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Arthur Bernard moved into the lead in the €1,500 WSOP Circuit Paris Main Event after Day 1c at Partouche Pasino Club, bagging 1,675,000 chips. The flight drew 273 entries, lifted the overall field to 642, and sent 41 players through to Day 2 in the money, with the prize pool sitting at around €867,000 after the first three starting flights.

According to PokerNews, the event was set to continue on Saturday with its final two starting flights, Day 1d and Day 1e Turbo. Day 1d was due to begin at 1 p.m. local time with 40-minute levels, while the turbo flight was scheduled for 8 p.m. with 20-minute levels, late registration staying open through the end of Level 12.

As reported on Sept. 10, Hugo Ouazana and Philippe Souki had both crossed the one-million-chip mark on Day 1b. Bernard’s Day 1c stack put him atop the tournament, and he finished almost 70 big blinds ahead of Maher Achour, who bagged 1,041,000.

The bubble burst after the restart. Yves Thalmann and Dionke Ba were eliminated shortly after the restart, which triggered hand-for-hand play, and Pascal Perreault was eliminated on the bubble when Olivier Arnault called his all-in and hit trips with A♦K♠ against Perreault’s 10♦10♥.

Bernard’s surge also included a big pot with kings over queens, and the final leaderboard was packed with familiar names. Remy Mougel and Codrin Dorofte both bagged 624,000, Olivier Arnault finished on 458,000, Natasha Mercier and Remi Derossi each had 297,000, Giuseppe Zarbo bagged 265,000, Antonin Teisseire 258,000, Florian Guimond 219,000, David Daneshgar 193,000, Axel Bayout 184,000 after doubling through Achour’s kings, Sonny Franco 135,000, Tristan Clemencon 93,000, and Antoine Labat, who re-entered and still reached the money, ended on 36,000.

Ossi “Monarch” Ketola beat Patrik Antonius in a $20 million heads-up match on the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju II stage at Les A Casino in Jeju, South Korea. Each player bought in for $10 million, and the match was livestreamed on Triton Poker’s platforms. The duel lasted more than four hours, and Triton billed it as the biggest televised heads-up match in poker history.

Poker.pro said the match stayed close for most of the night before a straight flush and a final all-in settled it. Ketola ended up with the full $20 million pot, while Antonius’s $10 million loss was described by the outlet as the biggest single-match defeat in livestream poker history.

The key hand started with Antonius limping K♦9♠ and Ketola raising to $350,000 with Q♥9♥. On a Q♠ 8♥ J♥ flop, the betting escalated, the 10♥ turn completed Ketola’s straight flush, and Antonius eventually folded to a $4.1 million river shove on 3♣. Poker.pro described the finish as back-to-back hands, with Antonius folding the straight flush and then losing the very next all-in.

As covered earlier this week, Ketola had already beaten Wiktor Malinowski for $6 million in Jeju before turning to Antonius. PokerNews’s preview had also framed him as a regular in nosebleed cash games, pointing to his record $10.99 million pot against Alex Foxen at the festival last year. After the loss, Antonius said, “Today just wasn’t my day.”

Phil Ivey was knocked out in ninth place in Triton Jeju II’s $40,000 Mystery Bounty on 10 September after Wai Kiat Lee’s pocket aces held in a four-way all-in. The same hand sent Seth Davies and Samuel Mullur out, and Ivey collected $62,000 for the finish.

The pot started when Davies shoved 205,000 from under the gun with king-nine. Mullur re-jammed 2.12 million with king-nine, Ivey called from the button with A♦9♦ and 3.02 million, and Lee snap-jammed from the big blind with A♣A♠, covering Ivey’s last 900,000.

The board ran out 7♣8♠7♥Q♠2♠, so Lee’s aces stayed ahead and the three other players were eliminated. The hand came with 11 players left, at blinds of 40,000/80,000 with an 80,000 ante. As reported in our earlier Jeju coverage, Lee later went on to win the title over Jamil Wakil.

The event drew 133 entries and 49 re-entries for a $5.32 million prize pool, split evenly between the main pool and the mystery-bounty pool. Card Player reported that 23 players reached the money, and the stop was part of Triton Jeju II at Les A Casino in South Korea.

KPC Poker and Red Dragon Poker Tour will jointly stage the 2026 Jeju Poker Festival at LES A Casino from Oct. 28 through Nov. 11, giving players 15 straight days and 123 trophy events to choose from. The schedule carries three headline tournaments with combined guarantees of KRW 3.88 billion.

As reported in August, KPC Poker had already folded King Poker Cup into a single Jeju brand ahead of this debut. In the new setup, KPC handles the opening stretch and Red Dragon takes over later, so players can either sample part of the run or stay for the full festival.

KPC’s section opens with the KRW 1.3 million Main Event and its KRW 880 million guarantee. That event uses five starting flights across the opening three days, reaches Day 2 on Oct. 31 and plays down to a final table on Nov. 1. KPC also puts the KRW 5 million High Roller and KRW 7 million Super High Roller into the first few days.

Red Dragon’s side begins on Nov. 2 with the KRW 2.5 million Red Dragon Classic Main Event, which carries a KRW 1.2 billion guarantee and four starting flights before it crowns a champion on Nov. 5. The KRW 4 million Red Dragon Plus Championship follows on Nov. 6, runs its four opening flights through Nov. 8, sends survivors to Day 2 on Nov. 9 and finishes on Nov. 11 with a KRW 1.8 billion guarantee.

The rest of the festival leans hard into volume and variety. PokerNews says the schedule includes more than a dozen high rollers, Mystery Bounty events and a mixed-game lineup with PLO, Big O, Dealer’s Choice, 2-7, Drawmaha, Stud and Razz, with buy-ins running from KRW 300,000 to KRW 1 million and the $12,000 Red Dragon Prestige Super High Roller on Nov. 10. The card also includes the Baby Dragon, the JPF 3rd Anniversary Event, the Red Dragon+ Mini Main Event and the Dragon Egg Mystery Bounty.

For context, Somuchpoker said the 2025 festival drew players from 38 countries, ran 87 events over 12 days and paid out more than KRW 13.1 billion. This year’s edition adds 36 trophy events and three extra days, and Red Dragon introduced RDPT PLUS in 2026 as a format built around deeper stacks, more decision time and more play.

APPT Korea has leaned heavily Japanese through the opening stretch. After 29 completed events at Paradise Hotel & Resort Incheon, players from Japan had won 16 titles, while China had four champions and two Americans had also taken events. The series opened on Sept. 3 and runs through Sept. 14, so the early-country breakdown only covers the first part of the schedule.

As covered in our Aug. 16 report, APPT Korea 2026 returned to South Korea after a seven-year hiatus and opened with a KRW 1 billion Main Event guarantee. According to PokerNews, one of the first notable Japanese results was Tomohiro Kawada’s win in the KRW 600,000 NLH Paradise City Kickoff, a 171-entry event where he beat Dong Yan heads-up for $11,051.

Kawada’s victory was one of several early Japanese titles. Another came from Takahiro Ichikawa, who won the KRW 450,000 Pot-Limit Omaha for $2,069, and PokerNews said some of the champions during the stop have been claiming their first-ever tournament wins.

The two American winners so far were Kaiwen Wei and Seunghyun Michael Nam. Wei took the KRW 1,800,000 Mini High Roller by beating 30 entrants for $13,410, while Nam won the KRW 3,500,000 Knockout High Roller for $11,927.

Those results have come alongside wins from China, but the headline through the first 29 events is still the same. Japan has set the pace early, and several of the series’ biggest tournaments are still to come before APPT Korea wraps on Sept. 14.