Andrew Lichtenberger Leads PGT Kickoff Event #1 Final Table

The PGT Kickoff began on Monday from the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, with Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold’em. The tournament drew 84 entries and Andrew Lichtenberger leads the final seven players.

Lichtenberger was already one of the big stacks in the room after the first break and continued to build from there. Stephen Brown, Victoria Livschitz, Bertrand Rosique, Manuel Fritz, and Nick Seward were just some of the players eliminated by Lichtenberger during the second half of the day, helping to catapult him to the final table with nearly 40% of the chips in play. Lichtenberger is eyeing his seventh PGT Title. John Riordan and Nick Schulman are Lichtenberger's closest competition, with roughly 1,500,000 each, and next is Patrick Leonard with 1,170,000. Matthew McEwan, Dennis Beres, and Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel round out the final table. 

The field of 84 entrants created a prize pool worth $420,000, and the final 12 players earned a piece of it. Nick Schulte was the unfortunate bubble boy when his queens were cracked by the runner-runner flush of Beres in an all-in pot. Beres shoved over an early position raise with ace-jack suited and Schulte reshoved for less in the big blind. Beres was in rough shape to score the elimination on the low disconnected flop, but a perfect turn and river sent the pot to Beres, and Schulte out without a cash. However, Schulte will have four more events to try and make up for it. Mike Zulker (12th), Ethan "Rampage" Yau (11th), Fritz (10th), Jesse Lonis (9th), and Seward (8th) all fell in the money.

Seward just missed the final table, finishing in 8th place when he got his ace-ten in from the big blind against the queens of Lichtenberger. Lichtenberger opened the cutoff for two big blinds and Seward jammed for around 26 big blinds. Seward found help in the form of a ten on the flop, but couldn't catch up from there. 

The stacked field included 2024 PGT Champion and Player of the Year Jeremy Ausmus, PokerGO boss Cary Katz, and PGT regulars Chino Rheem, Shannon Shorr, Landon Tice, Joseph Cheong, Jeremy Becker, Dylan Linde, Calvin Anderson, Sam Laskowitz, and Stephen Song. 

The PGT Kickoff is the first series of the 2025 PGT season and players earn double PGT points for all cashes, allowing them to springboard up the PGT leaderboard. 

PGT Kickoff Event #1 Final Table

When play resumes, there will be 4:00 remaining in Level 16 with blinds at 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 big blind ante.

Play will resume on Tuesday, January 21, at 12 p.m. PT, and the final table will be livestreamed on PokerGO at 1 p.m. PT.

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