The Asian Poker Tour has locked in the schedule for its 2026 Championship, and it dwarfs the debut. From November 13 to 29, Taipei hosts 210 trophy events, 23 Championship titles and more than $8.1 million in guarantees crammed into 17 days.
That debut set a high bar. Last November’s inaugural Championship pulled 28,265 entries and paid out north of $34 million, so the tour has leaned in rather than played it safe. This year’s card spreads across two venues — Red Space and the Asia Poker Arena — run alongside the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club, with 23 Championship events (up from 20 in 2025) plus a further 187 side events covering women’s tournaments, mixed games and more.
A $5M Main Event With a Record to Beat
The $10,000 freezeout Main Event anchors everything, carrying a $5 million guarantee. It has history to chase: last year India’s Nishant Sharma topped a 671-entry field for roughly $1.1 million and the first-ever title, in what became the largest $10,000 buy-in tournament ever staged outside Las Vegas. That field blew past the guarantee to build a $6.2 million pool.
Sitting above the Main Event are three heavyweights — the $25,000 Super High Roller, the $50,000 Superstar, and the $15,000 High Roller Championships. The top of an APT schedule has rarely looked this deep.
No Shortage of Roads to Taipei
Players who’d rather not post the full $10K have routes in. On the live circuit, APT Incheon runs August 7-16 at Paradise City in South Korea with nine Main Event seats on the line, and APT Jeju follows from September 25 to October 7 with more seats up for grabs. Miss both and there are still 15 seats to be won during the Championship festival itself.
Online, Natural8 returns as the tour’s official qualifying partner and runs the bulk of the satellites, with step and Mega Satellite ladders that have historically opened at just a few dollars. Its OnLive Day 1 format also lets qualifiers play a starting flight from home before joining the live field later — a real convenience for grinders scattered across the region who’d rather not spend a travel day at the table.
Twenty Years and Still Climbing
November’s festival doubles as the centrepiece of the APT’s 20th-anniversary season. The tour goes back to 2006, when Antanas “Tony G” Guoga won the very first APT Main Event in Singapore. The turnaround since the 2022 ownership change — CEO Fred Leung and President Neil Johnson reshaping the calendar around fewer, larger stops — has produced record numbers at nearly every stop since.
If the 2026 field tracks last year’s, the $5 million guarantee won’t survive long and the winner’s share could push well past Sharma’s seven-figure score. Qualifying campaigns are expected to open well ahead of the November start, which gives Asia’s travelling regs plenty of runway to lock in a seat.