Scott Margereson
After a marathon final table, the APT Jeju 2026 High Roller came to a swift conclusion as Scott Margereson needed just a single hand of heads-up play to claim the title. After topping a field of 295 entries, the British pro secured the APT Mega Lion trophy, the top prize and an APT Championship Main Event ticket for use next month at APT Championship in Taipei.
The event comfortably smashed its KRW 700,000,000 guarantee, generating a prize pool of KRW 1,274,400,000 (~USD 958,195), making it the richest Korean-based APT High Roller in tour history and the third richest of all time.
For his efforts, Margereson cashed for KRW 252,850,000 (~USD 190,110), the second-richest APT High Roller top prize ever awarded in South Korea, along with the trophy and a USD 10,000 APT Championship seat.
Final Table Results
Margereson's Thoughts after the Win
Speaking after the win, he pointed to the moment the tournament turned in his favour.
“I had nine big blinds and essentially I quadrupled up in one hand with ace-king against queens and tens,” he said. “After that, I was in two big flips and won them both, which essentially put me in a situation just to play nearly every hand.”
Despite his dominating stack during the final table, he insisted he never got ahead of himself. “I tried not to get too ahead of myself because I knew it could change very quickly,” Margereson explained.
He also acknowledged that the seat draw played its part, with Kunal Patni sitting directly to his right. “Him being on my right made things a lot better,” he said. “He was unfortunate that I was there. If it was the other way around, it could have gone differently for sure.”
As for the APT Championship seat, “I wasn't actually planning on going this year, but I have to go now! It's an amazing place, the tournaments are great, so I'm looking forward to it.”
Final Day Action
The trophy may have ended up in British hands, but it was Brazil's Higor Seibel who led the 65 returning players into Day 2 as the favourite, while Margereson bagged a bang-average stack of 733,000 the night before.
Seibel continued to make waves early on, flopping quads against Meng Dian Peng in a hand that sent the table into a frenzy, but quickly ran out of steam and his chip lead after, with Martin Sedlak picking off a hefty river bluff to scoop a huge pot and further chip away at his stack.
Margereson was down to nine blinds before his fortunes changed
Margereson was nursing just nine big blinds when the turning point of his tournament arrived. He four-bet jammed with ace-king and was called by both Quang Trinh Do's pocket tens and Vinay B's pocket queens, with Seibel's three-bet already in the middle. A king on the flop and another on the turn delivered a massive triple-up and sent Do to the rail in the process.
From there, he never looked back. He flopped a set of tens to eliminate Vinay B and climb to 5,000,000, drawing level with Kunal Patni at the time, before his ace-seven held against Seibel's jack-eight to send the start-of-day chip leader home in 11th and move him up to around 6.5 million.
Earlier in the day, the money bubble burst when Kaifan Wang's queen-eight ran into Kei Okuda's set, with the river improving Okuda to a boat and leaving 39 players guaranteed at least KRW 8,700,000 (~USD 6,540).
Kunal Patni
Patni was another big mover, dispatching compatriot Tarun Guwalani with king-nine suited against pocket jacks in a hand that drew plenty of attention, and later winning a key pot against Chih Wei Fan with ace-queen to reach 5,000,000. Fan himself had won a flip against Yulin Li to send him out just two spots shy of the money, before Fan himself saw his stack dwindle from 3 million to 700,000 by the time the final table was reached.
The final table was set when Naohiro Matsuda missed his flush draw against Hongsheng Zhang and fell in tenth place.
The Final Table
Top L-R Yaoyu He, Scott Margereson, Martin Sedlak, Wouter Beltz, Jiaxian Pan | Bottom L-R Chih Wei Fan, Kunal Patni, Hongsheng Zhang, Yoshifumi Takahashi
Margereson took a small lead into the final table with 7,280,000, just ahead of Patni on 7,030,000, while Fan was trailing at the back of the pack.
It didn't take long for the first player to fall. In the second hand, Fan open-jammed from the small blind with jack-nine and was called by Margereson's queen-four. A queen on the flop put the Brit ahead, and Fan's open-ender failed to materialise, sending him out in ninth.
Yaoyu He
Yaoyu He was left short after running into Jiaxian Pan's straight, and soon after, he got his last chips in with king-nine against Pan's ace-ten. He flopped a pair of nines, but the turn paired Pan's ten, and he was sent to the rail in eighth.
Wouter Beltz briefly dented the chip leader's stack when his queen-nine held against Margereson's ace-ten for a crucial double, but the chip leader got his revenge shortly after, when ace-jack made trips against Beltz's sixes to send the Beltz out in seventh.
Martin Sedlak
Margereson then moved past 14,000,000 at the expense of previous Mega Lion winner Martin Sedlak, whose pocket nines fell to ace-ten when a ten on the flop and another on the turn left the German drawing slim. The river gave Margereson a boat, ending Sedlak's bid for a second Mega Lion in sixth place.
Jiaxian Pan was next to fall when he called Margereson's jam with ace-ten. Pan flopped middle pair, but the turn gave the chip leader a straight with ace-jack, and the river sealed Pan's exit in fifth.
Patni fell in a three-way all-in
Fourth place came in dramatic fashion. Margereson open-jammed with ace-eight, and both Yoshifumi Takahashi with ace-ten and Patni with pocket queens called off their stacks. The ace on the flop left the Indian player trailing, and when the board ran out low, Takahashi's ten kicker earned him a triple, while Margereson took the side pot to send Patni out in fourth.
Hongsheng Zhang
Three-handed play offered the short stacks some hope. Hongsheng Zhang doubled twice through Margereson in consecutive hands, first with king-queen against pocket eights and then with ace-eight against ace-four, before Takahashi doubled through Zhang with jack-ten against queen-nine.
Zhang's run eventually came to an end when he called off his last 3 million with queen-jack against Margereson's ace-four. Ace-high held, and Zhang took the third-place position and a podium finish.
One Hand, Two-Handed
Scott Margereson and Yoshifumi Takahashi
Margereson entered heads-up play with a whopping 5:1 chip advantage and it took just one hand to settle it.
Takahashi jammed with ace-nine suited, and Margereson called with king-eight off. The king in the window gave Margereson the better pair, and with no ace or nine landing on the turn or river, the APT High Roller title was his.
Takahashi took home KRW 168,100,000 (~USD 126,390) for his runner-up finish, while Margereson's remarkable run from nine big blinds to the Mega Lion brought the APT High Roller to its conclusion.
Yoshifumi Takahashi
Scott Margereson and Yoshifumi Takahashi
Scott Margereson
Hongsheng Zhang
Kunal Patni