Fifty-four players came to the tables at the PokerGO Studios at ARIA in Las Vegas on Monday, but only one could walk away with the 2025 PGT Championship Invitational title. Despite starting in the middle of the pack, Chad Eveslage was able to vanquish the “big guns” and defeat Andrew Lichtenberger for the title. For his efforts, Eveslage picked up a $500,000 prize package of cash and entries into PGT events for the coming year.
Big Guns Fail to Fire
When the tournament started on Monday, the players who had performed the best over the course of the 2025 PGT season were the best positioned for success. The 2025 PGT Player of the Year, Alex Foxen, led the way with his 350,000 stack of chips, and other notable finishers from the past twelve months, like Sam Soverel, David ‘Chino’ Rheem, and World Series of Poker World Champion Michael Mizrachi, were positioned the best. Alas, they were unable to take advantage of their chip largesse as the Day One action unfolded.
Although Foxen got an early bump in a hand against Ben Tollerene and seemed to get on a roll, he would be eliminated from the action during two-table play. Soverel wouldn’t even get that far, dropping out in 20th place, far short of the final table. Rheem and Mizrachi also were not threats, hitting the rail without mounting much of a charge.
The highest-ranked players on the PGT Leaderboard to make the final table would be Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Lichtenberger. Negreanu, starting with 275,000 for his eleventh-place stack, was active throughout the Day One play. Lichtenberger also was mixing it up frequently and with success, adding massively to his 285,000 (ninth place) starting stack.
Perhaps not surprisingly, those who were the most desperate made the most significant moves up the standings. Eveslage started in 20th place with his 245K in chips, but he made the most of his efforts as he made the Invitational final table. More impressive with their runs were Aaron Kupin, who turned his short stack of 100K in chips from his victory at the WSOP Paradise PGT event into a final table seat, and Eric Blair, who got in as an alternate, started with 165K in chips, and fought his way to the final table.
Seven Men, Six Payouts
PGT officials cruelly stopped play on Monday night with seven players left in the tournament. This was brutal because only six players would divvy up the $1 million prize pool. This meant that one player would return for Tuesday’s action and leave with nothing for their efforts.
Here is how they lined up for the start of action to determine the PGT Championship Invitational:
1. Michael Wang, 2.89 million
2. Andrew Lichtenberger, 2.41 million
3. Aaron Kupin, 1.69 million
4. John Riordan, 1.23 million
5. Daniel Negreanu, 1.02 million
6. Chad Eveslage, 800,000
7. Eric Blair, 685,000
Blair waited for a few hands before committing his final chips with A-Q, only to run into a pocket pair of nines from Kupin. The race was on, and Kupin would win it after the board ran out, King high, and missed Blair completely. For his efforts, Blair would receive bupkis, nada, zip…ZERO, as he exited the tournament floor.
This put Eveslage on the short stack, but he had a completely different outcome than Blair. A miracle Queen on the flop brought a double for Eveslage (K-Q) against Wang (A-K), and he wouldn’t stop there. He took out Riordan (5-4) in sixth place after his King played when making trip fives on a 5-A-5-10-9 board, thrusting Eveslage into the chip lead with 3.39 million in chips.
Lichtenberger did not just sit back while Eveslage ran rampant, however. He would eliminate Kupin in fifth place when he rivered two pair (10-9) against Kupin (A-8) on a 10-5-J-K-9 board. Michael Wang would also raise his hand in contention, doubling through Lichtenberger to momentarily stand on top of the mountain. But Eveslage would not be denied as he took out Negreanu when his pocket Jacks stood tall over Negreanu’s A♣ 6♣ when the 5-3-4 flop failed to deliver a straight for the Poker Hall of Famer, ending his day in fourth place.
Taking a break, Eveslage held a slim lead over Wang (4.43 million to 3.86 million), while Lichtenberger lurked in the distance (2.435 million). Eveslage and Wang fought frequently with each other, while Lichtenberger spun his wheels, unable to gain any traction against the two behemoths that he was up against. The battle between Eveslage and Wang would eventually be rectified, and it turned out to be the deciding hand in the tournament.
After Wang opened the betting to 250K Eveslage, in the big blind, three-bet the action to 675K. Wang made the call and, after the flop came 9-10-8, Eveslage bet out enough chips to put Wang to the test. Wang wasted no time making the call, turning up his cards confidently:
Eveslage (big blind): pocket Kings (pair)
Wang (button): 10-9 (two pair)
Wang had outflopped Eveslage, but there were still two cards to come. The turn deuce didn’t do anything to change the situation, but the eight on the river gave Eveslage a better two pair (Kings and eights) than Wang (tens and nines), eliminating Wang in third place and sending Eveslage to heads-up against Lichtenberger with a massive advantage.
The heads-up match lasted all of two hands. On the first, Lichtenberger could not get any action out of Eveslage, wasting a perfectly good pocket pair of Queens for Lichtenberger. On what would be the final hand of the tournament, Lichtenberger moved all in, and Eveslage immediately called the bet:
Lichtenberger (small blind/button): 8♣ 6♣
Eveslage (big blind): pocket Jacks
Nothing came on the flop that would improve Lichtenberger and, after a Jack landed on the turn, he was left drawing dead. The formality of the river was dealt (a trey), and the tournament was over, with Chad Eveslage emerging as the champion of the PGT Championship Invitational.
1. Chad Eveslage, $500,000 ($150,000 and $350,000 in PGT Passport buy-ins)
2. Andrew Lichtenberger, $200,000 ($60,000 and $140,000)
3. Michael Wang, $120,000 ($40,000 and $80,000)
4. Daniel Negreanu, $80,000 ($30,000 and $50,000)
5. Aaron Kupin, $60,000 ($20,000 and $40,000)
6. John Riordan, $40,000 ($10,000 and $30,000)
With the conclusion of the 2025 PGT Championship Invitational, the final note has been sounded on the 2025 tournament poker season. The PGT will kick off its 2026 season on January 26, when the PGT Kickoff will open for action. That series features four $5,000 events, followed by two $10,000 events (one Main Event, one Turbo) to close out January. Congratulations to the 2025 PGT Player of the Year, Alex Foxen, and the PGT World Champion, Chad Eveslage, for his win in the PGT Championship Invitational.