APT Jeju 2026: Ushida Wins Ultra Stack and First APT Title

Day 10 at APT Jeju 2026 delivers title runs and deep fields

Day 10 of APT Jeju 2026 had the kind of rhythm that live poker festivals are built on: long structures, strong fields, and several players turning one deep run into a meaningful career moment. The headline belonged to Japan’s Masao Ushida, who converted a strong stack in the Ultra Stack into the biggest result of his poker life and his first APT title.

That was only part of the story. Across the schedule, established champions added trophies, familiar names made more deep runs, and new winners continued to emerge as the 13-day festival moved toward its closing stretch. For anyone following the Asian live circuit, this is exactly why APT events matter: they are not just about one marquee final table, but about the full ecosystem of formats, fields, and player profiles that keep the series competitive.

If you want to understand the broader live-poker landscape, it helps to study how players prepare at poker school and how they choose the right poker rooms for volume, value, and field quality.

Masao Ushida turns a deep run into Ultra Stack glory

Event #85: Ultra Stack wrapped up after 274 total entries across three opening flights, building a KRW 284 million prize pool that comfortably beat the KRW 150 million guarantee. Forty survivors returned for the Final Day, with KRW 57,673,200 and the trophy waiting for the last player standing.

That player was Masao Ushida. Entering the Final Day with the third-largest stack from Flight C, the Japanese player navigated the field all the way to the finish line and captured the largest live score of his career. The win was significant on multiple levels:

• KRW 57,673,200 for first place
• more than nine times his previous total live earnings
• a maiden APT title
• a true breakout result on one of the most competitive stops on the tour

Breakthroughs like this are what make live poker so compelling. A player can spend years building experience, then one deep run can completely change the trajectory of a resume and the way the field perceives them.

Chi Jen Chen and Changjie Zhang keep the pressure on

Runner-up went to Taiwanese veteran Chi Jen Chen, who had already won Event #81: Turbo - NLH just days earlier for his sixth APT title. In the Ultra Stack, he was once again near the top of the leaderboard and earned KRW 36,630,000 for second place.

Singapore’s Changjie Zhang completed the podium in third for KRW 27,460,000. The result pushed him past the USD 300,000 mark in live career earnings, and it came on the back of another strong finish earlier in the festival when he took second in Event #83: Hyper Turbo - High Roller.

That kind of repeat success matters. In a long festival, one cash can be variance; two or three deep runs usually tell a much stronger story about form, comfort, and decision quality under pressure.

You can also track the broader festival picture through poker clubs and event pages that show how often top players keep showing up at the business end of the biggest fields.

Stephen Pang adds another trophy in Sunday Superstack - Big Bounty

Hong Kong’s Stephen Pang added another trophy to his collection by winning Event #96: Sunday Superstack - Big Bounty, a 142-entry field that paid him KRW 10,572,044 in total prizes.

Pang is already a major APT name. He won the APT Incheon 2026 Main Event and arrived in Jeju with five cashes already on the scoreboard. In this event, he collected KRW 3,900,000 in bounties before sealing the title and securing his third career APT trophy.

• Stephen Pang — KRW 10,572,044
• Zhenye Zhou — KRW 6,610,000
• Yuri Yamagata — KRW 2,980,000

Yuri Yamagata’s result deserves special mention. Fresh off her maiden APT title in Event #91: Women’s Event, she kept the momentum rolling with another deep run and another strong showing in a different format.

Chun Yu Ma proves his mixed-game edge in Dealer's Choice

Hong Kong pro Chun Yu Ma continued his strong APT Jeju 2026 campaign by winning Event #97: Masters Dealer's Choice after defeating a 22-entry field for KRW 9,362,000.

The victory gave Ma his third career APT title. Earlier in the festival, he had already won Event #77: 9-Game - High Roller, so this latest result reinforced his reputation as one of the more complete mixed-game players on the schedule. On a tour stop like Jeju, that versatility matters. Players who can shift between Hold’em, 9-game, and Dealer’s Choice formats often have a strategic edge because their technical range is broader than the average field.

Ma reached heads-up play against China’s Yang Lu. The two agreed to an ICM deal before continuing to play for the title and trophy. Under the deal, Lu locked up the larger payout of KRW 10,600,000, while Ma ultimately finished the job and took the silverware.

Russia’s Mikhail Fedotov, who had already won Event #89: Masters - Big Bet earlier in the festival, added another strong result with a third-place finish.

Yujie Sun and Tharit Nanthana add more variety to the festival

China’s Yujie Sun picked up a second APT trophy by winning Event #98: Fixed Limit Omaha Ultimate Hi-Lo - Cry Me a River. The event drew 11 entries, and Sun earned KRW 850,140 after turning another solid run into a title.

Small-field mixed-game events may not draw the same attention as the high rollers, but they add important depth to a festival. They reward specialists, diversify the schedule, and remind players that live series are more than just No-Limit Hold’em.

• Yujie Sun — KRW 850,140
• James Richard Lee — KRW 560,000
• Xuan Zhou — KRW 350,000

Then came Event #99: Single Day High Roller, where Thailand’s Tharit Nanthana produced another statement result. He overcame a 72-entry field and banked KRW 108,808,000, the biggest payout among the highlighted events of the day.

Nanthana had already won his maiden APT title earlier in the festival in Event #16: Hyper Turbo - High Roller, and he also recorded a runner-up finish in another high roller event. This latest victory gave him a second career APT title and his best score of the festival so far. Sweden’s Gabriel Karlsson finished runner-up.

Expert analysis: what Day 10 says about winning APT events

The most important lesson from Day 10 is that APT Jeju rewards versatility and conversion. It is not enough to run deep once. The players collecting trophies here are the ones who can adapt to stack depth, field size, structure, and format.

From a strategic point of view, several themes stand out:

• Deep-stack poker still separates the field, because postflop discipline matters more when stacks are large.
• Mixed games and Dealer’s Choice reward technical breadth and reduce the edge of narrowly specialized players.
• Bounty formats force a balance between chip accumulation and payout structure awareness.
• Players who repeat deep runs across the same festival are usually showing real form, not just variance.

For serious players, that means live preparation should be broader than memorizing preflop charts. You need structure awareness, ICM comfort, table selection discipline, and the ability to adjust to different opponents. If you are planning future travel for live events, it is smart to compare promotions & bonuses, look at the best poker rooms, and understand how a poker agent can help with logistics when appropriate.

APT Jeju also reinforces a bigger industry trend: the Asian live-poker scene is becoming more diverse in both format and field quality. That is good for players, because it creates more opportunities to specialize, more reasons to travel, and more chances for a breakout score.

Final takeaways from APT Jeju Day 10

Day 10 produced a classic festival mix: a breakout champion in Masao Ushida, a multi-title veteran in Chi Jen Chen, a steady winner in Stephen Pang, a mixed-game specialist in Chun Yu Ma, and another big score for Tharit Nanthana.

The broader takeaway is simple. On a stop like APT Jeju 2026, the players who survive and thrive are the ones who can win in more than one environment. They can grind through deep structures, adjust to bounty pressure, and make the right decisions when a title is finally within reach.

That is why days like this matter. They are not just about who lifted a trophy. They show who is building a real live-poker résumé, one deep run at a time.

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