Filipp Khavin Scores First PGT Title At PokerGO Cup

At his sixth career PokerGO Tour final table, Filipp Khavin finally broke through with his long sought first PGT title, and did so with style. Khavin won event no. 2 of the 2026 PokerGO Cup, defeating reigning Card Player Player of the Year winner Jesse Lonis heads up to close it out.

Khavin won the $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, outlasting 111 entrants to claim the $124,525 first-place prize. The Treasure Island, Florida native’s first major live tournament victory also comes with 480 points in the 2026 POY standings presented by CoinPoker. This was his second qualifying POY result of 2026, joining a fourth-place finish in a $10,000 buy-in event at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood in February.

One of Khavin’s previous PGT final table appearances also came at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood, back in 2022. His career live results crossed the $2.5 million threshold with this win, the biggest of his career.

Khavin’s victory came at his fifth career final table inside the PokerGO Studio, dating back to 2023. Lonis’ second-place finish represents his second PGT final table appearance thus far in 2026.

Finishing Strong

A total of 16 players finished in the money, splitting a share of the $555,000 prize pool. On the way from 16 players down to the official final table of seven, the field lost Dan Sepiol, Sam Soverel, Landon Tice, Qinghai Pan, Manig Loeser, and Chris Hunichen.

Dylan Linde (7th – $22,200) was the first player out at the final table. He busted at the hands of Drake Kemper, with Linde’s pocket queens falling victim to a river ace, making Kemper’s ace-queen best. Kemper rode ace-queen to victory again when he outran Nicholas Seward’s pocket eights, sending the recent World Poker Tour Venetian Las Vegas Spring Championship winner to the rail in sixth place ($27,750).

Kemper scored his third consecutive elimination, sending Jon-Michael Gisler packing (5th – $36,075) courtesy of a flopped set of threes. David Kim (4th – $49,950) ran into Lonis’ A-K in the big blind, which made a winning two pair by the river.

That left Lonis, Kemper, and Khavin to vie for the title. Kemper also ultimately ran into an A-K from Lonis, and his inferior ace (A-5 suited) couldn’t catch up. Lonis and Kemper made an ICM deal heads up, and Kemper ultimately surged into a massive chip lead. The turning point saw K♥10♣ outrun A♥6♦ to give Khavin a massive lead. Lonis was ahead on the final hand as well, with ace-nine against ten-six. But Khavin flopped two pair and held from there to bring the event to a close.

Khavin’s win was also worth 212 PGT points, drastically improving his standing in both the 2026 PokerGO Cup leaderboard and the season-long PGT points race. Lonis is now inside the top 150 in the POY standings as he looks to be the first player to go back-to-back since the award was introduced in 1997. He earned $105,800 and 400 POY points with this runner-up showing.

Final Table Results