PGT Kickoff Series Ends with Six Different Winners

Across six events, stars of the poker world became legends in Las Vegas. The 2026 PokerGO Tour season kicked off with double points on offer in No Limit Hold’em events and filled up seats across a week full of winning. You can read all about the first three event winners in our early wrap here, which featured wins for Andrew Lichtenberger, Brian Battistone and Andrew Moreno. Let’s bring the curtain down in style by telling you who won what to round off the series.

Taylor Paur Profits in Event #4

In the fourth event of the series, there were 145 entries in total, with Daniel Sepiol and Kevin Andriamahefa the two unfortunate players to bust on the bubble, although by departing at the same time, they shared a min-cash of $10,875 between them equally. Other players to cash but fall short of glory included Justin Saliba (18^th for $10,875), Kristen Foxen (14^th for $14,500), and Event #6 winner Ariel Mantel, who warmed up for that event with a 12^th place finish worth $18,125.

After Nick Schulman and David Coleman both won $21,750 in 10^th and 9^th place respectively, Brett Bassock bubbled the seven-handed final table, cashing for $29,000, the same amount as Justin Zaki under the lights a few minutes later. Zaki’s departure in seventh place preceded exits for Scott Eskenazi (6^th for $36,250) and Paul Roy, who won $43,500 but missed out on the final four.

Jeremy Becker went from leading the last four to cashing for $58,000 in fourth place before Andrew Moreno fell just two places short of back-to-back titles, an extremely rare happening on the PGT, cashing for $76,125 in third. Heads-up, Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau was hoping to win enough to go into the Massachusetts All-Time Money List top 10 but only a win would do and he was unable to get the better of Taylor Paur in the final duel. It was Paur’s first PGT win and gave him the top prize of $174,000, with Yau forced to settle for $105,125 as runner-up.

Back-to-Back Debut Winners at Michael Berk Binks

The fifth event of the PGT Kickoff series saw Michael Berk win his first PokerGO Tour title along with the $262,650 top prize up for grabs courtesy of 103 entries in the $10,000-entry event. With the buy-in doubled, and still over a hundred players, the stakes were even higher than usual as players such as Nick Seward (15^th for $20,600), Patrick Leonard (13^th for $23,175), David ‘ODB’ Baker (12^th for 25,750), Landon Tice (11^th for $30,900) and John Andress (8^th for $41,200) all cashed but fell short of the final table.

When just seven were left, Berk had timed his run to perfection, leading the pack. One big rival he had to outlast along the way was Kristen Foxen and Berk would have been happy to see Andrew Lichtenberger not only take out Foxen in seventh for $41,200 when a flopped set of fours beat ace-king but leave one place later himself. ‘Chewy’ had pocket queens, only for Berk’s own ace-queen to get there and take out arguably the most experienced player at the final table for a score of $51,500.

After Neil Warren (5^th for $66,9650) and Clemen Deng (4^th for $92,700) departed, play was three-handed. Brock Wilson had run very deep but missed out on the heads-up battle, claiming $118,450 when Berk himself took out the high roller regular, and with it grabbed a 4:1 chip lead. In the final battle for supremacy, Daniel Maor doubled up and even led, only for Berk to drag things back in his own favor, winning with pocket threes as Maor finally fell in second place for $169,950.

For Berk, it was the fulfilment of a great run inside the PokerGO Studio. With 15 cashes on the PGT, it was his first win and his biggest-ever career score, beating the $229,000 he earned for coming 42^nd in the 2023 WSOP Main Event.

Mantel Makes History with Final Event Title

Argentinian player Ariel Mantel became the third player in a row to win their first career PGT title, winning the $10,000-entry Event #6 for $171,600, 343 PGT points, and the PGT Gold Cup after topping the 52-player field. The win represented Mantel’s 13^th career PGT Cash and tipped him past $1.58 million in professional earnings in the game.

While all the other five events were a two-day event, this final event was a single-day turbo and with only 20-minute levels, was wrapped up quickly. The $520,000 prize pool paid only the final eight players and luminaries such as Jeremy Becker and Sam Soverel both departed before that bubble burst.

Inside the money places, Patrick Leonard won money for the third tournaments in six, cashing for $20,8000 in eighth place before Matthew Wantman left in seventh for the same amount. Exits for Bin Duan (6^th for $31,200) and Brandon Wilson (5^th for $41,600) preceded Andrew Lichtenberger’s bust-out in fourth place for $52,000, albeit with enough cash and PGT points to put him back on top of the early PGT Leaderboard on 531 points.

Dan ‘Cowboy’ Smith was shot down in third place for $72,800 before Clemen Deng entered the heads-up with a huge chip lead. Ariel Mantel played fearless poker to fight back, however, doubling up time and time again before edging into the lead and delivering the knockout blow with a straight flush, and in doing so claiming the unlikeliest of PGT maiden victories.