PokerGO Tour Kickoff Series Starts Fifth Season In Style

The fourth season of the PokerGO Tour wrapped up on Jan. 11, with Jeremy Ausmus winning the PGT Championship to cap off his Player of the Year performance on the high-stakes tour. Players and fans didn’t have to wait long for PGT action to return, however. Just nine days later, the fifth season got underway with the aptly named PGT Kickoff series, which ran from Jan. 20-25 inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

This festival’s relatively short schedule was comprised of five no-limit hold’em tournaments, with the first four sporting $5,000 buy-ins while the series finale doubled the stakes to $10,000. More than $3 million in total prize money was paid out across the handful of events thanks to the 511 entries made along the way.

This series awarded double the typical amount of PGT points per cash, helping those who excelled get a leg up in the season-long points race.

‘Chewy’ And ‘Pads’ Start Strong

Andrew Lichtenberger scored his first live tournament cash in November of 2007. In the 17 years since then, he has accumulated more than $22 million in earnings across 312 in-the-money finishes. The 37-year-old poker pro, known to many by his old online screen name ‘LuckyChewy,’ notched his 17th career tournament title by taking down the first event of this series.

Lichtenberger navigated through an 84-entry field, earning $117,600 and the trophy after defeating six-time bracelet winner Nick Schulman heads-up.

This was Lichtenberger’s 42nd tournament cash for six figures or more. The bracelet winner has four scores for over a million, including his career-best payday of $2,798,700 for a third-place showing in the 2023 World Poker Tour World Championship.

British poker pro Patrick Leonard finished sixth in event no. 1, which marked his first-ever cash inside the PokerGO Studio. Despite focusing primarily on the online poker tournament scene, ‘Pads’ is no stranger to success on the live circuit. Leonard has cashed for millions at in-person events, winning several big titles along the way including a WSOP bracelet.

The CoinPoker ambassador followed up that first cash with another PGT milestone in his first win. Leonard came out on top in event no. 2, beating a field of 96 entries for $124,800 and the hardware.

Leonard now has nearly $4.4 million in earnings after this latest victory. The Newcastle, England native also picked up 432 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. He was not yet done racking up the points, though.

Japanese YouTuber Masato Yokosawa Vlogs Win

Masato ‘World Wide’ Yokosawa is one of the most successful poker vloggers in the world. The Japanese professional player’s YouTube channel has 945,000 subscribers, with pages full of videos about the 32-year-old’s life on the circuit with many sporting view counts in the millions.

Yokosawa has found plenty of success on the felt along the way, including winning the WPT Korea main event title back in 2013. The Tokyo resident’s latest triumph saw him come out on top in the third event of this festival. Yokosawa beat a field of 112 entries to earn $142,800 and his first PGT trophy.

Thanks to this victory, Yokosawa has surpassed $1.7 million in recorded tournament earnings. His largest payout to date came back in 2023 when he finished 45th in the WSOP main event for $188,400. He now has six six-figure cashes under his belt.

Nick Seward, who finished eighth in event no. 1 for $16,800, placed third in this tournament for another $64,400. He would later add a third final-table finish in the finale of this festival, placing sixth for $46,500. His $127,700 in total earnings was the seventh-highest total of any player during the series.

Former Accountant Bounces Back

Spencer Champlin came into heads-up play for the 2025 Lucky Hearts Poker Open $3,500 main event title on Jan. 21 with a slight lead over Martins Adeniya. The former accountant turned poker pro was unable to close out the win in that tournament, though. He attempted a big multi-street bluff attempt in the event’s final hand, only to run into a backdoor flush.

It didn’t take very long for the Scarborough, Maine resident to get another shot at a trophy, however. Just three days removed from that second-place showing, Champlin traveled across the country and navigated his way through a field of 126 in event no. 4 of the PGT Kickoff series. This time around, Champlin overcame a heads-up chip deficit against Mike Vanier to capture the title and the top prize of $157,500.

Champlin now has more than $3.9 million in recorded tournament earnings, with $582,500 earned already in 2025. This latest win came with 528 POY points. With the 1,200 he earned as the runner-up in the LHPO main event in Florida earlier that week, he moved into the second-place spot in the POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

Patrick Leonard recorded his third final-table finish of the series in this event, placing seventh for $25,200 to bring his festival haul to $171,000, which was the third-highest total of any player. The only two to outdo him managed the feat thanks in large part to their performances in the final tournament of the series.

Kristen Foxen Defends Title In Kickoff Finale

Kristen Foxen already sits atop one of the most prestigious leaderboards in poker, with her five WSOP bracelets being the most of any female player. The 38-year-old is now also on the verge of becoming the highest-earning female player ever.

The Canadian pro took down the $10,000 buy-in finale for a $197,625 payday, bringing her lifetime tournament haul to $10,676,511. As a result, she now sits just $222,516 behind current women’s money list leader Vanessa Selbst with $10,899,027.

This was her second consecutive victory in this event, having also won the finale of last year’s PGT Kickoff Series, that time beating Daniel Negreanu heads-up for $165,000.

In this year’s running, she had to overcome a field of 93 entries to capture her 14th recorded title and her 248th lifetime cash. This victory also came with 540 POY points. It was her second final-table finish of the new year, with a runner-up showing in the $10,000 finale of the PGT Last Chance festival a couple of weeks earlier for $187,550 and 550 points. With 1,090 total points, she is now ranked 16th on the 2025 leaderboard.

Foxen cashed in three of the five PGT Kickoff events on this year’s schedule, accumulating a total of 525 PGT points along the way. As a result, she also surged into first place on the tour’s season-long leaderboard.

The 93-entry turnout for this event built a $930,000 prize pool, with the top 14 finishers receiving a share.

Reigning PGT Player of the Year and recent PGT Championship winner Jeremy Ausmus bowed out in fourth place for $83,700. The six-time bracelet winner now has more than $24.7 million in career earnings to his name.

Bracelet winner and reigning EPT Barcelona champion Stephen Song lost a flip to Joao Sima for a third-place finish worth $111,600. He now has nearly $9.2 million in total cashes.

The final two players ended up making a deal that evenly split the remaining prize money, resulting in $197,625 payouts for both Simao and Foxen. They then played out the tournament to determine who would secure the trophy and the ranking points that came with it.

The final hand of the tournament saw Simao attempt a multi-street bluff that ended in a river shove by the Brazilian after the board paired on the end. Foxen went into the tank but eventually found the big call to lock up the pot and the title.

Simao grew his career earnings to nearly $8.2 million after collecting his negotiated payout. He finished with the second-highest earnings of any player during this series with $206,025, which trailed only Foxen’s $218,275. ♠

PGT Kickoff Series Results

$5,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Jan. 20-21
Entries: 84
Prize pool: $420,000

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Andrew Lichtenberger	$117,600
2nd	Nick Schulman	$75,600
3rd	Matthew Mcewan	$54,600
4th	John Riordan	$39,900
5th	Dennis Beres	$29,400
6th	Patrick Leonard	$21,000
7th	Erik Seidel	$16,800
8th	Nicholas Seward	$16,800

$5,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Jan. 21-22
Entries: 96
Prize pool: $480,000

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Patrick Leonard	$124,800
2nd	Aram Zobian	$79,200
3rd	Joseph Cheong	$57,600
4th	Joey Weissman	$43,200
5th	Sam Laskowitz	$33,600
6th	Natalie Ferguson	$24,400
7th	Chino Rheem	$19,200
8th	John Riordan	$19,200

$5,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Jan. 22-23
Entries: 112
Prize pool: $560,000

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Masato Yokosawa	$142,800
2nd	Neil Warren	$89,600
3rd	Nicholas Seward	$64,400
4th	Blake Vogdes	$50,400
5th	Erik Seidel	$36,400
6th	Mike Vanier	$28,000
7th	Justin Saliba	$22,400
8th	Jesse Lonis	$22,400

$5,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Jan. 23-24
Enties: 126
Prize pool: $630,000

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Spencer Champlin	$157,500
2nd	Mike Vanier	$97,650
3rd	Martin Zamani	$69,300
4th	Eric Blair	$53,550
5th	Sam Soverel	$37,800
6th	Joey Weissman	$31,500
7th	Patrick Leonard	$25,200
8th	Beka Iordanishvili	$25,200

$10,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Jan. 24-25
Entries: 93
Prize pool: $930,000

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Kristen Foxen	$197,625
2nd	Joao Simao	$197,625
3rd	Stephen Song	$111,600
4th	Jeremy Ausmus	$83,700
5th	Andrew Moreno	$65,100
6th	Nicholas Seward	$46,500
7th	Neil Warren	$37,200
8th	John Andress	$37,200