Taylor Paur Wins 1st PGT Title at PGT Kickoff for $174,000

Another first-time winner was crowned during PGT Kickoff as Taylor Paur emerged victorious to win Event #4: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em for $174,000. Paur defeated Ethan "Rampage" Yau heads-up and earned 348 PGT points and the PGT Kickoff Gold Cup.

This was Paur's first PGT cash inside the PokerGO Studio, and the eighth of his PGT career. It was also Paur's seventh career victory, bringing his lifetime tournament earnings to more than $6,180,000, according to The Hendon Mob.

PGT Kickoff Event #4: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em attracted a 145-entrant field, which was the third-largest of the series, and the fourth-largest for a $5,000 buy-in in PGT history. Daniel Sepiol and Kevin Andriamahefa were both eliminated on the same hand while play was on the money bubble, and they chopped up the $10,875 min-cash. Other players to finish in the money, but fall short of the final table, included Justin Saliba, Daniel Maor, Sean Winter, Spencer Champlin, Kristen Foxen, Jesse Lonis, John Riordan, Nick Schulman, and David Coleman.

Just Zaki entered the final table as the chip leader, but after a bluff gone wrong against Paur, he would be the first to fall on Day 2. Scott Eskenazi and Paul Roy followed Zaki out the door before Jeremy Becker went from chip leader to out in fourth. Andrew Moreno was making a run at back-to-back wins before falling in third place to leave Yau and Paur to battle for the win.

Yau had set a goal prior to this series of winning enough money to enter the top ten on the Massachusetts All-Time Money List, but he'll need to dig a little deeper in the next event as he was eliminated in second place. Paur would be awarded the PGT Gold Cup and $174,000 in prize money for his maiden PGT victory.

2026 PGT Kickoff Event #4: $5,100 No-Limit Hold'em Results

Andrew Moreno strengthens his position on the PGT leaderboard following his third-place finish. Moreno now has 518 PGT points from his two cashes to put him in a prime position to best his 2025 PGT season of 760 PGT points from eight cashes. Event #4 winner Taylor Paur climbs to second, while Event #2 winner Brian Battistone remains in third, but will not be adding to his PGT points tally after leaving town. 

Event #1 winner Andrew Lichtenberger sits fourth overall, while runner-ups Ethan Yau, Jim Collopy, and Dan Smith sit fifth, sixth, and seventh, respectively. David Coleman's two cashes in this series place him eighth, while rounding out the top ten are Jeremy Eyer and Maksim Pisarenko.

PGT Leaderboard Top 10 

These are the leaderboard standings as of Friday, January 30, 2026. The current PGT leaderboard is at pgt.com/leaderboard.

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