A buzzer beating victory in the final tournament of the 2025 PokerGO Tour season has vaulted Alex Foxen into the top spot on the PGT leaderboard for Monday's $1,000,000 Championship freeroll.
Foxen's win in the turbo-fied Event #6 of the PGT Last Chance series earned him $232,400 and 232 PGT points, enough to leap Sam Soverel for pole position in the PGT Championship. He will start Monday's $1,000,000 freeroll with an advantage in a field of 54 players who start with stacks based on their leaderboard finish.
Quick-crowned Foxen jumps over Soverel
A field of 83 turned out for the $10,100 one-day turbo and the last shot at earning a Dream Seat via a top-five finish on the Last Chance series leaderboard. Foxen survived the furious turbo format to get to a final table of seven that included Jonathan Little, Andrew Lichtenberger, Brandon Wilson, and chip leader Josh Arieh. Little would end up falling in fifth and Arieh in fourth before Lichtenberger's pair lost to Wilson's wheel for third.
Wilson, who already qualified for the PGT Championship with a top-40 season, ended up at the top of the Last Chance series leaderboard after he fell to Foxen in second. The five Dream Seats went to the top five finishers who hadn't already qualified, so David Coleman's second place effort was also moved aside for the purposes of determining the winners. After tossing out Chino Rheem, Patrick Leonard, Sergio Aido, and now Foxen, the five Dream Seat winners remained: David 'ODB' Baker, Neil Warren, Clemen Deng, Chi-Jen Chu, and Jeremy Becker. Phil Hellmuth, who finished just seven PGT points behind Becker, will not have a seat for the PGT Championship.
PGT Championship field now locked
The field of 54 players includes top-40 finishers and 14 Dream Seat winners, who have locked up a spot for the $1,000,000 freeroll in other ways throughout 2025. Let's take a look at the field and their starting stacks. Blinds kick off in the opening level at 500/1,000/1,000.
The top ten
The top of the leaderboard will start with more than three times the chips as the bottom, making it an uphill battle for anyone who isn't one of the best poker players of the year. Does the winner come from this group? Probably, but that's why they call them Dream Seats.
- Alex Foxen - 350,000
- Sam Soverel - 340,000
- Chino Rheem - 330,000
- Michael Mizrachi - 320,000
- Joao Simao - 310,000
- Nick Schulman - 300,000
- Jesse Lonis - 295,000
- Stephen Chidwick - 290,000
- Andrew Lichtenberger - 285,000
- Kristen Foxen - 280,000
The 200 Big Blind Club
Daniel Negreanu finished just outside the top ten and he leads the next group of hopefuls who will all start with at least 200 big blinds. Adam Hendrix, who received a big boost from his WSOP Main Event final table run, is right behind him and joined by some of poker's most consistent high-stakes players.
- Daniel Negreanu - 275,000
- Adam Hendrix - 270,000
- John Riordan - 265,000
- Sergio Aido - 260,000
- Sean Rafael - 255,000
- Eric Wasserson - 250,000
- Chad Eveslage - 245,000
- John Wasnock - 240,000
- Isaac Haxton - 235,000
- David Coleman - 230,000
- Philip Sternheimer - 225,000
- Michael Wang - 220,000
- Matthew Wantman - 215,000
- Nguyen Le - 210,000
- Dylan Linde - 205,000
- Patrick Leonard - 200,000
The dark horses
Plenty of big names occupy the rest of the top-40 qualifiers, who will need to make an early move to have the chips to compete against the more advantaged players at the top of the leaderboard. Jason Koon is among them, along with PGT regulars like Sean Winter, Bryce Yockey, and recently-qualified Brandon Wilson. Last year's PGT champ is here, too, with Jeremy Ausmus sneaking into the mix at the bottom.
- Mike Zulker - 195,000
- Thomas Boivin - 190,000
- Sean Winter - 185,000
- Bryce Yockey - 180,000
- Joey Weissman - 175,000
- Ben Lamb - 170,000
- Eric Blair - 165,000
- Brandon Wilson - 160,000
- Masato Yokosawa - 155,000
- Jason Koon - 150,000
- Richard Gryko - 145,000
- Jim Collopy - 140,000
- Jeremy Ausmus - 135,000
- Ben Tollerene - 130,000
The dreamers
The rest of the list includes our Dream Seat winners, starting with the previously mentioned Last Chance qualifiers. They're joined by Nick Petrangelo, who won his seat by dominating the NAPT Las Vegas leaderboard in November. Ed Miller booked his trip to Vegas via the RunGood Poker Series and David Shaw won his at Champions Club Texas.
PokerGO annual subscribers Travis Hague and David Friedler were the lucky winners of a random draw, so they'll sit down with 100 big blinds. Daniel VanDyke will do the same after winning a PokerGO social media contest and Matthew Petry wiggled his way in via the PokerGO Podcast. Aaron Kupin won his at WSOP Paradise.
- David 'ODB' Baker - 125,000
- Neil Warren - 125,000
- Clemen Deng - 125,000
- Chi-Jen Chu - 125,000
- Jeremy Becker - 125,000
- Nick Petrangelo - 125,000
- Ed Miller - 100,000
- David Shaw - 100,000
- Travis Hague - 100,000
- Timothy Tuveson - 100,000
- Daniel VanDyke - 100,000
- Matthew Petry - 100,000
- Aaron Kupin - 100,000
Day 1 of the $1,000,000 Championship freeroll pushes off at 1pm on Monday with blinds at 500/1,000/1,000. They'll sprint to a final table of six on Day 1 and all six will be in the money. Tuesday's final table features a top prize of $500K split between cash and a PGT Passport.
Images courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO.
