In recent days, the first PGT Kickoff tournament series was held at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, offering players the chance to earn double points. The PGT Kickoff offered 5 tournaments, 4 of which had a buy-in of $5,100 and the last one had a buy-in of $10,100. We introduced the first pair of champions a few days ago.
The third tournament of the series brought 112 entries and a prizepool worth $560,000. Traditionally, 7 players advanced to the final day and they were led by Japanese youtuber Masato Yokosawa, who has up to 945,000 subscribers on his channel.
Masato took on the likes of Erik Seidel and Justin Saliba at the final table and turned his chiplead into his first career PGT title. For that, he pocketed $142,800 in prize money.
| Place | Name | Country | PGT Points | Prize |
| 1st | Masato Yokosawa | Japan | 286 | $142,800 |
| 2nd | Neil Warren | United States | 179 | $89,600 |
| 3rd | Nicholas Seward | United States | 129 | $64,400 |
| 4th | Blake Vogdes | United States | 101 | $50,400 |
| 5th | Erik Seidel | United States | 73 | $36,400 |
| 6th | Michael Vanier | United States | 56 | $28,000 |
| 7th | Justin Saliba | United States | 45 | $22,400 |
The No. 4 tournament produced 126 entries and a prizepool of $630,000. Martin Zamani entered the final day as chipleader with a huge stack of over 5.5 million. At the other end were Patrick Leonard and Spencer Champlin.
Martin Zamani had to settle for third place in the end, and Spencer Champlin entered heads-up play and was able to turn his shortstack into a win. He thus won his second PGT title and with it a $157,500 payday.
| Place | Name | Country | PGT Points | Prize |
| 1st | Spencer Champlin | United States | 315 | $157,500 |
| 2nd | Michael Vanier | United States | 195 | $97,650 |
| 3rd | Martin Zamani | United States | 139 | $69,300 |
| 4th | Eric Blair | United States | 107 | $53,550 |
| 5th | Sam Soverel | United States | 76 | $37,800 |
| 6th | Joey Weissman | United States | 63 | $31,500 |
| 7th | Patrick Leonard | United Kingdom | 50 | $25,200 |
Last title has the same winner as last year
The fifth tournament of the series had a buy-in of $10,100 and was also the last. It brought a total of 93 entries with a prizepool of $930,000 and there was $241,800 waiting for the winner. Kristen Foxen entered the final table as the chipleader.
This tournament brought 50 entries a year ago and the winner was Kristen Foxen, who cashed for $165,000. This year, it ended the same way, and Kristen was once again the champion of the final tournament of the PGT Kickoff Series. Now, however, she made a deal with Joao Simao in heads-up play that netted them both the same $197,625. The ensuing heads-up match for the title and trophy ended with Kristen Foxen winning.
| Place | Name | Country | PGT Points | Prize |
| 1st | Kristen Foxen | Canada | 484 | $197,625 |
| 2nd | Joao Simao | Brazil | 307 | $197,625 |
| 3rd | Stephen Song | United States | 223 | $111,600 |
| 4th | Jeremy Ausmus | United States | 167 | $83,700 |
| 5th | Andrew Moreno | United States | 130 | $65,100 |
| 6th | Nick Seward | United States | 93 | $46,500 |
| 7th | Neil Warren | United States | 74 | $37,200 |
With this win, Kristen moved into first place in the year-to-date scoring with a current total of 525 points. In second place is Patrick Leonard with 342 points, who has made three final tables and won the title in one event.
| Rank | Player | Points | Wins | Top 3 | FT | Cashes | Winnings |
| 1 | Kristen Foxen | 525 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | $218,275 |
| 2 | Patrick Leonard | 342 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | $171,000 |
| 3 | Joao Simao | 324 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | $206,025 |
| 4 | Spencer Champlin | 315 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | $157,500 |
| 5 | Masato Yokosawa | 286 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | $142,800 |
| 6 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 267 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | $133,350 |
| 7 | Nick Seward | 256 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | $127,700 |
| 8 | Neil Warren | 253 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | $126,800 |
| 9 | Stephen Song | 252 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | $126,000 |
| 10 | Michael Vanier | 251 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | $125,650 |
Like father, like son
The fourth tournament of the PGT Kickoff series featured WSOP bracelet record holder Phil Hellmuth. But along with him at the same table was his son Phillip Hellmuth III, who doesn't have nearly the poker resume of his father. What happened in the tournament, however, was certainly not what either of them expected.
In fact, John Riordan made sure they were eliminated, and unbelievably, he did it with the same hand in both cases. The A-K cards proved fatal for both family members, and in both cases Riordan hit a set. To make matters worse, on both eliminations, the Hellmuths had a pair on hand. To this we can only add - like father, like son.
Source - PGT, Pokernews, Twitter/X