The 2026 PokerGO Tour season got underway with the aptly-titled PGT Kickoff, a six-event festival that awarded double rankings points from Jan. 26-31. A total of $4.5 million in prize money was paid out across the half-dozen no-limit hold’em events on the schedule, with 745 entries made along the way.
Andrew Lichtenberger ultimately captured the very first title of the new PGT season. The 38-year-old poker pro based out of Las Vegas outlasted 135 entries to successfully defend his title, having taken down this same tournament in 2025. He earned $162,000 and his eighth career PGT title.
Lichtenberger went on to make three final tables during the series, finishing sixth in event no. 5 and fourth in event no. 6. All told, he cashed for $265,500 and accrued 531 points, giving him the early lead in the season-long standings. The New York native is approaching $25.1 million in career tournament earnings thanks to this latest deep run. The bracelet winner now has 47 scores of six figures or more, with five of those cashes worth over a million dollars.
In addition to his outright lead in the PGT standings, Lichtenberger is now also among the early leaders in the 2026 Card Player Player of the Year race presented by CoinPoker. He currently sits in ninth place, with four final tables overall.
The turnout was even higher for event no. 2, with 151 entries building a $755,000 prize pool. Brian Battistone emerged victorious in the end, taking home $173,600 and 347 PGT points.
This was his very first PGT title, and the third-largest payday of his career. The Nebraska native’s top score remains the $304,920 earned with a win in the 2024 World Poker Tour Voyage $25,000 high roller.
Dan Smith was the runner-up to Battistone. The bracelet winner finished the series with three cashes for a total of $213,175, including this second-place showing and a third-place finish in the final event. Smith is now approaching $63.6 million in career tournament earnings, keeping him firmly locked inside the top 10 on poker’s all-time money list.
Andrew Moreno got his 2026 campaign off to a strong start, taking down event no. 3 for $162,300 and his third career PGT title. He defeated three-time bracelet winner Jim Collopy heads-up, topping a field of 159 entries, the second-largest turnout at this buy-in level in PGT history.
Moreno came painstakingly close to back-to-back titles, navigating his way through 145 entries to make the final three in event no. 4. His run ultimately ended in third place, though, with $76,125 for his efforts. Moreno, the 2021 Wynn Millions champion, now boasts career earnings of nearly $6.7 million.
Taylor Paur came away with the title in that event, earning $174,000 and his first PGT trophy. This was the first live tournament victory for Paur in over a decade. The WPT champion, two-time bracelet winner, and 2010 Card Player Online Player of the Year defeated Ethan ‘Rampage’ Yau heads-up for the title.
Yau, a bracelet winner and popular poker content creator, earned $105,125 as the runner-up, growing his career haul to over $4.2 million. It was his second final table of the week, having also placed fifth in the first event for $40,500.
Michael Berk was the champion of the largest event of the series, in terms of the $1,030,000 prize pool. He outlasted 103 entries in event no. 5, the first of two $10,000 buy-ins that closed out the series.
Berk pocketed $262,650 as the champion, his biggest score yet on the live circuit. Before this triumph, his top payday had been the $229,000 he earned for a 42nd-place finish in the 2023 World Series of Poker main event. With the victory, the Las Vegas resident increased his career earnings to nearly $2.7 million. He now has three live titles to his name, including in the 2023 MSPT Iowa main event.
Five-time bracelet winner Kristen Foxen made an impressive run at winning this event for the third consecutive year, but ultimately bowed out in seventh place settling for $41,200. The cash extended her lead on the women’s all-time money list, with nearly $15.2 million in total earnings giving her a $4.3 million edge on second-ranked Vanessa Selbst.
Ariel Mantel bested a field of 52 entries in the series-ending $10,000 turbo event. This was the first recorded live tournament win for the Argentinian, who walked away with the trophy and $171,600.
Mantel defeated Clemen Deng heads-up for the win. Deng, who had finished fourth in event no. 5 earlier in the same day for $92,700, secured another $109,200 with this runner-up showing. Deng has climbed to 10th in the POY standings, having already cashed for over $524,000 in 2026, with three final tables and one title.
Other top-ranked POY contenders who added to their haul at this festival included fourth-ranked Brandon Wilson, who had two fifth-place finishes, and second-ranked David Coleman, who finished third in event no. 3.
