February 1-7
Entries in this, the largest poker tournament ever held in South Korea.
- 1STWilliam Li$402,535
- 2NDShintaro Sato$224,950
- 3RD
Christian Tabac$157,305 - 4TH
Lei Zhang$114,000 - 5THZu You Wang$90,825
- 6TH
Quang Minh Nguyen$72,265 - 7THArita Naohiro$55,220
- 8THHaohui Ma$38,970
- 9THYuefeng Pan$29,800
Faster. Higher. Stronger. In three words the Olympic motto conjures the essence of physical competition, and with the Winter Games now in full swing in northern Italy we can expect to see plenty of records shattered and legends born over the next two weeks.
Over 5,000 miles away from Milan, in Jeju, Korea, an altogether different contest has just concluded. It’s one that may not involve skis or skates, but where stamina, focus and ice in the veins are still key to a podium finish. And, as is now more an expectation than a surprise, more records have been broken.
The Main Event of the Asian Poker Tour Jeju Classic has drawn to a dramatic close, Canada has claimed the gold, and in the true spirit of the Olympic ideal, the winner — William Li — is a proud amateur.
William Li.Personal best
Li’s triumph comes just a few days after securing his previous best career cash of $39K in the APT Jeju High Roller Single-Day event, where he finished third behind China’s Peng Chen and Hao Zhu.
A new personal best, then, as the $402K Li picks up here is an improvement of more than 10x on his previous high score, and alone marks a figure some six times larger than his lifetime recorded tournament earnings to date.
Broken records has been a theme of the APT in general over the past few years, and the series in Jeju has been no exception.
With 1,718 entrants, the $1,600 Main Event has entered the books as the largest international poker tournament ever held in Korea. The prizepool of over $2.3 million is the second biggest in the APT’s history in the country, as is the $402K top prize now in Li’s pocket.
The action took place at the LES A Casino.New high watermarks were also set in the series’ Mini Main and Ultra Stack High Roller events, with various APT records set for the formats’ entries, prizepool and top prizes. The Mini Main drew 812 entrants for a prizepool of $574K and $100K up top, while the Ultra Stack drew 312 for over $827K in prizes and $165K to the winner.
Coming on the back of another record-breaking stop in Taipei last November, where the all-time APT record for richest Main Event was set in the APT Championship, the successful start to 2026 in Korea points to yet another boom year for the Asian Poker Tour. It’s also the perfect start to a year in which the tour is celebrating a special birthday, with 2026 the year of the APT 20-Year Anniversary.
'Anything can happen'
“Poker isn’t my profession,” a victorious Li told reporters following his win, but you wouldn’t have known from the way he skilfully navigated his way through a tournament field packed with talent.
With the likes of reigning GPI Player of the Year Punnat Punsri, Jeju double-winner Ren Lin and perennial APT crusher Lester Edoc in the mix, any player — amateur or pro — would need nerves of steel and the rub of the green to go all the way. Li was taking nothing for granted. “I’m actually a relatively pessimistic person,” he confessed. “Everyone knows how poker is — anything can happen. Nothing is ever certain.”
Until it is.
That $402K is certainly now his — as is a free seat in the APT Championship Main Event later this year — after Li bobbed and weaved his way through an action-packed final table on Saturday.
First out, to few people’s surprise, was the unfortunate Yuefeng Pan. Down to a single 25K chip by the end of Friday’s penultimate day of play, Pan returned for the final table with only a quarter of a small blind to his name. Forced in on hand #1 of the final table with 
, Pan was behind from the get-go and stayed there, exiting in 9th for $29K.
Quang Minh Nguyen.Pan, of China, was soon followed out the door by his compatriot Haohui Ma (8th, $38K), who ran his 
into the 
of Vietnam’s Quang Minh Nguyen (above).
Fresh from a runner-up finish in the APT Superstar Challenge, Nguyen KO’d Ma then slowplayed pocket aces to take a big chunk of chips from Zu You Wang, building a chip lead and attempting to take control of another final table at the APT Jeju Classic.
It was not to last, however. Following the exit of Japan’s Arita Naohiro in 7th ($54K), Nguyen was next out in brutal fashion.
Having taken some knocks to his stack, Nguyen got his chips in the middle holding versus the 
of Japan’s Shintaro Sato. The 
flop gave Nguyen two pair and a virtual lock on the hand but, as Li would later say, ‘nothing is ever certain’. The runout of 
was a cruel one, giving Sato the runner-runner straight and sending Nguyen out in 6th with $72K.
Lucky river saves Li
With a dominant stack comprising almost half the chips in play, the tourney began to look like Sato’s to lose. Li wasn’t going quietly, however, first eliminating Wang (5th, $90K) with pocket eights before coming perilously close to the trapdoor himself.
With blinds at 250K/500K with a 500K ante, Romania’s Christian Tabac opened to 1M from the small blind, Li 3-bet shoved to 6.7M from the big blind and Tabac made the call.
Li was marginally ahead with his against the of Tabac, but all that changed on the 
flop.
Li needed help, but the 
on the turn was not it. Thankfully for the man from Canada, the river brought the card he needed — the 
— to keep his hopes alive and propel him back into contention.
Christian Tabac.China’s Lei Zhang was next out, victim of a cooler that saw three of the four remaining players dealt pocket pairs: Li had queens, Sato jacks and Zhang tens. Zhang and Sato both shoved, leaving Li with a tough decision. Ultimately he elected to fold — Sato had him covered — and the jacks held to knock out Zhang in 4th place for a $114K payday.
Three soon became two after Sato saw off Tabac in a moment of fortune. Pressing his advantage as the big stack, Sato open-shoved from the button holding 
, only for Tabac to snap-call behind him with . Alas for Tabac it was Sato who would pair up on the queen-high board, and the Romanian exited in a respectable 3rd place with $157K.
The final comeback
That left Sato with a significant chip lead over Li, but the margin was closed quickly thanks to a Li double-up on the very first hand of heads-up play. Then came the turning point; a damaging bluff-gone-wrong for Sato.
Li limped with 
, Sato checked his option with 
. The 
flop brought a gutshot for Li, who followed Sato’s check with a bet of 800K. Sato called, only for the 
on the turn to fill Li’s straight.
Sato checked again, Li fired another 2.5M and Sato called with his overcards. The scare-card came on the river and Sato open-shoved for 30M. Sato had his opponent barely covered, and after some consideration Li made the call and saw the good news.
Shintaro Sato.With the tide fully turned, Li was just inches from victory. The next hand would be the last. Sato moved in with , Li called with , and the board ran out dry. Sato, who for so long had seemed within moments of victory, had to settle for the runner-up spot and $224K.
We’ll see him again at November’s APT Championship, if not before, as the final three players in this record-breaking Main Event all secured free seats in the APTC Main Event.
For Li it’s a first live tournament victory, a massive $402K payday and one of the most beautiful trophies in poker to take home.
And appropriately for his Olympian achievement, it’s gold.
New Main Event champion William Li and his Golden Lion.Note that dollar amounts mentioned in this article have been converted from Korean Won, are approximate and correct at time of writing.
Images courtesy of the Asian Poker Tour.
