Joey Weissman Hoists The PokerGO Cup After Historic Run

Three cashes, including a win, a runner-up, and a third-place showing. A dominating performance worthy of player of the series honors in almost every high roller series. But it wasn’t enough. Neither was three cashes with two wins.

Although he had two formidable opponents challenging him, Joey Weissman captured the PokerGO Cup series championship with a historic performance on the felt. The 36-year-old bracelet winner based out of Las Vegas final tabled four of the eight tournaments that made up the festival, recording one win and three runner-up finishes.

Weissman cashed for a total of $930,600 throughout the series, the most of any player by far. The New York native finished the series with 758 PokerGO Tour points, giving him a 190-point final margin of victory. With two final-table finishes during the PGT Kickoff festival in January also under his belt, Weissman has claimed the top spot in the season-long PGT points race.

As if that wasn’t enough, Weissman’s success at this festival also propelled him into the top spot in the 2025 Card Player Player of the Year race presented by Global Poker. He already has seven total final tables so far in 2025, with 2,477 points and over $1 million in POY earnings.

Weissman has been around the live tournament scene for 15 years now, with his first recorded score coming back in 2010. The college dropout now has nearly $8.8 million in earnings to his name with 321 career in-the-money finishes.

The PokerGO Cup packed numerous exciting storylines into February, all while paying out a whopping $9,405,000 in total prize money. The high-stakes series drew 854 cumulative entries inside the PokerGO Studio on the Las Vegas Strip, including a record-setting field of 177 in the kickoff tournament.

Weissman And Moncek Go Round-For-Round

The first two events of the series featured an unprecedented occurrence for the PGT: the same two players made it down to heads-up in back-to-back events.

A total of 177 entries were made in the $5,000 event, a new record for the largest field in a PGT owned and operated no-limit hold’em tournament held inside the PokerGO Studio. The strong turnout resulted in a prize pool of $885,000.

While 27 players ultimately earned a share, the largest chunk was awarded to eventual champion Michael Moncek. The two-time bracelet winner, known as ‘Texas Mike,’ walked away with $185,850 for the win after defeating none other than Weissman heads-up.

Event no. 2, the first of four consecutive $10,000 buy-in tournaments on the slate, drew 118 entries. Once again, Weissman and Moncek squared off for the title. But this time, Weissman landed the knockout punch to nab the trophy and $295,000.

Moncek ended up recording one more cash, placing third in event no. 5 to bring his total earnings for the series to $483,750. He concluded the festival with the third-most rankings points of any player.

Hendrix, Blair, And Aido Triumph Over Valentine’s Day Weekend

Roses are red, violets are blue. Adam Hendrix had air, but his big bluff got through.
Hendrix was able to get a multi-street bluff by his heads-up opponent Harvey Castro in event no. 3, taking down a huge pot that helped him close out the win on Valentine’s Day. The bluff saw him shove the river with king high, eventually forcing his opponent off of two pair.

The Alaskan poker pro closed out the victory from there, besting a field of 129 entries to earn $316,050. This was the fourth-largest score of Hendrix’s career, increasing his lifetime haul to $8.2 million.

While Weissman decided to skip event no. 3 for some much-needed rest, he got right back to his winning ways in the following tournament. The 98-entry field was whittled down to Weissman and Eric Blair, with the latter contender coming out on top to earn $254,800.

Weissman added $161,700 to his totals with this second runner-up showing of the series. Like Weissman, Blair was not yet done racking up big scores at this series.

Sergio Aido’s first cash of 2025 was a big one. The Spanish poker pro defeated a field of 100 entries in event no. 5, pocketing $255,000 for the win in the final $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event of the series.

Aido now has nearly $21.9 million in career tournament earnings, with 11 recorded titles and 190 in-the-money finishes. The bracelet winner was one of 15 players to make the money in this event, which had a nice round prize pool of $1,000,000.

Shannon Shorr, who won two PGT Last Chance titles in January, finished second for his third final table of the year. The score shot him up the rankings to sixth place on the POY leaderboard.

Blair Outdoes Himself With Second Victory

Eric Blair has been around the live tournament poker scene for nearly two decades, with 325 career cashes totaling more than $3.4 million accrued along the way. More than 17 years after recording his first cash, the longtime grinder managed to string together his two largest scores ever in the span of a few days.

Blair’s win in event no. 4 was a new personal best of $254,800. That record was short lived, though, as Blair came out on top of a field of 87 entries in event no. 6, which was the first of two $15,000 buy-in events at this festival. This second victory, which came just three days after his first, included an even larger top prize of $352,350.

Blair now sits in 15th place in the POY standings thanks to these two victories and a fourth-place showing in a PGT Kickoff event. He has also climbed to third place in the PGT rankings thanks to his strong start to 2025.

Keith Lehr finished second in this event for $228,375. The two-time bracelet winner managed four cashes throughout the series, with his 283 points and $352,275 in cumulative cashes placing him sixth in the final standings.

Michael Berk took third for $163,125. Berk also managed four cashes, along with Lehr, Weissman, and Sam Laskowitz.

The fourth cash of the series was particularly stressful for Laskowitz, whose wife went into labor on the money bubble, forcing him to abandon his stack. He ended up blinding out in eight place for a nice payday, however.

Foxen Takes Top Spot On Women’s Money List With Win

Kristen Foxen is now the highest-earning female tournament poker player in history. The 38-year-old Canadian surpassed longtime women’s money list leader Vanessa Selbst thanks to her win in the penultimate event of the series, which came with $348,300 in prize money.

With $11,077,811 in career earnings, Foxen now has a $178,784 lead over Selbst, who has not cashed in a poker tournament in nearly five years. The former poker pro announced her retirement from full-time play in 2018, and has since transitioned into a career in the financial sector.

Foxen already held a key poker record, with her five World Series of Poker bracelets being the most of any female player. Last year Foxen also nearly became the first woman to make the main event final table since Barbara Enright placed fifth in 1995, but ultimately was eliminated in 13th place for a career-best payday of $600,000.

A total of 86 entries were made in this $15,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, making for a $1,290,000 prize pool. The top 13 finishers cashed, including a return to the final table for Sergio Aido who took fifth place.

Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel took a bad beat to bust in fourth. He had previously finished third in event no. 2.

Bracelet winner Patrick Leonard earned $225,750 as the runner-up, growing his recorded earnings to more than $4.7 million. This near win came just shy of a month after he earned his first PGT title by taking down event no. 2 of the PGT Kickoff series. The British poker pro has already cashed five times this year, all in PGT tournaments. With 1,307 POY points, he is now ranked 20th in the overall standings and fourth on the PGT leaderboard.

Zaki Defeats Weissman Heads-Up In $25,000 Finale

The $25,000 finale drew 59 total entries, resulting in a prize pool of $1,475,000 that was paid out among the top nine finishers. Justin Zaki was the last man standing, banking $417,000.

This was the third-largest score of the Florida poker pro’s career. He now has more than $6.5 million in lifetime earnings after this triumph.

Once again, it was Weissman heads-up for the title. Although he started the final match with a slight chip disadvantage, Weissman was able to take the lead and at one point had Zaki on the ropes and facing elimination. Zaki four-bet shoved with A-10, only to run into Weissman’s pocket tens.

The turn gave Zaki a Broadway straight, however, and Weissman was left with just a few big blinds, which were dusted off a couple of hands later. It was a similar beat to the one he experienced back in the first event, when Moncek’s A-10 cracked his pocket queens heads-up. (He also lost a coinflip heads-up to Blair.)

The $350,000 runner-up payout was the second-largest of his career, trailing only the $684,609 he earned for taking down a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event at the 2012 WSOP. ♠

PokerGO Cup – Aria PokerGO Studio – Las Vegas, NV

$5,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 11-12
Entries: 177
Prize pool: $885,000

$10,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 12-13
Entries: 118
Prize pool: $1,180,000

$10,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 13-14
Entries: 129
Prize pool: $1,290,000

$10,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 14-15
Entries: 98
Prize pool: $980,000

$10,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 15-17
Entries: 100
Prize pool: $1,000,000

$15,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 17-18
Entries: 87
Prize pool: $1,305,000

$15,100 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 18-19
Entries: 86
Prize pool: $1,290,000

$25,200 No-Limit Hold’em
Feb. 19-20
Entries: 59
Prize pool: $1,475,000

PokerGO Cup Standings