Andrew Lichtenberger Win 8th Career PGT Title at PGT Kickoff

The 2026 PGT season is underway with Andrew Lichtenberger winning the opening event of PGT Kickoff to earn $162,000 in prize money and his eighth career PGT title.

Lichtenberger also earned 324 PGT points and moved to the top of the PGT leaderboard. In 2025, Lichtenberger also won the PGT Kickoff opening event for $117,600, defeating Nick Schulman heads-up. He nearly bookended his 2026 PGT season perfectly by winning both the season-opening and season-concluding event, but he unfortunately finished runner-up to Chad Eveslage in the PGT $1,000,000 Championship.

Lichtenberger's eighth career PGT title also pushes him above the 6,000-PGT point mark, becoming the 13th player to achieve this milestone. His eighth career PGT title also puts him in a seven-way tie with Jeremy Ausmus, Chris Brewer, Chino Rheem, Michael Addamo, Sean Perry, and Justin Bonomo for fourth-most PGT titles.

PGT Kickoff Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em attracted a 135-entrant field, which was the second-largest for a $5,000 buy-in in PGT history - only trailing the 177-entrant field in Event #1 of the 2025 PokerGO Cup. Following the double elimination of Cherish Andrews and Michael Rossitto on the money bubble to see both players split the min-cash of $10,125, Brock Wilson, Francis Anderson, David 'ODB' Baker, John Riordan, Mike Zulker, and Nick Seward were a few of the players exiting before the final table of seven was set.

Returning for Day 2, Lichtenberger was the overnight chip leader ahead of Cary Katz. Peter Mugar was the short-stack with just a handful of blinds, but he managed to ladder up to sixth place following the elimination of Spencer Champlin in seventh. Ethan "Rampage" Yau would see his pocket aces cracked by pocket kings to fall in fifth, before Katz exited in fourth. Shannon Shorr fell in third place before Lichtenberger and Jeremy Eyer faced off in heads-up play. PGT veteran Lichtenberger emerged victorious over Eyer to collect the PGT Gold Cup, $162,000 in prize money, and 324 PGT points.

2026 PGT Kickoff Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em Results

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