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 one again in cooperation with the Chinese Texas Hold'em Poker Association Taipei (CTP Club), 209 total events will be available from low to high-stakes action throughout 17 days.

More than TWD 256,000,000 (≈ USD 8,100,000) in guaranteed prize pools await during the entire 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 duration and the longest levels of 35 minutes each will unfold on Day 1a, which is slated to commence at 11.00 a.m. local time on Friday, November 13. Day 1b follows later in the evening as of 8 p.m. local time with a 15-minute clock per level.

Defending champion of this very event is Japan's Ruiko Mamiya, who came out on top of a 2,398 entry strong 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 Day 1 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. The late registration for Day 1a 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 slated 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.