Jonas Kronwitter Slays PGT PLO Series After Second Win in Las Vegas

Jonas Kronwitter outlasted American poker heroes Sam Soverel, James Chen and Sean Rafael onto his way to becoming the 2026 PGT PLO Series champion in Las Vegas. Capturing the title in Event #7 meant that with Soverel unable to run deep in Event #8, the leaderboard win belonged to Kronwitter and with it one of the biggest wins of his career so far.

Kronwitter the King in Event #7

Event #7 of the eight to take place in this year’s PGT PLO Series was the penultimate one of the PGT PLO Series, and with Sam Soverel leading the series, Jonas Kronwitter knew that if he was to have any chance of taking the overall title then he needed a deep run. The event had a field of 65 total entries, each paying $15,700 to play the PLO event and that meant 10 players were paid. Of them, Ted Lawson (10^th) and Brevin Andreadis (9^th) both earned $29,250, while Jiyang Gan cashed for $39,000 in eighth.

At the final table , Nick Palma repeated his common trick in recent PokerGO events, cashing in seventh place, this time for a score of $39,000. Palma was all-in with the better hand again, this time with kings in the hole against Joni Jouhkimainen’s ace-king-six-five. The Finn flopped the nut flush in hearts to take out the luckless Palma.

Next to go was the Dutch player Nino Pansier, who cashed for $53,625 before the Spanish PLO specialist Lautaro Guerra crashed out in fifth for $73,125. Matthew Wantman has already won titles on the PGT this year and took $97,500 in fourth place before his fellow American Jeremy Druckman missed out on the heads-up battle but sealed a 10^th-place leaderboard finish in third place for $131,625.

Heads-up, Jonas Kronwitter took on Joni Jouhkimainen for the title and after three-handed play had helped the Austrian to establish a lead, he used it to good effect in the final duel. Kronwitter’s pair of queens pre-flop were added to by two more on the board to give the Austrian victory by quads and after a heads-up deal, the largest of the two remaining prizes.

Final Event Grabbed by Garcia

The final event of the PGT PLO Series was the biggest, with a $26,000 entry fee and just 48 of the world’s best players entering the action. A total of 12 of them survived to Day 2, with just the final table of seven being paid. That meant a painful bubble for one player and that turned out to be the Canadian player Alex Livingston, who missed out on profit when Youness Barakat made trips to send the remaining six of his opponents into the money.

The consistent series performer Brevin Andreadis cashed for $48,000 in seventh before his countryman Sean Rafael won $72,000 in sixth. Barakat himself busted in fifth, as he lost to Garcia’s set of sevens to exit for $96,000 in fifth and the Spanish player used that hand as momentum to push on towards the win.

Another Spanish player, Lautaro Guerra, was not to last until the podium places, departing in fourth place one event after finishing in fifth. Guerra lost to the Welsh PLO expert Robert Cowen. His set of eights held firm, and the British player outlasted Guerra who went home with $126,000. Cesar Garcia took out Matthew Wantman in third place for $174,000 and the heads-up players were confirmed, with Cowen holding a marginal advantage.

That lead changed hands when the Spanish pro made a set of aces, as Cowen rightly folded but left himself with less than 15% of the chips in play. Soon, Garcia had the all, as Cowen moved all-in with a queen-high straight and the winner called with the superior king-high straight to take the title.

Kronwitter’s Heroics Earn Leaderboard Victory

The Austrian Jonas Kronwitter more than earned his overall leaderboard victory in the 2026 PGT PLO Series. Capturing two titles outright, the Austrian’s total of 598 PGT Points not only earned him the ultimate series victory but puts him in with a great chance of winning one of 40 places into the PGT $1,000,000 Championship Freeroll at the end of the 2026 season.

Taking place in the first few weeks of January 2027, the freeroll will include only the top 40 players on the PokerGO Tour leaderboard, along with 10 ‘Dream Seat’ winners. Previous winners of the Championship Freeroll have included Jeremy Ausmus, who claimed the $500,000 top prize at the start of 2025.

In that Championship Freeroll, Ausmus beat the now eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Nick Schulman heads-up, after other winners at the final table included the recent WSOP crusher Calvin Anderson, who won his own eighth WSOP title just last week online while spinning Las Vegas slot machines.

In 2026, the name to remember might be Jonas Kronwitter after this latest series victory pushed the Austrian up the PGT Leaderboard.