Japanese Players Lead Early APPT Korea Results
Tomohiro Kawada’s kickoff win was part of 16 Japanese victories in the first 29 completed events.
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.
