USOP Second Half Schedule Confirmed, Featuring Two Stops in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam and One in Osaka, Japan
Asia's emerging tournament tour, U Series of Poker (USOP), has revealed its schedule for the second half of 2026. From late August to early November, spanning approximately two months, two festivals will be held in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, followed by one in Osaka, Japan. This lineup continues USOP's strategic focus and investment in both the Vietnamese and Japanese markets.
The first event of the second half will be the 'USOP Vietnam Series,' taking place from August 27 to September 9 at the InterContinental Ha Long Bay Resort in Vietnam. With a guaranteed prize pool of 120 billion VND (approximately 5.6 billion KRW), it is the largest festival USOP has organized in Vietnam to date. The stage then moves to Osaka, Japan. From October 2 to 6, the 'U Series Championship Osaka' will be held at the Dojima River Forum. Although a short, five-day festival, it will operate with a championship focus, particularly for high rollers, and is timed to coincide with Japan's autumn season. The final stop of the second half is the 'USOP Grand Championship Vietnam,' returning to Ha Long Bay from October 22 to November 4. Held at the same InterContinental Ha Long Bay Resort, it will serve as the season finale.
The significance of this schedule announcement lies in the emergence of Ha Long Bay as a new key hub. While Hanoi has long been the center of the Vietnamese poker scene, USOP has shifted its primary venue to the InterContinental Resort in Ha Long Bay Marina, located about two hours outside Hanoi, since last year. Situated in a UNESCO World Heritage area, this resort offers an optimal infrastructure for international festivals, boasting a large ballroom, media center, and VIP lounge. Given that the 'USOP Vietnam Ha Long Bay 2026,' scheduled from May 19 to June 1 at the same venue, is set to be the largest festival held at these facilities with a guaranteed prize pool of 120 billion VND and a Main Event guarantee of 30 billion VND, considerable interest is focused on the performance of these two second-half series.
The Osaka Championship offers a different flavor. The Dojima River Forum is USOP's main venue in Japan, where the Main Event guarantee reached 77 million JPY in the October 2025 series. Despite the regulatory environment in Japan not allowing cash prizes, USOP has solidified its position in the major Japanese festival market through a model of entry tickets and sponsorship packages. The condensed, five-day schedule for the Osaka stop in the second half is interpreted as a reflection of the unique, short-and-intense operational pattern characteristic of the Japanese market.
USOP's second-half schedule exemplifies the increasing diversification of the Asian poker festival landscape. While Jeju/Incheon (Korea), Taipei (Taiwan), Macau, and Manila (Philippines) have been traditional hubs, Ha Long Bay (Vietnam) and Osaka (Japan) are emerging as new key venues. With GOP Incheon and TLPT Jeju running concurrently in Korea, the USOP series in Vietnam kicking off, and the Triton series taking place in Montenegro all within May, Asian players now have more diverse options for their tournament schedules than ever before. USOP's decision to maintain a structure of two events in Vietnam and one in Japan for the second half of the year is seen as a declaration of intent to solidify these two markets as strategic bases for the latter part of the season.
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