Teeraphat Rangkatekarn Swings To Victory At GOP High Roller; Heng Zhe Hu Bulldozes The Kraken

The final gauntlet event found its champion, and it was Thailand’s Teeraphat Rangkatekarn who rose to the throne at the GOP High Roller. In a six hour final day battle, Teeraphat overcame the swings to hoist the coveted Gold Gauntlet and claimed the NT$ 1,814,320 (~US$ 57,400) top prize. 

Payouts

The GOP High Roller lit up the tournament floor on the last two days of the inaugural Gods of Poker Taipei 2026 at the CTP Asia Poker Arena with a total of 49 runners ponying up the NT$ 120,000 buy-in. This was more than enough to surpass the guarantee and boost the prize pool to NT$ 5,080,320 (~US$ 160,700). Seven players returned on the final day, each one secured a share. 

You can relive the thrilling race via the livestream in the Gods of Poker FB page and at CTP Twitch. 

GOP High Roller Final Day Recap

Entering the final day, Teeraphat Rangkatekarn  was the shortest stack with 21 big blinds, and on the very first hand, he cracked John Costiniano's pocket aces with a flush to zoom up just below the leader Seung Hyuk Jung. 

Piet Pape was next to rise, taking the lead after he out-kicked Andrew Han on a jack-high board. Costiniano took the rest of Han's stack with pocket aces over top pair king to bring the table down to six players.

Costiniano continued to dominate, establishing a firm hold on the chip lead after eliminating Terry Gonzaga in 6th place with ace-seven winning the flip over pocket fives. Next on Costiniano's chopping block was Marc Rivera in 5th place with ace-king pairing both cards to dust pocket jacks. 

Four-handed play opened with Pape slipping to 14 big blinds after a failed bluff into Teeraphat. He quickly recovered then eliminated Jung in fourth place when his ace-ten spiked trips aces to overpower Jung’s pocket eights.

The road to heads up turned sharply for Costiniano when his shove holding a flush draw ran headlong into Pape’s overpair that even improved to a full house. Soon after, Costiniano’s run came to an end in third place, falling on a three-way all in as Teeraphat’s pocket kings stood its ground. 

Piet Pape

Heads up for the gauntlet began with Teeraphat ahead, but it was Pape who seized early control to grind down Teeraphat to just 14 big blinds. Refusing to yield, Teeraphat found a timely lifeline, doubling up with a lucky king-jack that paired the jack to avoid elimination against Pape’s king-queen.

Rangka Teeraphat

Back on top, Teeraphat fired a bluff that was snapped off by Pape’s full house to drop down again. However it didn't take long for Teeraphat to strike back. He recovered on his next shove with pocket jacks paid in full by ace-ten that missed. 

The gauntlet was finally claimed after Teeraphat shut out Pape with 9 ♠️ 8 ♦️ full house over J ♣️ 9 ♦️ on a board of 8 ♠️ 8 ♣️ 10 ♥️ 9 ♣️ 6 ♠️.

For the GOP High Roller details, click here.

Heng Zhe Hu Delivers Carnage At the Kraken Stack

The storm-god took form in Heng Zhe Hu after he hurricaned at eight-handed play, knocking out every player in his path in under an hour to seize the Kraken trophy and the NT$ 766,500 (~US$ 24,000) first prize. 

The Kraken Stack ran on the final two days of the series with 117 entering for a prize pool of NT$ 3,000,000. The final day kicked off with 18 players in the money and after three hours, the final table was set. 

While it took an hour to bring the field down to eight players and then another hour before Hu eliminated Chaehu Ryu in 8th place with ace-three spiking the three to badbeat ace-ten, the rest went down in rapid succession. 

Hu got lucky again when he pushed on the small blind with queen-five offsuit then paired the queen to crack big blind Yat Hei Lui's pocket tens. 

With Hu backed by a massive stack, it was a shove fest from then on. No action except all in or fold preflop. Hu eliminated Brendan Luke MacManus next with king-queen pairing the king over ace-five. Sai Hung Li was next to get axed by Hu with ace-queen over ace-jack then Yohn Paredes risked his tournament life with queen-seven that fell to Hu's king-jack. 

Seokyoung Lee followed out in 3rd place with queen-jack not improving against Hu's ace-eight to bring about a very brief heads up. Meng Xuan Ang won the first hand on an uncalled shove then lost it all on the next with her ace-nine outdrawn by Hu's ten-two. 

For the complete payouts, click here. 

Day 11 Winners

The final day delivered fireworks as the last champions emptied out the awards shelf. Once again, Ma. Arlene Rivera and Alfie Adam outshined. For Rivera, it was nothing short of remarkable, claiming her fifth Aphrodite Mirror, while Adam captured his fourth mixed-event title this series. 

Also finding success was Tom Verbruggen at the Last Chance High Roller after a lengthy heads up battle against Yu Hsien Lin. Verbruggen lay claim the last Spartan trophy on the shelf. 

For the complete results and breakdown, click here. 

GOP Taipei Links: 

Schedule Photos: GOP Taipei Photos: Champions