APT Taipei 2026: Real Estate Agent Walter Lau Conquers Record-Breaking Main Event

Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the APT Taipei 2026 rewrote the history books and crowned a new king of Asian poker. Chun Shing 'Walter' Lau from Hong Kong dominated the record-breaking Main Event with a phenomenal performance. The real estate agent walked away with the iconic Gold Lion trophy and a winner's prize of over half a million dollars.

A Life-Changing Comeback for a Recreational Player

The Main Event, with a buy-in of 55,000 TWD, went down in history as one of the largest tournaments in APT's 20-year legacy. An incredible total of 2,354 entries generated a gigantic prizepool of 111,862,080 TWD (approximately 3.58 million dollars).

The main protagonist was Chun Shing 'Walter' Lau from Hong Kong. His path to victory was fascinating. He entered Day 4 with one of the smallest stacks out of the 46 remaining players. However, he began climbing steadily and entered the final table as the massive chipleader.

Lau, who plays poker as a 'recreational player' and works as a real estate agent, displayed a dominant performance on the final day. He maintained his lead and ultimately capitalized on it to secure the title.

In addition to the lucrative financial reward, Lau won the iconic Gold Lion trophy and a seat at the $10,000 APT Championship Main Event in November.

Final Table Results of the APT Taipei Main Event:

Place	Player	Country	Prize	Prize (~USD)
1.	Chun Shing Lau	Hong Kong	16,640,100 TWD	531,635$
2.	Joshua McCully	Australia	9,519,000 TWD	304,120$
3.	Ching En Chen	Taiwan	6,510,000 TWD	207,985$
4.	Kristof Segers	Belgium	4,880,000 TWD	155,910$
5.	Kazuma Ishihara	Japan	4,081,000 TWD	130,385$
6.	Miki Shiraishi	Japan	3,297,500 TWD	105,350$
7.	Chia Lin Huang	Taiwan	2,516,500 TWD	80,400$
8.	Tony Ren Lin	China	1,807,000 TWD	57,730$
9.	Pakinai Lisawad	Thailand	1,376,500 TWD	43,980$

The final heads-up against the seasoned Australian professional and three-time APT champion Joshua McCully was not entirely one-sided. McCully managed to cut down Lau's lead in the first hand, but Lau remained calm, quickly regained control, and pushed his opponent into a final all-in.

In the decisive hand, Lau went all-in with A s T d, and McCully called with K d J d. The flop 9 d 9 s 4 c favored Lau's ace, and neither the turn 2 h nor the river 8 d altered the outcome. Joshua McCully thus secured the runner-up position, while Walter Lau could start celebrating his triumphant victory.

For those who wish to revisit the dramatic moments, emotions, and top-notch poker, a full recording of the final day is available on the official Asian Poker Tour YouTube channel:

To wrap up, we present a photo gallery from our partner SoMuchPoker, where you can also find a detailed live report and a complete gallery of the event.

Sources: Asian Poker Tour, SoMuchPoker, YouTube