Michael Moncek Tops Record Breaking 177 Player Field For First PGT Title

Event #1 of the 2025 PokerGO Cup smashed the previous record of 131 entries into a $5,100 buy-in event, with 177 players making their way into the PokerGO Studio, and it was Michael "Texas Mike" Moncek that emerged victorious, claiming the $185,850 first place prize plus 186 PGT points in the process. 

Moncek came into the final table of Event #1 with nearly 40% of the chips in play and quickly soared further up the leaderboard in the first few hands of the day when he went runner-runner flush to send Eric Baldwin and his turned aces up out the door in seventh for $35,400 plus 35 PGT points. 

Moncek took a back seat to the subsequent elimination as Michael Brinkenhoff found himself in a blind vs. blind battle against Danny Qutami. Qutami would flop a pair of fours as Brinkenhoff had straight and flush draws plus two overs. The turn added more outs for Brinkenhoff, and he would river a wheel to send Qutami home in sixth place for $44,250 plus 44 PGT Points. 

Start-of-day short stack Stephen Song was the beneficiary of the early chaos, scoring two ladders in the process before his ace-six would run into Cherish Andrews' king-queen in another blind v. blind battle. Andrews would flop top pair with a king, leaving Song headed to the payout window in fifth place for $53,100 plus 53 PGT points. 

The four-handed play turned into a slogfest as Andrews, Brinkenhoff, and Joey Weissman combined could not match Moncek's stack at the top of the counts, but that would quickly change in one hand. 

Moncek opened under the gun to 500,000 and received a call from Andrews in the small blind. The flop fell jack high, and Moncek continued for 525,000. Andrews called to see the board pair on the turn. Moncek fired big, to the tune of 1,200,000, and Andrews called again. 

The river was a ten, Andrews checked, Moncek moved all in, and Andrews snap-called. Moncek tabled ace-nine for a rivered jack-high straight, but Andrews tabled pocket jacks for the turned full house to move into a virtual tie atop the chip lead. 

The players would then be sent on their first break of the day, and when play resumed, the two short stacks in Brinkenhoff and Weissman went to battle. Brinkenhoff found himself all in with ace-queen for roughly ten big blinds against the king-ten of Weissman, but a king on the flop left Brinkenhoff headed to the payout cage in fourth place for $66,375 plus 66 PGT points. 

Andrews and Moncek still sat atop the counts, but that didn't stop the pair from finding themselves waging war as a blind vs. blind pre-flop raising war saw Andrews holding pocket eights against the ace-four of Moncek in the largest pot of the tournament with over 17 million chips in the middle. 

An ace on the flop sealed the deal for "Texas Mike" as Andrews could only watch the turn and river come up a brick, leaving her to collect her $88,500 third-place prize plus 89 PGT points as the monster pot went Moncek's way. 

Moncek then made quick work of Weissman but had to come from behind again to seal the victory. With Weissman sitting on just over four million in chips, he found himself all in with pocket queens against the ace-ten of Moncek, only to see an ace hit the flop for the second all-in in a row. A queen failed to materialize on the turn and river, and Weissman hit the rail to collect his $123,900 runner-up prize plus the 124 PGT points. 

PokerGO Cup #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Payouts

Event #1 Smashes Records 

The 177-player field in Event #1 broke the record for a $5,100 buy-in event by an astonishing 46 entries and created a record-breaking prize pool of $850,000, with the top 27 players finding cash. Fourteen satellite seat winners were added to the record field, including PGT Regulars Jim Collopy, Francis Anderson, and Spencer Champlin, but only newcomer Davis Khobyer (13th) could find cash in the event. 

PGT regular and 2010 Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel has seen his fair share of success in his career but just missed out on claiming a part of the prize pool when his ace-queen could not run down Joao Simao's ace-king, leaving the Hall of Famer eliminated to burst the money bubble in the event. 

PGT regulars Alex Foxen (11th), Dylan Weisman (12th), John Andress (15th), Joao Simao (17th), Ethan Yau (18th), Ren Lin (19th), Jake Daniels (22nd), Shannon Shorr (23rd), Brandon Wittmeyer (24th), Ed Sebesta (25th), Martin Zamani (26th) and Michael Berk (27th) all picked up their first cash of the series while PGT Newcomers Jessica Vierling (14th) Jonathan Bomba (16th), Matthew Betti (20th), and Farid Jattin (21st) round out those that finished in the money.

With the win, Moncek topped the record-breaking field and secured his first PGT tournament victory. He also captured his first tournament win in nearly two years, putting him atop the standings after one event; the rest of the final table rounds out the top seven. 

Keith Lehr (8th), David Chen (9th), and Craig Mason (10th) fell late in the night on day one and failed to appear at the televised final table, but they rounded out the top ten through one event.  

 PokerGO Cup Leaderboard - Top Ten

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