Lee (6th) just some of those in the mix, the tournament still boasted plenty of play.

So much in fact, it was unable to finish before the 3am cutoff time, with three players still in the running for the remaining TWD 14,086,240 (~USD 450,040) in prize money and two APTC seats.

It is Japan’s Eisuke Katsuren who leads the final three, with Estonia’s Ranno Sootla, and Hong Kong’s Leo Pang making up the final triumvirate.

The trio elected to cut an ICM deal to flatten the payouts, and come back on Saturday, May 2 to play it out, with a further TWD 600,000 (~USD 19,230) on the table for the eventual champion, and the two ATPC seats going to the top two places. Remaining stacks and confirmed ICM payouts are as follows:

ZODIAC CLASSIC FINAL THREE PLAYERS & ICM DEAL INFO

For Zodiac Classic results so far please CLICK HERE

For Zodiac Classic Day 2 Player List please CLICK HERE

All tournament information can be found on the Zodiac Classic – Sponsored by Natural8 tournament page.

You can read about how the Zodiac Classic action played out via the APT Blog.

The tournament action will recommence at 1pm local time (TST) on Saturday, May 2, with nine minutes remaining on level 32 with blinds of 100,000/200,000 with a 200,000 big blind ante

The APT Blog team will be on hand to bring you all the tournament thrills and spills so join us then.