Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger started the 2025 PokerGO Tour season in style last night, taking down event #1 of the Kick Off series in Las Vegas.
With the 2024 season just completed, crowning Jeremy Ausmus as champion as well as Player of the Year, the PokerGO Tour were offering double points this week to kickstart their highstakes series.
A five-tournament series that sees four $5k buy-ins followed by a $10k finale, the KickOff kicked off with 84 runners chasing a share of the $420,000 prizepool.
First order of the day was reaching the money, the top 12 cashing, and there were plenty of big-name casualties littering the rail in the PokerGO Studios at the Aria.
Chino Rheem, Jared Jaffe, Jonathan Little and Landon Tice all fell on day 1, as did Ausmus, but it was PGT newbie Nicholas Schulte who discovered the true pain of highstakes poker…
Schulte shoved over Beres’ all-in after a Lonis open, the latter getting out of the way…
Schulte: Q♠ Q♥
Beres: A♦ J♦
Flop: 9♣ 6♦ 2♥
Turn: 5♦
River: 9♦
That runner-runner flush meant Schulte had bubbled the money at his first attempt, the remaining dozen doubling their money with enough extra for a tip. By the end of the day, we had our final seven…
Erik Seidel’s adventured ended abruptly in 7th spot. All-in with queens against A♦ qd: the flop brought two more bullets and that was all she wrote.
Patrick Leonard was the sole non-US pro at the table, the CoinPoker ambassador from England an online crusher who enjoys occasional forays into the live poker arena. His 6th spot finish came courtesy of Lichtenberger
Leonard: 10♠ 10♣
Lichtenberger: K♠ Q♠
Flop: A♣ 8♠ 7♠
Turn: 5♠
River: 10♥
Popular commentator and pro Nick Schulman then accounted for Beres in 5th spot and John Riordan in 4th, leaving three to battle out the podium placings.
Matthew McEwan then had a crazy few hands, doubling through aces, then an A10 vs A10 battle which saw him flop a flush.
A big, missed flush pegged his chip lead back, however, and then he exited at the hands of Schulman, leaving us heads-up…
Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em of the PGT Kickoff is down to the final two players.@luckychewy – 5,975,000@NickSchulman – 4,525,000
Both players are guaranteed $75,600 and 151 PGT points but are playing for the $117,600 first-place prize, 235 PGT points, and the PGT Gold… pic.twitter.com/EN5m3C8hI4
— PokerGO Tour (@PokerGOTour) January 22, 2025
It didn’t take long for Lichtenberger to open up a lead and Schulman quickly found himself in trouble, the end coming when his open-shove was called…
Lichtenberger: K♠ 9♠
Schulman: J♦ 7♣
Flop: 10♣ 4♦ 3♥
Turn: K♣
River: 9♥
Event #1: Final Table Results
| 1 | Andrew Lichtenberger | USA | $117,600 |
| 2 | Nick Schulman | USA | $75,600 |
| 3 | Matthew McEwan | USA | $54,600 |
| 4 | John Riordan | USA | $39,900 |
| 5 | Dennis Beres | USA | $29,400 |
| 6 | Patrick Leonard | UK | $21,000 |
| 7 | Erik Seidel | USA | $16,900 |
Event #2 is already at the final table stage, playing out tonight with Patrick Leonard featuring once again, and we’ll have all the best of the action for you as soon as it’s done, so be sure to check in!
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