The first week of January means it’s back to work, back to school, and back to business, whatever you do. And that holds true for the players at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, where the PGT Last Chance series kicked off on Monday with the first of six $10,100 no-limit hold’em events.
109 entries created a prize pool of $1,090,000, and the final six will return on Tuesday in the money and in the hopes of banking the $277,950 up top.
Leading the pack for the start of Day 2 is Jesse Lonis, who entered the event in 7th place on the PGT annual leaderboard. The top 40 will be set upon the conclusion of this series — that’s why it’s the ‘Last Chance’ after all — and will qualify for the end-of-season PGT Championship, a $1M freeroll, starting January 12.
Alongside Lonis, the final six players also include Clemen Deng, David ‘ODB’ Baker and Cary Katz, none of whom are currently in the top 40, as well as Matthew Wantman, who, 36th on the leaderboard heading into the event, will be looking to tighten his grip on a Championship seat.
The final spot at the six-handed final table will be filled by Phil Hellmuth, who intends to spend a bit more time at the PokerGO Studio this year after only playing there twice in 2025. He’s even wearing his ‘lucky’ Under Armour clothes to help seal the deal.
He's currently in second place and looking for the best-possible start to 2026.
Hellmuth KOs Little to make final six
Whether the luck came from his clothes or elsewhere, Hellmuth scored the final elimination of Day 1 to thin the field down to the last six remaining when his A-6 held against Jonathan Little’s K-Q.
The chips went in preflop, but Little’s big tickets didn’t get there, sending him out in 7th with $43,600 and a place on the rail with the likes of Jeremy Ausmus and Josh Arieh, both of whom made the money but fell short of Tuesday’s finale.
You can watch that hand play out below.
Of the final six, only Lonis and Wantman are currently on the leaderboard, though the higher they finish, the more chips they’ll be able to start with come Championship time. A finish of 3rd or better would see Katz join the final forty — for now, at least — and a shot at the $1M freeroll.
The Last Chance series features daily $10K tourneys throughout the week, running through to Saturday’s single-day turbo, all in the no-limit hold’em format. It gives players one last shot at accumulating points to make it into the top 40 and bag a spot in the Championship.
For those without a realistic chance of making the top 40, the Last Chance series also offers one more route in, with a mini-series leaderboard granting Championship ‘Dream Seats’ to the top 5 players not already qualified.
With a strong finish already secured in the first event, Hellmuth is sure to be eyeing a busy week of earning points to secure himself that Dream Seat.
PGT Last Chance Event #1 final table - chip counts
- Jesse Lonis: 6,060,000
- Phil Hellmuth: 2,835,000
- Cary Katz: 1,595,000
- David 'ODB' Baker: 1,275,000
- Matthew Wantman: 1,005,000
- Clemen Deng: 850,000
Play resumes on Tuesday, January 6, at 12pm PT, when the final six will return to Level 19 with 30 minutes left on the clock and blinds at 30,000/60,000/60,000.
Additional image courtesy of PGT.
