January 28-29
Career cashes for Andrew Moreno on the PokerGO Tour.
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1ST
Andrew Moreno
$162,300
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2ND
Jim Collopy
$135,775
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3RD
David Coleman
$79,500
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4TH
Joao Simao
$59,625
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5TH
Brandon Wilson
$47,700
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6TH
Jared Jaffee
$39,750
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7TH
Stephen Song
$31,800
Andrew Moreno returned from an early setback during heads-up play to capture his third career PokerGO Tour victory in Event #3 of the Kickoff series on Thursday.
It was one of the tougher final tables you'll see in the PokerGO Studio, with Joao Simao starting at the front of a group of studio regulars like Jared Jaffee, Brandon Wilson, David Coleman, Jim Collopy, and Stephen Song. The day would end in a heads-up deal before Moreno closed the door on what would have Collopy's third PGT win.
Aside from Moreno's third career PGT win, the big story this week has been the bumper crop of entries for each of the three Kickoff events. Despite PGT Commissioner Tim Duckworth's prediction that the 2026 high roller fields may recede in the face of new tax pressures, each of the first three events has drawn more than the last.
Event #1 kicked off the week with 135 entries, good for the second-largest PGT $5K in the league's five-year history. The second event followed with another record, 151, before Event #3 broke that with 159 entries. They're still chasing the biggest-ever $5K, a 177-ticket turnout at the 2025 PokerGO Cup.
Moreno's heads-up battleback
Meanwhile, Moreno's path to glory started when Song left in seventh, followed by Jaffee in sixth and then Wilson in fifth. Simao was the new short stack in four-handed play after Collopy ran away with everything in the opening stages. Coleman and Moreno remained in the middle, a lot closer to Simao than to Collopy. Moreno would double through Coleman and send Simao to the next event, taking a healthy chip stack into three-handed play behind a still strong Collopy.
Coleman handed his chips to Moreno and broke for the door in third, leaving the final two relatively even. They cut a deal and Collopy won a big pot early, leaving Moreno on the ropes, but consecutive doubles put the champ back in the game. Moreno would close the deal when Collopy made a move on a flop of 
, but the 
was a blank and Moreno held on with queens to win the PGT Gold Cup trophy.
It's still very early, but Moreno's pile of PGT points (double for the Kickoff series) has placed him as the clubhouse leader in the season-long PGT Championship points race. He's joined at the top of the very temporary leaderboard by the other winners from the kickoff series, Brian Battistone and Andrew Lichtenberger.
PokerGO Tour Leaderboard top 10 (as of 1/29/26)
- Andrew Moreno - 366 points
- Brian Battistone - 347 points
- Andrew Lichtenberger - 324 points
- Jim Collopy - 231 points
- Dan Smith - 219 points
- Jeremy Eyer - 196 points
- David Coleman - 159 points
- Maksim Pisarenko - 151 points
- Mike Zulker - 147 points
- Shannon Shorr - 142 points
One more $5K event is running on Thursday with a final table to be decided on Friday. The final two tournaments will feature a $10,000 buy-in, with Saturday's Event #6 to be held as a one-day turbo.
Lead image courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO.
