Home Victories In the Main Event and Player of the Series While Japan Dominates 2026 Gods of Poker Taipei II Festival

The sixth edition of the Gods of Poker live tour has wrapped up this past week at the Asia Poker Arena in Taipei City. While the merits for Main Event champion and Player of the Series remained on home soil in Taiwan, it was certainly poker players from Japan who dominated the winner shots during the 10 days of The Trials of Wisdom even if many of them came a few days late to the party.

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On the first day of the festival in Taiwan with a total of 77 trophies to be awarded, the 22 year old local player and Shi Rong Wang won the first edition of the Titan Stack Daily when he came out on top of an 88-entry strong field. Little did everyone know that it was just the first of three victories and seven cashes for the former CTP Club dealer.

Two days later, he was denied a repeat victory in the NT$ 10,000 edition by Chi Jen Chen in a field of 92 entries when Wang finished as the runner-up before he won a NT$ 34,500 Hyper Turbo Event on Day 6. Wang also secured a cash in the Main Event before cementing his triumph on the final day with a third victory in the NT$ 19,800 Kraken Stack for another NT$ 155,540.

His tally of 21,935 points was well ahead of Canada's Dong Yan who cashed in six events and won two trophies (14,159 points) whereas Kai Cheng Hsu secured third place with just three cashes and a haul of 11,067 points.

The top spot was granted $1,500 in GOP tournament credits, second place received $1,000 and third came with an additional $500 for any upcoming GOP tournament buy-ins.

Player of the Festival: Shi Rong Wang

Indonesia's Fendy Kosasih endured many battles back and forth with the immovable Rudy Edenata but claimed three high-stakes titles across his four cashes including victories on back-to-back days. He ended up in sixth place on the leaderboard with 10,144 points and left before the end of the series to relinquish his chances of a top three finish.

Another two players earned three trophies and they were both hailing from Japan: Tomoya Hasegawa and Fumito Murayama. Neither was able to compete for the top spots, however, as the wins came in smaller side events.

Edenata didn't have to leave empty-handed and claimed one of the most stunning trophies of the series - a repeat GOP gauntlet in the Titan Stack High Roller. Another was claimed by Dutch live poker veteran Rob Hollink in the NT$ 220,000 Super High Roller.

Japan's Shinnosuke Takuma won a late night High Roller after bagging up the chip lead in the GOP High Roller and then defeated Kosasih in a roller-coaster heads-up for the silver gauntlet and a top prize of NT$ 1,152,000.

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The last but certainly not least gauntlet was up for grabs in the flagship NT$ 33,000 Main Event, which boasted a massive guarantee of NT$ 17 Million. There was once again an overlay in the cherry of the schedule as a total of 520 entries were recorded.

Heading into the nine-handed final table, seven players from Taiwan were hoping to keep the trophy on home soil but six of them in a row headed to the payout desk. The last hope was Yu Jui Chen, who has only been playing poker for around two years with most of his cashes here in Taiwan.

Prior to three-handed play, he went from shortest stack to chip leader and then had the biggest pile of chips when the last trio agreed to an ICM deal. In the very first hand coming back after locking up most of the remaining cash prize pool, Chen knocked out Singapore's Teo Ravn and entered heads-up play with a large lead over Daeyoung Park.

The South Korean had sweet memories from the Asia Poker Arena as he won the NT$ 9,000 Main Event during the 20th Taiwan Millions Tournament (TMT) in July 2026 out of a huge field of 9,094. The duel for the title, trophy and extra money lasted for more than three and a half hours before Chen came out on top for his first major live poker win.

Main Event Final Table Result

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Notable champions during the ten-day series in Taipei City included 2026 GOP Manila Main Event finalist Aleksei Zhukov, Harry Halim, Vinay B, Hayato Kitajima and Hong Kong's Ming Pui Cheung, who won a Aphrodite's Ladies Event and a Hyper Turbo event on the final day along with a cash in the Main Event.

Reigning GOP Main Event winner Dakota Anderson who claimed the title a few weeks ago in Manila appeared just in time for a potential back-to-back triumph and even reached the final three tables once more before bowing out. He also made the final table in the boosted version of the NT$ 11,0o0 Titan Stack Daily to once again showcase his talents on the felt.

In total, more than 70 trophies were awarded in Taiwan during the second stop of the year in partnership with the Chinese Texas Hold'em Poker Club and Gods of Poker is now already preparing for the seventh edition.

Likewise for the second time in 2026, the latest thriving live poker tour in Asia will be heading to Incheon in South Korea for The Labyrinth Trail from October 30 until November 8, 2026 at the Paradise City Casino and Resort near the international airport outside of Seoul, South Korea.

A total of 76 trophy events await with a Main Event guarantee of KRW 600 Million (USD 450,000). The full schedule for the festival is already set in stone and can be found right here.