January 26-27
Runners in Event #1 who were playing their first PokerGO Tour event.
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1ST
Andrew Lichtenberger
$162,000
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2ND
Jeremy Eyer
$97,875
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3RD
Shannon Shorr
$70,875
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4TH
Cary Katz
$54,000
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5TH
Ethan Yau
$40,500
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6TH
Peter Mugar
$33,750
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7TH
Spencer Champlin
$27,000
The PokerGO Tour kicked off its new season with the second-largest $5K field in its history on Monday, despite pressure from new and confusing tax changes that may have an impact on high-stakes tournament fields.
A field of 135 entries turned out for the maiden voyage of the 2026 season, hoping to break from the gate with double points and an early lead on the PGT leaderboard. It would be Andrew 'LuckyChewy' Lichteneberger who picked up where he left off, notching the first victory of the year only weeks after finishing second in last season's PGT Championship. 'LuckyChewy' is now the 13th player to win eight times on tour, putting him in a fourth-place tie with some heady company like Jeremy Ausmus, Chris Brewer, and Justin Bonomo.
Jeremy Eyer finished in second and PGT regular Shannon Shorr finished third. Cary Katz, Ethan Yau, Peter Mugar, and Spencer Champlin completed a final table roster of seven that returned on Tuesday to play to a winner.
But the big story was the big field.
Something completely different
"We expected something different going into it, and we were kind of shocked," PGT Commissioner Tim Duckworth told us on Tuesday.
The field had 81 unique entries, with 64 of them showing up on time to take advantage of the rake reduction. That is up from 84 entries on 54 unique players in 2025.
Duckworth jumped on X last week with a data dive on what we might expect from the tax changes. He said he would be "very satisfied" if they hit 75% of the 2025 attendance numbers, due to a few factors not limited to the tax law. It's also an expensive stretch for Vegas poker players in the midst of WPT Venetian, Wynn Millions, the PokerGO Cup and WSOPC Horseshoe. PGT has adjusted to increase the number of lower buy-ins to try and build a more sustainable high-stakes poker economy.
It's a very strong start to the year, but just one data point in what will be a large and complicated sample size throughout the 2026 pokerverse.
"I think people are going to look at our numbers right now and be like, 'Oh, nothing's wrong.' But I think these players are going to be very particular when it gets to that $10,000 price point, especially when you start venturing outside of the [PokerGO Studio] where maybe there's no discount and maybe there's no food comp for playing, right?"
The series now continues for the rest of the week with five more events, three $5K tournaments and two $10Ks. The tour's first series will wrap up on Saturday with the conclusion of Event #5 and a one-day Turbo for Event #6.
