Lin Ting Yu, APT Taipei 2026 Mystery Bounty Hunter champion
After three Day 1 flights, the Mystery Bounty Hunter - Sponsored by Natural8 at APT Taipei 2026 made history as the second largest ever field in Asian Poker Tour history with a whopping 1,540 entries (785 unique) filling up the poker tables at Red Space.
But while the attendance record may have come short of the top record, the event amassed an astounding TWD 25,872,000 (~USD 829,230) prize pool, making it the richest prize pool in APT history. The total prize was split between the TWD 16,632,000 (~USD 533,080) tournament pool, including the APT Championship 2026 Main Event seat valued at TWD 312,000, and the TWD 9,240,000 (~USD 296,150) Mystery Bounty pool.
Emerging victorious as the champion was Taiwan's Lin Ting Yu, who pocketed the largest top prize of TWD 2,905,800 (~USD 93,135) along with TWD 190,000 in bounties for a total haul of TWD 3,407,800 (~USD 102, 955) and a seat to the APT Championship Main Event to be held later in November this year in Taipei.
The largest mystery bounty envelope worth TWD 1,500,000 was pulled by Anson Lau of Hong Kong, who was eliminated by Yu in fifth place for TWD 666,100 (~USD 21,349), giving him the second highest payday at TWD 2,416,100 (~USD 72,994).
Anson Lau
The second biggest bounty of TWD 1,000,000 was drawn by Jeonghyon Kim who managed to add that to his TWD 109,100 payout for 20th place for a juicy score of TWD 1,179,100 (~USD 35,622), which was better than a fourth place finish.
These were the final table results:
THE ROAD TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP
The final day began with 216 players making it into Day 2 guaranteed an ITM payout with bounties also available to sweeten their pockets. Eliminations were fast and furious with short stacks looking to get out of trouble and big stacks ready to pounce and collect bounties.
Shinyoung Park
Play began at Level 19 and thinned to the final table in a little over eight hours. Overnight chip leader Shinyoung Park of South Korea managed only a 38th place finish, while other big chip leaders like Taiwan's Hao Shen fell earlier at 108th place.
Other notable players to fall were the likes of Nevan Chang (206th), John Tech (185th), Abraham Ceesvin (156th), Sin Lan Chen (67th), Pussacha Nonsing (56th), Robert Nemeskeri-Kiss (46th) and Rishi Mehra (29th).
Sin Lan Chen
Sin Lan Chen may have had the most brutal knockout when her flopped full house was cracked by Anson Lau, who found a better boat via runner-runner. Luckily for Chen, her bounty draw of TWD 700,000 raised her spirits.
Flight C chip leader Kristoff Segers of Belgium managed a run to 14th place, but fell to a double KO also at the hands of Anson Lau.
Yubin Heon
Yubin Heon of South Korea was making his mark during the final two tables, aggressively using his monster stack to thin the field. However, he was overtaken by Lin Ting Yu when the latter made a tournament-altering double up with a set of queens against Heon.
THE FINAL TABLE
The elimination of Won Jong Lee in 10th place during a three-way showdown against Renato Villanueva Jr. and Lin Ting Yu set the stage for the final table.
Yu entered as the chip leader and didn't take long before he started taking control with an onslaught of eliminations.
Yubin Heon and Jinhee Min were the first casualties, suffering a double KO at the hands of Yu.
Shixiang Khoo
Falling in seventh was Shixiang Khoo - a Main Event winner during the 2023 APT Summer Series Da Nang - busting out to Keisuke Tateda and was the only one not to fall victim to Yu's final table rampage.
From there, it was back to the Yu elimination show with Renato Villanueva Jr. bowing out at sixth; Anson Lau falling in 5th; Kangwoong Lee bowing out in 4th and Oliwer Sankiewicz busting in 3rd.
The heads-up battle against Keisuke Takeda saw Yu with 85% of the chips in his stack in a very lopsided 40,000,000 to 6,000,000 advantage. It only took two hands before Takeda evnentually became Yu's final scalp, collecting 10 bounties in all, and keeping his.
Keisuke Takeda
Takeda banked TWD 1,637,700 (~USD 52,490) for his runner-up effort and was also drew an extra TWD 60,000 in bounties.
Yu's victory is his 4th APT cash and his best career cash ever. His best APT finish and best career cash prior to this was for USD 2,607 when he finished 7th place in the Mystery Bounty Hunter during APT Summer Series Hanoi 2023.
And that's a wrap for the Mystery Bounty Hunter at APT Taipei 2026. Congratulations Yu!

Lin Ting Yu
Oliwer Sankiewicz
Oliwer Sankiewicz
Anson Lau
Renato Villanueva Jr.