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The PGT Kickoff continued on Friday from the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, with the closing Event #5: $10,100 No-Limit Hold’em. The tournament drew 93 entries and Kristen Foxen holds a sizeable lead over the final seven players.
Foxen had an up-and-down day that saw her fall to one of the shorter stacks in the room after her ace-king suited couldn't improve against Beka Iordanishvili's pocket tens. Foxen avoided losing the rest of her stack by winning a flip with pocket fours against the ace-nine of Michael Brinkenhoff, and she climbed back over the 1,000,000 chip mark by doubling through David Peters. Foxen then crossed the 5,000,000 chip mark after eliminating Sam Soverel in a big pot by flopping quad sevens against Soverel's pocket kings, and PGT newcomer Carson Richards when Richards shoved sevens into Foxen's jacks. Foxen enters the final table with 4,915,000 and will be eyeing her second PGT Title. However, to get it, she will need to fend off the likes of Joao Simao, her next closest competitor with 2,220,000, as well as, Stephen Song (1,990,000), Andrew Moreno (1,490,000), Neil Warren (1,400,000), Jeremy Ausmus (975,000), and Nick Seward (965,000).
The final seven players are all guaranteed at least $37,200, but everyone will be gunning for the $241,800 first-place prize and the coveted double PGT points.
This will be Warren's second final table of the series, coming off a second-place finish in event number three. Warren has a knack for accumulating chips and will surely be looking to take the top spot this time around. Warren eliminated both Michael Berk and Eric Blair in the money to be one of the first stacks near the 2,000,0000 chip mark. Simao was able to rocket up the chip counts himself after trapping with aces against Song in a three-bet pot that saw Song triple off on a jack-high board with king-queen offsuit. The double pushed Simao over 2,000,000 chips. 2024 PGT Player of the Year, Jeremy Ausmus, nursed a short stack most of the evening but held on long enough to bust John Andress on the last hand of the night. This built Ausmus' stack to nearly 1,000,000, which he'll use to maneuver his first final table of the series.
The field of 93 entrants created a prize pool worth $930,000, and the final 14 players made the money. Michael Jozoff was the unfortunate bubble boy after a roller-coaster runout saw him turn a set of sevens against the pocket kings of Sam Soverel, only for a king to land on the river to send Jozoff out. Sean Winter, Bin Duan, Berk, Blair, Soverel, Richards, and Andress all fell in the money.
Andress just missed the final table when he shoved his short stack in from the small blind with king-high and was called by Jeremy Ausmus in the big blind with ace-queen. A queen-high flop would leave Andress drawing slim and he was unable to catch up from there.
The only $10,000 buy-in event of the series saw a stacked field that included PGT regulars Chino Rheem, Shannon Shorr, Landon Tice, Joseph Cheong, Jeremy Becker, Sam Laskowitz, Brandon Wilson, and PokerGO boss Cary Katz.
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.
Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
1 | Neil Warren | United States | 1,400,000 |
2 | Joao Simao | Brazil | 2,220,000 |
3 | Stephen Song | United States | 1,990,000 |
4 | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 975,000 |
5 | Kristen Foxen | Canada | 4,915,000 |
6 | Andrew Moreno | United States | 1,490,000 |
7 | Nicholas Seward | United States | 965,000 |
When play resumes, there will be11:00 remaining in Level 19 with blinds at 30,000/60,000 and a 60,000 big blind ante.
Play will resume on Saturday, January 25, at 12 p.m. PT, and the final table will be livestreamed on PokerGO at 1 p.m. PT.
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