Reoma Ogawa

The stakes were raised today at the 2026 Asian Poker Tour Incheon festival, as 58 entrants (48 unique) made their way inside the Paradise City Resort to compete in Event #22: APT Super High Roller. The marquee event features a KRW 15,000,000 entrance fee — making it the second highest buy-in tournament of the series, just behind the Superstar Challenge.

After a full 16 levels of play, Japan's Reoma Ogawa emerged as the chip leader among the 14 players who survived the day, bagging up 2,335,000 — nearly 10 percent of all the chips in play and the only stack to surpass the two-million mark.

Ogawa appears relatively new to the poker tournament scene, with just two recorded cashes totaling $1,968 according to The Hendon Mob. Ogawa stands to make a breakout performance with his large chip lead, as even scoring a min-cash for KRW 31,510,000 (~USD 22,620) in Day 2 would more than 10x his current live tournament earnings.

Natural8 Ambassador Chih Wei Fan will give chase with 1,950,000, good for the second position overall, while prolific tournament grinder Michel Molenaar rounds out the podium spots with 1,620,000.

Super High Roller End-of-Day 1 Chip Counts

Also in the hunt is German poker crusher Martin Sedlak (1,030,000), who is no stranger to success in APT high rollers after winning the 2024 APT Taipei Poker Classic High Roller for his largest tournament score to date (~USD 164,000).

Martin Sedlak

A bit further down the leaderboard is Natural8 ambassador Nevan Chang (560,000). The Taiwanese pro boasts over $4 million in live-tournament earnings, including a win in the 2025 APTC Taipei Mini Main Championship and a staggering eight APT high roller titles. Chang will have some work to do on Day 2 as one of the shorter stacks in play, however, with a plethora of experience and 19 big blinds to work with, Chang still has plenty of room to maneuver.

Day 1 Action

Ogawa's impressive surge was arguably the story of the day. While the Japanese player arrived without the extensive tournament resume of many of his Day 1 opponents, he was still able to navigate his way into the chip lead in the last couple of levels of play.

He first began to separate himself after dinner break by claiming several eliminations, including against Yita Choong after winning a classic race with queens against ace-king. Not long after, he clashed with fellow Japanese player Takumi Eguchi in a massive pot that gave him the lead. In the hand, Ogawa opened and was squeezed by Eguchi preflop. Ogawa moved all in with ace-queen and was called by Eguchi holding pocket queens. Ogawa found a lucky ace on the runout to send Eguchi to the rail and vault his stack to over two million.

Unlike Ogawa, Fan's path to bagging a big stack was earned after a rather turbulent day on the felt. The Taiwanese high-stakes regular found himself short earlier in the day when he attempted a large river bluff only to run into Eguchi's quad sixes, leaving Fan with just a few big blinds before he subsequently busted.

Chih Wei Fan

But Fan was not done. After re-entering, he rebuilt his stack and later found pocket queens to eliminate Daming Kang. A while later, Fan got paid off by Mingzhe Zhou after slowplaying the flop with a set of jacks in a massive pot to land among the chip leaders.

Molenaar also enjoyed a productive final stretch. The Dutchman knocked out Wengang Wang in a large preflop collision late in the day, calling Wang's four-bet shove with pocket eights and flopping a set against Wang's queens for the knockout. Molenaar then finished off Yukito Onawa in the final level by calling a three-bet shove with jack-ten and improving to a pair of tens to claim the elimination.

Michel Molenaar

Just six more eliminations are needed before the field reaches the money, with the top eight players guaranteed a share of the KRW 801,705,000 (~USD 575,525) prize pool. The eventual champion will walk away with KRW 236,325,000 (~USD 169,650) and a seat in the APT Championship Main Event, valued at USD 10,000. Here's a look at the full payouts:

Super High Roller Payouts

*includes APTC 2026 Main Event ticket worth KRW 13,930,000 (~USD 10,000)

Day 2 will resume on Level 17, which features 15,000/30,000 blinds with a 30,000 big blind ante. Play will resume on Monday, August 10 at 11:15 a.m. and play down to a winner. Levels will continue to last 40 minutes each and players will be sent on break after every three levels.

With both the money bubble and final table now in sight, the competition is sure to be fierce as the remaining players battle their way toward APT glory. Who will emerge victorious and claim the Super High Roller Pewter Lion Trophy? Be sure to follow the live reporting page as the action continues until only one player remains!

For the Day 2 seat draw, click here.

The action for the final day will recommence with blinds of 15,000-30,000 and a big blind ante of 30,000. Below are the updated counts of all 14 Day 1 survivors.

The final 14 players are now bagging and tagging for the evening.

Stay tuned for a recap of Day 1.

Jeremy Chan

Reoma Ogawa opened to 50,000 from the hijack and just behind him, Jeremy Chan shoved for his last 225,000 in the cutoff. Peng Chen called cold from the big blind and Ogawa four-bet to 500,000. Chen again called.

The flop came J 2 7 and Chen checked to Ogawa, who moved all in. Chen folded and a showdown was held between Ogawa and Chan.

Jeremy Chan: 7 7

Reoma Ogawa: K K

Chan had flopped a set of sevens for a commanding lead and neither the J turn nor 4 changed anything to award him the triple just as play ended for the day.

Phachara Wongwichit raised to 50,000 from under the gun and was called only by Yuya Arito in the big blind. Arito check-called for 60,000 on the Q J 6 flop and jammed the 6 turn for 175,000 effective. Wongwichit used a time bank and folded.

One hand later, Nevan Chang made it 50,000 to go and Wongwichit flat-called in the big blind, leaving 100,000 behind. He jammed the T 9 5 flop and was not snap-called, which brought some laughs at the table.

Chang did, however, eventually call to put Wongwichit at risk.

Phachara Wongwichit: J 5

Nevan Chang: A 6

The five was good on the 3 turn and 4 river.

Reoma Ogawa raised to 50,000 from under the gun and was called only by Nevan Chang in the big blind, who subsequently checked the 8 3 2 flop.

Ogawa bet 80,000 and won the pot, then was given the task to pick one of three cards for the final hands of the night. The 7 was exposed, which means another seven hands are played before bagging and tagging.

Yukito Onawa

Michel Molenaar raised to 50,000 from middle position and Yukito Onawa then three-bet jammed for the last 200,000 in the cutoff. Phuong Ngoc Nguyen on the button asked for a count and folded.

It folded back to Molenaar who called after a few seconds.

Yukito Onawa: A J

Michel Molenaar: J T

The T 6 2 3 2 board paired up Molenaar's ten and that spelled the end for Onawa, after which the Dutch player murmured an almost silent "I am sorry".

On the other side of the table, Nguyen and Martin Sedlak chuckled with the latter adding "too good."

Michel Molenaar opened to 50,000 from the hijack and was called by Yukito Onawa on the button for a heads-up pot.

Molenaar continued for 55,000 on the 3 K 5 flop and called a raise to 145,000 from Onawa.

Both players checked on the 8 turn and Molenaar checked a final time on the J river.

Onawa tanked a while before firing 200,000 into the middle, which was quickly called by Molenaar.

Onawa showed 4 4 for just a baby pair and Molenaar tabled K 5 for two pair to claim the pot and knock Onawa down to just 200,000.

Peng Chen raised to 40,000 and then called a three-bet to 125,000 by Reoma Ogawa to see the T 5 2 flop.

Ogawa continued for 150,000 and Chen used one time bank before he check-raised to 350,000.

Ogawa sent his cards into the muck and Chen climbed to a seven-figure stack.

The hand carried over four minutes into the final level of the night with new blinds of 10,000-25,000 and a big blind ante of 25,000.

Mingzhe Zhou

Shota Kashiyama opened to 40,000 from under the gun and Mingzhe Zhou jammed for 320,000 in the next seat. It folded back to Kashiyama and he called.

Mingzhe Zhou: 6 6

Shota Kashiyama: A Q

"Oh damn, I have to stand up ... " Zhou said before the showdown and then asked for his one time, added "thank you very much" to the dealer right before the flop.

That brought J 6 6 for quads and the instant double-up secured, which resulted in an audible "oh s**t" multiple times by Zhou while the meaningless T turn and Q river completed the board.