1/12/2026-1/13/2026
PGT cashes for Chino Rheem during the 25/26 season. The new record passes Ali Imsirovic's mark of 24 in 2021.
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1ST
Chad Eveslage
$500,000
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2ND
Andrew Lichtenberger
$200,000
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3RD
Michael Wang
$120,000
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4TH
Daniel Negreanu
$80,000
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5TH
Aaron Kupin
$60,000
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6TH
John Riordan
$40,000
"Most of the time when I'm playing, I feel like one of the best, if not the best player at the table. And here it's like, I don't know, maybe not. It's a strange feeling, I guess."
Chad Eveslage conquered one of the year's toughest fields to win the PGT Championship on Tuesday night, putting a fine point on a season that cemented his legacy as one of the best all-around poker players of all time.
Florida man wins poker tournament
The story starts in March, when Eveslage won Super High Roller Bowl: Mixed Games for $1,200,000. Later that summer, a third-place finish in the 2-7 Single Draw Championship teased a big $25K HORSE win later in the series, locking in his fourth WSOP bracelet and over $883,000.
The champ went home to Florida after the summer series and grabbed some rest, only to pop up again in late November for a final table finish at WPT Seminole worth $220,000. He then jumped to The Bahamas for WSOP Paradise and a deep run to 29th in the Super Main Event for $335,000. When the dust settled on 2025, Eveslage had eight cashes and two wins on tour, good enough for the 20th spot on the season-ending leaderboard and a healthy stack for the PGT Championship.
For what it's worth, 2025 still probably falls short of a "career year" for Eveslage, who has spent the first half of this decade putting up Hall of Fame numbers. In 2021, he won his first WPT title and a high roller at Seminole to earn more than $1.8 million. He followed that up with his first WSOP bracelet and a run to WPT Player of the Year in 2022, just to sweep the WSOP Dealer's Choice events for two bracelets in 2023.
A short, strange tournament
The newest accolade for Eveslage, a PGT Championship, may have been one of the toughest.
"It's a strange tournament," Eveslage said of the $1,000,000 freeroll.
The tough field and the top-heavy prize were complemented by a speedier format. Throw in 14 unpredictable Dream Seat winners and it's a slippery ride from post to post. Eveslage returned near the bottom of the counts, trailing the leader Michael Wang and a murderer's row of PokerGO Studio regulars like Andrew Lichtenberger, Daniel Negreanu, John Riordan, Eric Blair, and Dream Seat winner Aaron Kupin.
The final seven players would need to eliminate one player to unlock the money spots on Day 2, and their scapegoat was Blair. Riordan followed Blair out the door in sixth, claiming the $40,000 min-cash, followed by Kupin in fifth. Kupin spun up his original short stack to $60,000 after qualifying for the tournament with a PGT victory at WSOP Paradise.
Negreanu was next in fourth after he couldn't turn an early burst of energy into sustained momentum, but we did get a few golf tips from Kid Poker on a chatty stream appearance. That left Wang, Eveslage, and Lichtenberger, with the champ now holding the lead after a bold start that included the knockouts of Negreanu and Riordan.
"I was thinking at the final table I should probably play a little bit more aggressively and try and go for the win," he explained later.
Wang would soon find a juicy spot, but it was too good to be true.
It started when Wang opened, only to be met with a three-bet from Eveslage. Wang tossed in the chips to call and the flop was 
. Eveslage, who had picked up 
, applied big pressure with a bet that would put Wang all in, but Wang's 
meant a snap-call for a pot that would be one of the day's biggest.
The 
turn was no help for Eveslage, but a 
dropped on the river to counterfeit the previously mentioned two pair and send Wang to the rail with a thud. Heads-up play started with a big tilt toward Eveslage, and Lichtenberger didn't wait long to find a spot with . Eveslage snapped it off with and Lictenberger didn't even survive to see a river.
The no-limit triumph is a fitting end for a season in which Eveslage won at everything. But is there anything he can't do?
"Yeah, Pot-limit Omaha."
But don't get too excited. He's working on that, too.
"I've gotten a lot better at PLO. I used to be completely clueless."
Images courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO.
