Michael 'Texas Mike' Moncek arrived at the final table of Event#1 in the PokerGO Cup with more than a third of the total chips in play. After about two and a half hours of play, he had them all. It was Moncek's seventh PokerGO Tour (PGT) final table appearance and, this time around, he had all the firepower he needed to close out his first victory.
While he had the advantage when it came to chips, Moncek was far from guaranteed a victory as his opponents – Joey Weissman, Michael Brinkenhoff, Eric Baldwin, Cherish Andrews, Danny Qutami, and Stephen Song – had no intention of going down easy.
Baldwin, Qutami, Song out early
In the early stages of play, Moncek laid a tough beat on Baldwin in a single-raise pot. After defending his big blind with 
, Moncek check-called twice on a 
board. On the river 
, he led into Baldwin with a bet large enough to put his opponent's tournament life on the line. Baldwin quickly called, tabling 
– good for top two pair, but not good enough for the pot – and his final table appearance came to an abrupt runner-runner end in seventh place.
Brinkenhoff then delivered a beat of his own to Qutami in a blind versus blind confrontation. On a short stack, Qutami defended his big blind with 
against a raise from Brinkenhoff's 
. There wasn't much to play for on the 
flop and the two players got the rest of the chips in the middle. Despite having the best hand at the moment, Qutami was a statistical underdog to Brinkenhoff's combination draw and the turn didn't help much as his opponent added outs. The river 
completed Brinkenhoff's wheel draw and sent Qutami to the payout desk in sixth place.
In another blind versus blind confrontation, Andrews applied maximum pressure from the small blind with an all-in shove to put Song's tournament life on the line should he make the call. After looking down at 
, Song quickly moved a stack of chips across the betting line to take his shot at a double. Andrews needed to improve with 
and improve she did on the 
flop. The turn failed to provide any added backdoor equity to Song and the river confirmed his elimination in fifth place.
Brinkenhoff and Andrews both unlucky
When play reached the four-handed stage, the action slowed as players were even more intent on outlasting one another as the pay jumps grew large. Still, with the blinds on the rise, a clash was inevitable and it came at Brinkenhoff's expense. After Weissman committed the majority of his chips from under the gun, Brinkenhoff found in the small blind and moved all in over the top. Weissman called it off with and the 
runout put an end to Brinkenhoff's run as he couldn't connect with any of his outs once behind.
After winning a massive pot to put in her a virtual tie for the chip lead, Andrews' stack evaporated in a brutal beat. It was a blind versus blind confrontation which saw Andrews raise from the small blind with 
. Moncek, in the big blind, opted to apply maximum pressure by moving all-in with 
. Clashing with the other big stack while Weissman had fewer chips wasn't the ideal situation for Andrews, but after thinking through the spot she made the correct call and simply needed to fade Moncek's three immediate outs. Unfortunately for Andrews, the 
flop provided one of those outs and neither the 
turn nor the river brought her the requisite two-outer to stay alive.
Moncek spikes another ace for the win
With an overwhelming chip lead to start heads-up play, Moncek had one hand on the trophy already. Coincidentally, one hand was all it took for him to seal the victory as both players picked up big hands given the situation. Weissman had the best of it with 
and, after raising from the button, quickly called off when Moncek moved all-in from the big blind with . Again, Moncek found himself drawing at just three immediate outs and, again, he found one of those three on the 
. Much like Andrews, Weissman was left hunting for a two-outer miracle, but the 
turn and river weren't the cards he needed to see.
2025 PokerGO Cup Event #1 final table results
| Place | Player | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Moncek | $185, 850 |
| 2 | Joey Weissman | $123,900 |
| 3 | Cherish Andrews | $88,500 |
| 4 | Michael Brinkenhoff | $66,375 |
| 5 | Stephen Song | $53,100 |
| 6 | Danny Qutami | $44,250 |
| 7 | Eric Baldwin | $35,400 |
Images Courtesy of Enrique Malfavon/PokerGO Tour
