Shion Sakamoto Claims First Spadie and Over KRW 40 Million in APPT Korea Mystery Bounty

Japan ‘s Shion Sakamoto has claimed the Mystery Bounty title at APPT Korea 2026 , outlasting a 246-entry field at Paradise City Incheon to take home KRW 28,890,000 (~USD 21,265) and his first Spadie trophy.

Sakamoto added a further KRW 12,350,000 (~USD 9,175) in bounty prizes after racking up 11 knockouts on his way to the title, marking a significant new high score in his live tournament career according to The Hendon Mob.

Sakamoto’s First Spadie

Sakamoto started Day 2 around the middle of the pack among the 37 survivors, having bagged 174,000 at the end of Flight B. By the time the final table was set, he was sitting on over two million chips and had barely let up the lead.

He described his approach to holding the chip lead for much of the day simply.

“I tried to focus on every single hand, and I don’t want to waste my chips, even if I am chip leader.”

As for making the trip to Korea in the first place, the answer was equally straightforward.

“Korea is very close to Japan and it’s easy to come. I heard this is a good tournament, APPT. I’ve heard about Manila, but I’ve never been there, so it’s in Korea now. I could get off Saturday and Sunday, and this is a two-day tournament, so I entered and tried.”

Event Results

#5 Mystery Bounty (900,000 KRW)

Total Prize USD

$140,700

Total Prize

191.3M KRW

Guaranteed

150M KRW

Entries

246

ITM

37

#	Payout	Player	SPI
1	₩28,890,000 $21,265	SS Shion Sakamoto Japan	1,301.93
2	₩18,400,000 $13,545	MU Masataka Ueda Japan	920.60
3	₩12,485,000 $9,190	KH Kyota Henzan Japan	751.67
4	₩9,600,000 $7,065	KS Kodai Sato Japan	650.96
5	₩7,385,000 $5,435	HU Hayate Utsumi Japan	582.24
6	₩5,680,000 $4,180	GN Genki Nagano Japan	531.51
7	₩4,690,000 $3,450	AC Andrew Choi United States of America	492.08
8	₩3,910,000 $2,880	HS Hyung Soo Lim New Zealand	460.30
9	₩3,249,600 $2,390	RH Ryu Hiroi Japan	433.98

Check the 37 Payouts & Results ...

How the Day Unfolded

37 players returned for the final day, with Hyung Soo Lim leading the way and Sakamoto sitting on an average stack. The early levels saw him quietly build before a crucial hand set him on his way: he busted Yashiro Naoki in a cooler, both players having flopped trip sevens, but Sakamoto’s ace-kicker played to surge him up the counts.

From there he kept building, making a reluctant but correct river call to eliminate Weisheng Zhao and extending his lead further by flopping a set to bust Wai Tung Cheung. By the time the final table bubble burst, Sakamoto had over 2,500,000 in chips and was the runaway chip leader heading to the final nine.

Ryu Hiroi fell in ninth when his pocket sixes ran into Masataka Ueda‘s pocket kings, with Ueda making a full house for good measure. Lim followed in eighth, his queen-seven no match for Andrew Choi‘s jack-ten, which made a full house on the runout. Choi himself then fell in seventh when his pocket kings ran into Sakamoto’s ace-eight, the ace landing on the flop.

Genki Nagano followed in sixth, his pocket queens beaten when Sakamoto’s ace-nine connected on the flop, with the blow softened by pulling over KRW 18,400,000 in bounty prizes, including the top prize of KRW 10,000,000. Hayate Utsumi exited in fifth after Sakamoto came from behind to eliminate him, pairing his three on the river to edge out Utsumi’s ace-five.

Kodai Sato fell in fourth when his pocket eights lost to Ueda’s jack-seven, which flopped top pair. Kyota Henzan then bowed out in third, jamming into Sakamoto’s pocket queens and finding no help to send the tournament to heads-up.

Heads-Up

Sakamoto began heads-up with a commanding lead over Masataka Ueda, but Ueda proved a stubborn opponent, grinding Sakamoto down before winning the first all-in confrontation to pull back to near even.

Sakamoto clawed his way back over the following levels before the decisive hand, in which Ueda committed his last chips with ace-three and found Sakamoto snap-calling with ace-nine. A nine on the flop settled the matter, and Ueda finished as runner-up for KRW 18,400,000 (~USD 13,545).

Sakamoto reflected on the battle afterward.

“He was a very good player, I think. And also heads-up, I don’t have very much experience with heads-up, so I was like, when we were even, ‘Okay, I’m already second, so I can go,’ you know? But I won. It’s very lucky, yeah.”

Side Event Winners: Days 3 and 4

Across the past two days, a string of further titles were awarded at Paradise City Incheon. The biggest was the 20/15/10 Multi Flight Challenge , won by Selim Oulmekki for KRW 14,125,000 from a 148-entry field, and the Knockout High Roller [KRW 1.5 Million Bounty] went to Seunghyun Nam for KRW 16,058,000 from a 23-entry field.

Naoki Maeyama took down the 6-Handed High Roller Turbo for KRW 17,000,000 from a 25-entry field.

#13 6-Handed High Roller - Turbo (2,000,000 KRW)

Total Prize USD

$32,845

Total Prize

44.6M KRW

Entries

25

ITM

5

#	Payout	Player	SPI
1	₩16,955,000 $12,480	NM Naoki Maeyama	547.62
2	₩10,930,000 $8,045	TK Taiki Kuramoto Japan	387.23
3	₩7,250,000 $5,335	YT Yuwa Takeuchi Japan	316.17
4	₩5,245,000 $3,860	SM Shotaro Murase Japan	273.81
5	₩4,240,000 $3,120	YK Yukinori Kojima Japan	244.90

Martin Schamaun won the Big O for KRW 4,100,000 from a 19-entry field.

#16 Big O (600,000 KRW)

Total Prize USD

$7,090

Total Prize

9.6M KRW

Entries

19

ITM

4

#	Payout	Player	SPI
1	₩4,141,000 $3,050	MS Martin Schamaun Switzerland	313.82
2	₩2,600,000 $1,915	HY Hisashi Yamanouchi Japan	221.90
3	₩1,730,000 $1,275	SW Songhan Wang China	181.18
4	₩1,160,000 $855	KS Kohei Suzuki Japan	156.91

Elsewhere, Hiroyuki Noda won the PLO for KRW 5,200,000, Tatsuo Kureishi took down the Deepstack Turbo for KRW 8,500,000, Abdullah Akbarpoor took the 7 Handed Turbo for KRW 4,900,000, and Shota Morikawa won the Hyper Turbo for KRW 6,000,000.

What’s Coming Up

The APPT National gets underway today, with Flight B tomorrow and a turbo Flight C to follow. Somuchpoker will be providing live coverage of the APPT National across the starting flights and through to the final day, as well as the APPT Main Event and Super High Roller later in the festival.

View the complete APPT Korea 2026 schedule on Somuchpoker.

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