Fashionable British professional Patrick Leonard added $124,800 to his stay poker match earnings and claimed the early lead on the 2025 PokerGO Tour leaderboard with a victory within the second occasion of the PGT Kickoff Sequence, his first stay win since 2022.
Leonard was one in all 96 entrants who ponied up the $5,100 buy-in; these gamers created a $480,000 prize pool that the highest 14 finishers shared.
Day 1 ended with solely seven gamers within the hunt for the title. David Chen, Rodger Johnson, Bertrand Rosique, PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona champion Stephen Music, the legendary Phil Hellmuth, Andrew Moreno, and John Riordan all busting inside the cash locations earlier than the curtain got here down on proceedings.
Leonard sat down on the seven-handed remaining desk on the backside of the pile however gained a monster-sized pot when he discovered pocket aces in a hand the place Chino Rheem held pocket tens, and Sam Laskowitz was dealt a pair of kings within the gap. All of the chips discovered their method into the center of the felt on the PokerGO Studio, the board ran out jack-high, and Leonard soared towards the highest of the counts. Rheem crashed out in seventh for $19,200.
Natalie Ferguson solely had 4 large blinds when Rheem busted and was the following participant out of the door. Ferguson managed to triple up, however Joey Weissman halted her comeback. Having flopped prime pair together with her king-ten, Ferguson’s stack went in on the flip. Sadly for Ferguson, Weismann, who’s promoting motion for this collection on StakeKings, had additionally flopped prime pair along with his ace-ten. The river bricked, and Ferguson bowed out.
Fifth place went to Laskowitz who had been making an attempt to rebuild his stack after the three-way all-in that Leonard gained. The final of Laskowitz’s chips have been dedicated with king-queen, which misplaced to the king-nine of former World Sequence of Poker (WSOP) Essential Occasion finalist Joseph Cheong.
Cheong then gained an enormous pot when his pocket jacks held in a three-way hand towards Weissman’s ace-eight and Leonard’s ace-queen. Cheong was flying excessive, however Leonard was on the ropes with a handful of massive blinds. Nonetheless, Leonard instantly doubled when his queen-jack gained a flip towards Weissman’s sevens.
Leonard bought his arms on the remainder of Weissman’s stack when Weismann open-shoved from the small blind with king-eight. Leonard regarded down at ace-king and made one of many simpler calls of his illustrious profession. Weissman flopped an open-ended straight draw that he finally missed, busting in fourth for $43,200.
Heads-up was set quickly after when Cheong bowed out at Leonard’s arms. Queen-jack was once more the profitable hand for Leonard; it out-kicked Cheong’s queen-seven.
Aram Zobian went into the heads-up battle with Leonard trailing three-to-one in chips, and with the regularly rising blinds consuming into every participant’s stacks, the deficit proved an excessive amount of for Zobian to beat.
The ultimate hand noticed Zobian unable to get away from a turned pair of threes, and he made a hero name solely to find Leonard was sat with two pair. Zobian crashed out in second place for $79,200, leaving Leonard to say the winner’s trophy and the $124,800 prime prize.
Occasion #2: $5,100 No-Restrict Maintain’em Last Desk Outcomes
PokerGO Tour Leaderboard Prime 5
Leonard’s victory adopted his remaining desk look within the opening occasion, and the PGT Factors earned from these two outcomes have seen the Brit climb to the highest of the 2025 PGT Leaderboard.
None of the present prime 5 navigated to the ultimate desk of Occasion #3; its remaining desk shuffles up and offers on January 23.
Andrew Lichtenberger, champion of Occasion #1, is scorching on Leonard’s heels, whereas Aram Zobian, Nick Schulman, and John Riordan are additionally on “Pads”‘ coattails.
Remaining PokerGO Tour Kickoff Schedule
Occasion #3 is all the way down to its seven-handed remaining desk, the place Japanese star Masato Yokosawa leads from ten-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel.
The penultimate and remaining occasions of the PGT Kickoff Sequence begin on January 23 and January 24. PokerNews’ expects each occasions – the latter has a $10,100 buy-in – to be well-attended, not least as a result of double factors are awarded in these two tournaments.
Las Vegas is a Completely satisfied Looking Floor For Leonard
Though Leonard is best identified for his on-line poker prowess, he has virtually $3.5 million in stay cashes. The ARIA in Las Vegas, the place the PokerGO Studio is situated, has been a contented searching floor for Leonard. In 2017, he gained a brace of $25,000 Excessive Rollers within the area of three days for $789,600 earlier than rounding off a powerful hat-trick with a victory within the $10,400 Bellagio Cup XIII for an extra $475,940.
His first look within the PokerGO Studio resulted in a sixth-place end within the PGT Kickoff Sequence opening occasion for $21,000, after which this spectacular victory was price $124,800.
Greater than 60 of Leonard’s recorded 122 stay scores stem from Las Vegas-based occasions. Little doubt this victory is not going to be the final time we see Leonard’s title in a Vegas stay occasion’s payouts or him lifting a winner’s trophy aloft.
Lead picture courtesy of PokerGO
Matthew Pitt
Senior Editor
