Poker Tournaments in South Korea

Asian Poker Tour in South Korea: Incheon and Seoul

The Asian Poker Tour has been hosting events in Incheon for the past two years, and Seoul was added to the calendar more recently, with the capital's second installment concluding in early June¹. The poker rooms that host the tour are run by Geutebruck Korea Inc at Paradise City Casino in Incheon and Paradise Casino Walkerhill in Seoul¹. If you are planning a trip, both venues are casino resorts, so you will find hotels, restaurants and table games alongside the tournament floor.

A single APT Korea stop is a big affair. The Incheon 2019 festival was the tour's seventh of the calendar year, and the Seoul 2019 stop offered a jam-packed schedule of 24 games⁵. That means everything from low-cost Monster Stack events in the morning to High Rollers running late into the night, spread across a week or more.

The tour's relationship with Korea goes back further than the current era. The APT first announced it would arrive in South Korea for the APT Asian Series Jeju, the tour's first-ever event in the country⁶. Before that, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) had planned a Seoul stop at 7-Luck Casino, though that event was postponed due to construction delays while the casino renovated its third floor to host it⁴.

There have also been domestic-only editions. In September 2021, the APT ran its first festival catered solely to the domestic market, held from September 9 through 12 at Boryeong Base Golf and Resort, with 61 players sharing a KR₩250,000,000 (about US$213,300) Main Event prize pool⁷.

The newest chapter is Jeju. APT Jeju 2024 was the first APT event on the island under the new era of the tour, a 10-day poker festival at Jeju Shinhwa Resort offering more than KRW 5 billion (about USD 3.76 million) in guaranteed prize money². That festival produced the tour's largest-ever Korean field: 444 entries (279 unique players) in the KRW 300,000,000 guaranteed Double Stack event⁸.

Here is how the main stops compare:

The Championships Event: buy-in, guarantee and schedule

The Championships Event is the premier trophy at an APT Korea festival, a step above the Main Event in buy-in and prestige. The buy-in is KRW 1,980,000, about US$1,700¹. The event comes with a KRW 200,000,000 (about US$170,000) guarantee, and it kicked off on a Friday with two starting days¹. Late registration stays open until the first hour of Day 2, so if you bust your first starting flight you can fire another bullet, and if you arrive late in the festival you can still get in¹.

The Seoul editions ran on the same model. APT Seoul 2019 offered both a ₩1,320,000 buy-in Main Event and the ₩1,980,000 buy-in Championships Event, each with a KRW 180,000,000 (about US$153,000) guarantee⁹. The Championships Event there ran five days, from June 5 to 9³. At the 2021 domestic festival, the Championships Event drew a KR₩150,000,000 (about US$127,970) prize pool and paid 15 places⁷.

For comparison, the Main Event at Seoul 2019 drew a prize pool of KRW 209,520,000 (about US$177,000) against its KRW 180,000,000 guarantee, and paid 18 places¹⁰.

Championships Event format: shot clock, ante big blind and blind speed

APT Korea events play under a distinctive ruleset. All events at the Seoul 2019 stop, including the Championships Event, used a shot clock and the Ante Big Blind format¹⁰. The Championships Event also ran slow escalating blinds on a 60-minute pace, which means each blind level lasts a full hour, giving you plenty of time to play post-flop poker rather than shove-fold¹⁰.

The shot clock gives you a fixed amount of time, tracked by a visible clock at the table, to act on each hand. Play too slowly and your hand is folded. It keeps the game moving in big fields.

The Ante Big Blind format is now standard in most modern tournament poker: instead of every player posting an individual ante each hand, the player in the big blind posts an ante for the whole table¹¹. It speeds up the game and removes a small chore from every hand. The APT's own online structures have historically used a traditional ante format instead, so if you play APT events online as well as live, expect that difference¹¹.

Championships Event payouts: what the final table earned

The Incheon 2019 Championships Event is a good picture of what the flagship trophy pays. The prize pool rose to KR₩382,374,000 (about USD 314,700)⁵. Singapore's Graeme Siow Wei Lik took the title and KR₩84,951,000 after a deal was made at the final table⁵. Li-ta Hsu of Chinese Taipei finished third for KR₩44,067,000, Chi Chung Ho of Hong Kong SAR took sixth for KR₩18,371,000, and Chi Wai Law, also of Hong Kong SAR, earned KR₩11,885,000 for eighth⁵.

The Seoul 2019 Championships Event, won by Thailand's Punnat Punsri, built a prize pool of KRW 216,486,000 against its KRW 180,000,000 guarantee³.

At the smaller 2021 domestic festival, Gyu Hyuk Lee won the Championships Event for KR₩37,000,000 (about US$31,560), with Yoonkwon Woo taking KR₩29,000,000 for second⁷.

High Rollers #1: buy-in, entries and prize pool

High Rollers #1 at APT Korea Incheon was Event #2 of the festival, with a KRW 3,200,000 buy-in¹. The event prize pool came to KRW 23,280,000 (about US$19,200), split between the top two spots, with Japan's Haruta Koichi earning the larger piece worth KRW 16,296,000 (about US$13,400)¹.

The same event at Seoul 2019 drew 17 entries for a prize pool of KRW 49,470,000 (about US$42,000)¹⁰. Macau's Gu Huidong won it for KRW 16,820,000 (about US$14,000), with Japan's Kishi Takeshi actually securing the larger payout of KRW 25,229,000 (about US$21,000) on a heads-up deal¹⁰.

A later Incheon edition, Event 18, also a KR₩ 3,200,000 High Rollers, ended in a two-way deal: China's Jie Xu took KR₩29,979,000 for first and Guo Dong, also of China, took KR₩24,340,000 for second⁵.

For the biggest buy-in of the festival, the Super High Rollers event cost KRW 5,300,000 (about US$4,400) to enter and attracted 18 players at Seoul 2019¹. A Short Deck High Rollers at the same stop carried a prize pool of KRW 32,980,000 (about US$28,000)³.

High Rollers Single Day: buy-in, entries and prize pool

The High Rollers Single Day format is exactly what it sounds like: a high-roller buy-in compressed into one day of play, so you get your result the same night. At Incheon, Event #5 was a KRW 2,150,000 High Rollers Single Day 1 that drew 21 entries for a prize pool of KRW 40,740,000 (about US$33,700)¹. Event 16, the KR₩ 2,150,000 High Rollers Single Day #2, grew a prize pool of KR₩ 56,260,000 (about US$46,300)⁵.

At Seoul 2019, the first High Rollers Single Day was won by Kengo Sakurai, who earned the biggest cut of KRW 24,036,000 (about US$20,300)¹⁰. A later High Rollers Single Day 3 at the same stop built a prize pool of KRW 54,320,000 (about US$46,000)³. There was even a Short Deck High Rollers Single Day with a prize pool of KRW 11,640,000 (about USD 9,600)¹.

Monster Stack: the low buy-in option

The Monster Stack is the entry point for players who want a big-stack, deep-structured tournament without the high-roller price. At Seoul 2019 it cost KRW 550,000 to enter and drew 64 entries for a prize pool of KRW 31,040,000 (about US$26,300)¹⁰. John Jisang Chung shipped the first trophy of the series along with KRW 8,958,000 (about US$7,500)¹⁰. A second Monster Stack at the same stop had the second-largest side event turnout of the festival with 60 entries³.

At Incheon, Monster Stack 1 (Event #1) drew 79 players for a KRW 38,315,000 (about US$31,600) prize pool¹. Monster Stack #2, Event 19, cost KR₩ 660,000 (about US$550) to enter and saw 152 runners pour onto the tournament floor, the largest side event attendance of the series, with the prize pool growing to KR₩ 88,464,000 (about US$73,000)⁵. Japan's Seina Asagiri won it for KR₩ 20,613,000⁵.

At the 2021 domestic festival, the Monster Stack drew 127 entries and was won by Jae Hyun Park for KR₩ 10,726,000 (about US$9,150)⁷.

The Jeju 2024 festival showed how big these fields can get in Korea. The KRW 650,000,000 guaranteed APT High Roller drew 191 entries (122 unique players) for a KRW 1,204,255,000 (about USD 886,500) prize pool⁸, and the Double Stack produced the tour's largest-ever Korean field of 444 entries⁸.

Here is how the low- and mid-buy-in side events stack up across stops:

Who can enter

The fields reflect that, with large contingents from Japan, China, Chinese Taipei, Hong Kong SAR and Southeast Asia alongside the expats living in Korea.

For Korean citizens, the 2021 domestic festival at Boryeong was the exception, the first APT festival catered solely to the domestic market⁷. Outside licensed settings like these, poker is listed among the forms of gambling Korean authorities treat as illegal, so the casino tournament room is the place to play¹².

How APT registration works

Before the tournament starts, all players pay an entry fee and buy-in, which gets you a set number of chips and your seat at the table¹³. That is the basic mechanics of any tournament, but the APT has its own registration system worth knowing in advance.

The tour encourages you to skip the queue and create your APT account online before you arrive¹⁴. If you already have an account, you can update your existing account info the same way¹⁴. For registration queries, the tour's contact address is registrations@theasianpokertour.com¹⁵.

There is also an online route to a live seat. The APT runs Country Exclusive online events for players from places like Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong, where the final six players get to play the final table live at APT Jeju in South Korea for an additional cash prize and the APT Trophy¹⁶. So even if you are not in Korea when a festival is announced, an online run can get you there.

Timing matters on the day too. Registration windows close at fixed points, as the Championships Event's Day 2 cutoff shows, so check the schedule for each event you plan to enter before you travel¹.

A quick checklist before you go:

• Create or update your APT account online before the festival¹⁴
• Check the schedule for each event's registration cutoff, such as the Championships Event's Day 2 close¹
• Bring the buy-in in cash or arrange payment with the venue in advance
• Email registrations@theasianpokertour.com with any registration questions¹⁵

Where the tour travels next in Asia

The APT is a regional circuit, and Korea is one stop among many. The 2019 season had twelve dates already announced, with first-ever stops in Tokyo and Taiwan added, both in February 2019¹⁷. The season kickoff that year was in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from January 9 to 20¹⁷.

Vietnam has become a fixture. The 2019 season opened in Ho Chi Minh City, running January 9 to 20, and the tour had twelve dates already announced for the year¹⁸. The calendar also grew: first-ever stops in Tokyo and Taiwan were added, both taking place in February 2019¹⁹.

Taiwan joined the calendar as a first-time stop in February 2019, alongside a debut visit to Tokyo, and the season already had twelve dates announced²⁰. The Philippines is another regular stop, where recent festivals have seen a Championships Event with a P10 Million (about US$193,300) guarantee and a High Rollers #1 field of 43 runners for a P4,171,000 (about US$80,000) prize pool²¹.

For a Korea-based player, the practical picture is this: the APT gives you a major festival at home in Incheon, Seoul or Jeju, and a circuit of nearby stops in Taiwan, Vietnam, the Philippines and Japan if you want to follow the tour.