APT Championship 2026: Schedule Revealed for Asia’s Biggest Poker Festival in Taipei

The Asian Poker Tour (APT) , sponsored by Natural8 , has officially pulled back the curtain on the complete schedule for the highly anticipated APT Championship 2026 (APTC 2026) . Scheduled to take place from November 13 to 29, 2026, this massive 17-day festival is organized in collaboration with the Chinese Texas Hold’em Poker Club (CTP) . The entire tournament series will take over the massive spaces of the Red Space venue located in Taipei, Taiwan .

The event is returning to Taipei off the back of a historic APTC Taipei 2025 run, which locked in more than 28,000 player registrations and paid out upwards of USD 34 million in total prize money. The upcoming 2026 iteration aims to exceed those numbers with an enormous lineup of 210 trophy-awarding tournaments and 26 satellite qualifiers. At the core of the schedule are 23 signature Championship Events, which boast a combined minimum guarantee of TWD 256 million (~USD 8.1 million).

The vast side-event schedule features 119 No Limit Hold’em variants (including 19 tournaments reserved exclusively for women) alongside 68 non-traditional options. Among the non-NLH selection, variants include 36 Omaha structures, 13 draw-poker formats, 12 mixed-game variations, and 7 stud tournaments.

APT Championship 2026 USD 5 Million Guaranteed Freezeout

The undisputed crown jewel of the entire 17-day festival is the APTC Main Event Freezeout, which runs across five days from November 23 to 27. This premier tournament requires a USD 10,000 buy-in and enforces a strict freezeout policy, meaning players receive just a single shot at securing the title and the accompanying glory.

 

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The tournament comes with a USD 5,000,000 guarantee. It follows the path carved by the inaugural APTC Main Event 2025 , which brought in 671 players and built a massive TWD 194 million (~USD 6.2 million) prize pool, making it the largest USD 10K tournament held outside of Las Vegas over the last ten years. India’s Nishant Sharma famously won that event, securing the iconic Gold Lion trophy and a TWD 37 million (~USD 1.2 million) top prize.

#1011 APT Championship Main Event Freezeout (311,000 TWD)

Total Prize USD

$6,220,550

Total Prize

NT$194,080,973

Guaranteed

NT$156,000,000

Entries

671

ITM

95

#	Payout	Player	SPI
1	NT$37,030,773 $1,198,405	NS Nishant Sharma India	5,441.64
2	NT$22,862,700 $739,895	JN John Niko Costiniano Philippines	3,847.82
3	NT$16,341,600 $528,855	AP Alexandru Papazian Romania	3,141.73
4	NT$12,518,200 $405,120	DN Dominik Nitsche Germany	2,720.82
5	NT$9,917,500 $320,955	NZ Neng Zhao Australia	2,433.58
6	NT$7,724,400 $249,980	HS Hao Shan Huang Taiwan	2,221.54
7	NT$5,628,300 $182,145	CH Chuang Hao Taiwan	2,056.75
8	NT$3,846,700 $124,490	MC Matas Cimbolas Lithuania	1,923.91
9	NT$3,047,100 $98,610	MF Martin Finger Germany	1,813.88

Check the 95 Payouts & Results ...

Paths to Secure a Main Event Seat

Players looking to claim their USD 10,000 tournament ticket early have multiple pathways available, including regional stops like APT Incheon 2026 (August 7–16) at Paradise City Casino Resort with 9 direct seats, and APT Jeju 2026 (September 25 – October 7) at the LES A Casino . Additionally, 2 seats will be specifically awarded to the champions of the High Roller Ultra Stack (Event 76) and the Single Day High Roller (Event 86).

On the tournament floor in Taipei, a total of 15 added Main Event seats are up for grabs across select premier events, broken down in the table below:

Marquee Championship and High Roller Arenas

Players favoring high-roller structures will have access to 26 distinct high-rollers events, seven of which carry official Championship status. These tournaments offer buy-ins starting at TWD 25,000 (~USD 800) for fast-paced hyper-turbos and cap out at the USD 50,000 Superstar Championship.

Key guaranteed and high roller events include:

• National Cup Championship: Nov 13–15 | TWD 16,000 (~USD 510) buy-in | TWD 20M (~USD 641,000) GTD
• Mystery Bounty Championship: Nov 15–16 | TWD 35,000 (~USD 1,100) buy-in | TWD 15M (~USD 480,000) GTD
• Ultra Stack Championship: Nov 16–18 | TWD 25,000 (~USD 800) buy-in | TWD 25M (~USD 800,000) GTD
• Natural8 Cup Championship: Nov 18–21 | USD 3,300 buy-in | USD 1,000,000 GTD
• Super High Roller Championship: Nov 20–22 | USD 25,000 buy-in
• Superstar Championship: Nov 22–23 | USD 50,000 buy-in
• High Roller Championship: Nov 26–28 | USD 15,000 buy-in

Explore the full APT Championship 2026 schedule at Somuchpoker.

Brand-New Variants, Mixed Formats, and Mind Sports

The non-NLH schedule brings forward an array of specialized options. Alongside the flagship PLO High Roller Championship and the Mixed Game Championship, both carrying a TWD 70,000 (~USD 2,200) buy-in, the festival will mark the arrival of several fresh tournament concepts:

• Bomb Pot Stud: Players post a blind bet before the game is dealt directly out to fifth street.
• Super Badugi: Moving from a mixed-rotation game into two standalone, dedicated trophy tournaments.
• Second Best Hold’em: Returning to the rotation for the first time since 2023, this variant rewards the second-strongest showdown hand with the pot.
• Heads-Up Brackets: Six separate direct dueling events covering No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Big O, Mixed Games, and a specialized Women’s category.
• Mind Sports Hybrid Mix: Following the massive popularity seen at previous stops, players can compete in specialized hybrid formats that blend traditional card strategies with Chinese Chess, Traditional Chess, and Go.

The 2026 festival lands during the tour’s grand 20-year anniversary milestone. With multiple regional records already falling this season, the final stop in Taipei is primed to close out the year in historic fashion.

For the complete guide to APT Championship 2026, check out the original article by APT.

All photos and information courtesy of APT.