Nicolas Milgrom Catches Fire To Win Event #1: $5,100 H.O.R.S.E.

Nicolas Milgrom was left with just over two big bets a few hands into the heads-up match with Jerry Wong, but three consecutive doubles pulled him even in chips, and he ran away with it from there to take home his first PGT trophy and the $159,250 first place prize in Event #1: $5,100 H.O.R.S.E of PGT Mixed Games 2025.

Wong, who started the day as the chip leader, improved to nearly seventy percent of the chips in play two levels into the final table when his nine-seven rivered a straight in limit hold'em to crack the pocket queens of Walter Chambers and send Huabao Chen's flopped nut flush draw home in fifth place for $39,000 plus 39 PGT points. 

Benjamin Miner would then pick up two doubles in a row through Wong, leaving Chambers with the short stack in the process as the 2024 PGT Mixed Game Event #10 champion bowed out a few hands later in fourth place for $52,000 and 52 PGT points when his jack-low was run down by Milgrom's nine-eight low in Razz. 

Wong would cement a just over two to one chip lead to start the heads-up match when he sent Miner and his short stack to the rail a few Razz hands later as Wong made an eight-four low on seventh, leaving Miner's ten draw dead, sending him home in third place for $71,500 and 72 PGT points. 

Wong appeared to take a strange hold on the heads-up match when he peeled the last queen in the deck on seventh street to make trips, leaving Milgrom's buried kings with just over two big bets. 

With Milgrom on the ropes, Wong had a pair of chances to send him to the rail, but a pair of chops in Stud Hi-Lo kept him alive before Milgrom found split aces to crack Wong's split kings and when neither player made a low, he scored his first double. 

Milgrom found his second double in Limit Hold'em when both players flopped a pair, but Milgrom's ace deuce outflopped Wong's seven-five. A Razz rush then saw Milgrom pick up sixth hands in a row, culminating in his third and final double when he made a ten low on seventh to crack Wong's queen-nine. 

Wong had another shot to cripple Milgrom, but he failed to catch his straight on seventh in Stud, leaving Milgrom to collect an over eight million chip pot with kings-up and flip the script creating a four-to-one chip lead.

With Wong sitting on less than three big bets, all the money got into the middle on fifth street, playing Stud, with Wong holding nines and eights, only for Milgrom to roll over trip tens. 

Wong failed to improve, while Milgrom made a full house on seventh to send him to the rail in second place for $97,500 plus 98 PGT points.

Event #1: $5,100 H.O.R.S.E. Final Table Payouts

Event #1 Smashes PGT Mixed Game Records

Event #1 of the PGT Mixed Game 2025 saw seven satellite winners make their way into a record-setting 130-player field, smashing the previous record of 89 entries set during Event #2: $5,100 8-Game Mix of the PGT Mixed Games 2024. 

The record field size created a prize pool of $650,000, with the top 19 players finishing in the money, and after a strong showing at the 2025 PokerGO Cup, Michael Moncek missed out on adding to his season total after he bubbled Event #1. A new wrinkle at the PGT Mixed Games 2025 saw Jeffery Taylor take home the first-ever chip leader bonus payout, taking home $1,000 for having the chip lead first break of the day, but he too would fall short of the money. 

David Funkhouser (19th), Ari Engel (18th), Michael Rodrigues (17th), Dennis Maschke (16th), Andrew Kelsall (15th), Mark Gregorich (14th), Jim Collopy (13th), Benny Glaser (12th), and Mike Gorodinsky (11th) all secured cash in Event #1 but fell before reaching the top ten on the series leaderboard.

Marco Johnson (10th) and Clayton Mozdzen (9th) each picked up $19,500 for 20 PGT, while Jeff Madsen (8th) and Josh Arieh (7th) picked up $26,000 to 26 PGT points to secure the first four spots in the top ten. Steve Zolotow finished in sixth place for $32,500 plus 33 PGT points to round out the bottom five. 

Milgrom's win gave him a career-best score of $159,250, his first PGT Trophy, and 159 PGT points, which put him atop the series leaderboard, while Wong picked up his 23rd career PGT cash with the runner-up finish to sit second with 98 points. 

Third-place finisher Miner crossed the one million mark for career earnings with his cash in Event #1 while picking up his first career PGT final table in the process. Chambers scored his fifth career PGT cash with the fourth-place finish to sit with 52 PGT points, while Chen parlayed his seat from the satellite into a fifth-place finish for his second career PGT cash to round out the top five. 

PGT Mixed Games 2025 Leaderboard

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