More than a year in the making, World Poker Games finally brought its vision to life from May 23 to 31, 2026 at the Asia Poker Arena in Taipei, Taiwan.
The debut series marked a full-scale arrival into one of Asia’s most vibrant poker markets, as players from Taiwan and across the region turned out for the brand’s first live festival.
As the newest kid on the block, the schedule was designed to be accessible to everyone. Buy-ins ranged from TWD 3,000 (~USD 100) to TWD 60,000 (~USD 2,000), offering a broad spread that gave recreational players and serious grinders alike a reason to show up.
The phased events drew the biggest crowds, with the Main Event leading the charge at 489 entries, followed by the Mystery Bounty (166 entries), the Kickoff (154 entries), and the Mini Main (136 entries). Buy-ins across those flagship events ranged from TWD 10,000 (~USD 320) to TWD 22,000 (~USD 700). The one-day Monster Stack also proved a crowd favorite with 76 entries.
Over nine days of action, the series concluded with 39 champions crowned and nearly TWD 23 million (~USD 730,000) in prize money awarded.
Here are the stories that defined the first edition.
Guijin Zeng Wins the Main Event
At the center of the debut festival was the Main Event which drew 489 entries and featured a TWD 10,000,000 (~USD 320,000) prize pool. When the dust settled, recreational player Guo-Jin Zeng stood atop as the brand’s first major champion, turning a TWD 22,000 (~USD 700) buy-in into a TWD 1,600,000 (~USD 50,000) first place payout. He walked away as a hero for the home crowd.
For Zeng, the result represented the second-largest live cash of his career, trailing only his victory in last year’s ZSOP Mystery Bounty, also held at the Asia Poker Arena, where he earned TWD 1,760,000 (~USD 55,000).
Relive the final table action via the livestream linked below.
Livestream: WPG Main Event
High Roller Action
The high roller lineup attracted a healthy mix of locals and international players across three events. The High Roller Single Day carried a TWD 30,000 (~USD 1,000) buy-in, the All Star High Roller stepped up to TWD 45,000 (~USD 1,400), and the Super High Roller topped the schedule as the most expensive event of the festival at TWD 60,000 (~USD 1,900).
The Super High Roller drew an impressive 30 entries to build a TWD 1,728,000 (~USD 55,000) prize pool and found a worthy inaugural champion in Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka — who claimed not just the title but his first ever recorded live victory in the process. At the All Star High Roller, Taiwan’s Sing Wen Chen emerged from a tough battle to claim the title for his second ever recorded live win.
Double Trophy Winners
Among the 39 champions crowned at the debut festival, two players stood above the rest by claiming more than one trophy. Japan’s Jaejoong Kim and Taiwan’s Kuo Kai Ma emerged as the only two players to capture two golds during the series.
Kim secured victories in both the Mystery Bounty and the High Roller Single Day Event, while Ma claimed the Mini Main Event—sponsored by ZSOP—before adding the Monster Stack to his résumé.
Notable Attendees
A first festival is also a first impression, and this one drew a field that mixed local presence with familiar regional names.
Among those in attendance were David Erquiaga, Jereld Sam, Dylan Foster, Chi Jen Chen, Chia Yun Wu, Kristof Segers, and Shyh Chyn Lim – players who have each built their own footprint across the Asian circuit.
Thailand’s Wutikrai Phraikhieo also made the trip, leaving not empty-handed but with a final day victory in the 10/10/10 side event, a small but definitive mark on the closing chapter of the series.
WPG Champions
| # | EVENT NAME | WINNER | Prize Pool (TWD) |
| 1 | Kick Off | Ting Chieh Chi | 2,000,000 |
| 2 | PL Omaha | Anthony Abram | 24,500 |
| 4 | Short Deck | Yusung Lee | 19,600 |
| 5 | Hyper Turbo | Chi Lan Liu | 75,100 |
| 6 | Night Rush Hold’em | Yung Chun Wang | 53,900 |
| 8 | NLH | Le Vu | 147,900 |
| 9 | Head Hunter | Tim Wong | 196,200 |
| 11 | PLO – Double Board Bombpot | Chung Liang Kuo | 98,000 |
| 12 | Hyper Turbo | Kazushi Takano | 104,500 |
| 13 | Night Rush PLO | Naoki Moriyama | 14,700 |
| 15 | All Star HR | Sing Wen Chen | 800,000 |
| 16 | Mystery Bounty | Jaejoong Kim | 2,500,000 |
| 17 | Big O | Yih Ming Hsu | 45,700 |
| 20 | Night Rush Hold’em | Po Ching Lee | 68,600 |
| 24 | Night Rush | Alastair Clark | 46,600 |
| 26 | Super Stack | Yu Bao | 98,000 |
| 27 | Road to ZSOP (Mini Main) | Kuo Kai Ma | 10,000,000 |
| 28 | Night Rush Hold’em | Steven Benjamin | 9,800 |
| 32 | NL Hold’em | Shihfu Li | 161,600 |
| 33 | Main Event | Guojin Zeng | 10,000,000 |
| 34 | PLO 5 Turbo | Wei Kai Lin | 46,500 |
| 36 | Hyper Turbo | Apicha Dechacharoensiri | 94,700 |
| 37 | Night Rush Hold’em | Toshio Kataoka | 41,700 |
| 38 | HR Single Day | Jaejoong Kim | 500,000 |
| 39 | Super Hold’em | Shim Jeongkyu | 68,600 |
| 40 | Big O | Jung Da Lu | 59,200 |
| 43 | Hyper Turbo | Tung Wing Wong | 143,700 |
| 44 | Night Rush Hold’em | Zijie Su | 71,000 |
| 46 | Mega Stack | Yuya Yoshimura | 235,100 |
| 48 | NLH Turbo | JH Huang | 111,000 |
| 49 | PLO 6 | Bo Jun | 21,200 |
| 50 | Hyper Turbo | Po Hsuan Hsu | 75,100 |
| 51 | 3-2-1 Game | Lu Chuan Ci | |
| 52 | Monster Stack | Kuo Kai Ma | 985,000 |
| 53 | Super High Roller | Yoshihito Nishioka | 1,728,000 |
| 54 | NL Hold’em | Po Jung Lin | 127,300 |
| 56 | Hyper Turbo | Wei Huang | 84,900 |
| 57 | 10/10/10 | Wutikrai Phraikhieo | 78,400 |
| 58 | Night Rush PLO | Thomas Wang | 19,600 |
Looking Ahead
As the curtains closed on the inaugural edition, World Poker Games has now laid the groundwork for the future, and for what organizers hope will become a fixture on the Asian poker calendar.
Stay tuned for the next World Poker Games!