Christopher Costa Captures First PGT Title in Event #5

On a day when he was supposed to be in the office performing surgery on his patients at his cosmetic surgery center, Christopher Costa ran away with the Event #5: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Progressive Bounty final table to take home $123,200, his first PGT trophy, and a almost unheard of $190,000 in bounties. 

Costa came into the day with just over sixty-three percent of the chips in play and quickly soared up the counts when he picked off Bruno Furth's river bluff to move to over seventy percent of the chips in play. 

Alex Foxen was second in chips to start the day, and he picked up a bounty when he rivered the nut flush to send Kamel Mokhammad home in fifth place for $48,720 plus 81 PGT points and $8,000 in bounties. 

The elimination left Furth the short stack after his ill-timed bluff against the chip leader, and Costa would finish him off in fourth place for $62,640 plus 104 PGT points and $32,000 in bounties when he flopped trip queens to crack Furth's pocket aces. 

The start-of-day short stack Jordan Glazer would score two ladders thanks to the early damage by the chip leaders, but even after finding a triple up and flopping quads for another double, could get nothing going and was eventually whittled back down before getting it all in with pocket kings against the ace-queen-ten-nine double suited of Costa. 

Glazer would flop a set of kings, but the runaway chip leader would go runner-runner to the nut flush, leaving Glazer shaking his head as he hit the payout desk in third place for $80,200 plus 133 PGT points and $5,000 in bounties. 

This gave Costa eighty-four percent of the chips in play to start the heads-up match, but Foxen proved more than game as the Chip Leader Coaching Instructor would pick up a few small pots before getting a large chunk when he flush over flushed Costa to cross the four million chip mark. 

After a three-bet pre-flop by Costa, Foxen led all in on a ten-high flop and was immediately called by Costa's pocket kings. Foxen held top pair top kicker, and when the turn fell another ten he doubled into the chip lead by one big blind. 

The chip lead was Foxen's for just two hands, as Costa rivered a wheel and picked off Foxen's pot-sized bluff to move right back to over ten million of the fourteen million chips in play. Another flush over flush situation would drop Foxen further as his king-high flush was no match for the ace-high flush of Costa. 

The tournament ended one hand later as all the money went in pre-flop with Foxen holding ace-queen-five-two with nut diamonds against the ace-nine-nine-six rainbow of Costa. Two jacks on the flop and a nine on the turn sealed it for Costa, and Foxen was denied his first PGT title since 2023, settling for the second-place prize of $123,200 plus 173 PGT points and $10,000 in bounties. 

Event #5: $10,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Progressive Bounty Final Table Payouts

Chino Rheem Remains at the Top of the Series Leaderboard

One hundred and sixteen entrants made their way into the PokerGO Studio for the second progressive bounty of the 2025 PGT PLO Series, making it the third largest $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event in PGT history. The 16 entrants created a prize pool of $1,160,000, and 17 players found their way into the money. 

Costa, who went on a tear once the tournament got down to twelve players, and when the dust settled, he sent nine of the final ten players to the rail and picked up 236 PGT points to move into third place on the series leaderboard courtesy of his first cash. Chino Rheem (307 points) and James Chen (US) (245 points) remain at the top of the leaderboard, but neither player picked up a cash in Event #3. 

Runner-up Foxen scored his second cash of the series and now sits with 197 points, two points ahead of Daniel Negreanu for fourth on the leaderboard. Event #2 winner Billy Tarango drops to sixth with 190 points, Event #4 runner-up Ben Tollerene is seventh with 183 points, and Event #1 winner Ky Bguyen is 8th with 180 points. Allan Le is ninth with 177 points after picking up his third cash of the series with an 11th-place finish in Event #5, while Arthur Morris rounds out the top ten with 171 points. 

Fifth-place finisher Kamel Mokhammed leads the series with four cashes, but he only sits with 125 points, putting him in a tie with Jesse Lonis, who finished ninth in Event #5 for $27,840 and 46 PGT points, for twelfth place on the series leaderboard. 

Other players to find a cash in Event #5 included Dylan Linde (7th for $34,800), Richard Gryko (8th for $27,840), John Riordan (12th for $20,880), and Bryce Yockey (16th for $10,700), who all picked up their third cash of the series. Dylan Smith (14th for $13,920) added his second cash of the series, while Nacho Barbero (10th for $20,880), Sean Rafael (13th for $13,920), Cary Katz (15th for $13,920), and Tomasz Krzesinski (17th for $10,700) all picked up their first cashes. 

2025 PGT PLO Leaderboard

Nick Schulman Scores Season-Leading 11th Cash to Move Into the Top Three

Nick Schulman was the first player to cross double-digit cashes on the year when he finished 14th in Event #4, and after adding his eleventh cash of the young season with a sixth-place finish for $41,760 plus 69 PGT points in Event #5, he now sits third on the season leaderboard with 797 points. 

Schulman also has the most final tables on the year, with seven, and is tied with Michael Moncek and Joey Weissman for the most podium finishes, with four. However, he has yet to pick up a win in 2025, leaving him 60 points behind Kristen Foxen for second and 110 points behind Weissman for first. 

The rest of the top ten remain unchanged through Event #5, but Alex Foxen moved into the top forty thanks to the 173 points and now sits in 36th place with 241 points, five points ahead of Costa, who sits in 37th on the leader board. However, with a long season yet to come, it is anyone's ball game as the 2025 PGT Player of the Year race rolls on. 

For a look at the complete top 40 in the season standings, click here.

2025 PGT Leaderboard Top Ten

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