Andrew Lichtenberger may have gotten rid of the giant beard that made him look like 7’6″ tall space smuggler, but that hasn’t changed how dominate he can be at the poker table.
The 38-year-old player from New York won his eighth PoikerGO Tour title in the first event of the first series of the 2026 season, appropriately called the Kickoff. The $5,100 event attracted 135 entries, making it the second-largest event with that buy-in the PGT history.
He won $162,000. Lichtenberger, who also goes by his online poker name “LuckyChewy,” won the same event last year. He also nearly went back-to-back in PGT to start 2026 after finishing second in the PGT $1 Million Championship freeroll to Chad Eveslage. He won $200,000 in that event, missing $500,000 by one spot.
LuckyChew had to get lucky at the final table in order to win his eighth by cracking Ethan Yau’s pocket aces with pocket kings soon after the final table started. Yau would finish fifth.
The win put Lichtenberger in a seven-way tie in with Jeremy Ausmus, Chris Brewer, Chino Rheem, Michael Addamo, Sean Perry, and Justin Bonomo for fourth-most PGT titles. Sam Soverel has the most with 13, followed by Alex Foxen and Stephen Chidwick with 12. Daniel Negreanu sits alone in fourth with 11.
2026 PGT Kickoff Event #1: $5,100 No-Limit Hold’em Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize | PGT Points |
| 1st | Andrew Lichtenberger | United States | $162,000 | 324 |
| 2nd | Jeremy Eyer | United States | $97,875 | 196 |
| 3rd | Shannon Shorr | United States | $70,875 | 142 |
| 4th | Cary Katz | United States | $54,000 | 108 |
| 5th | Ethan Yau | United States | $40,500 | 81 |
| 6th | Peter Mugar | United States | $33,750 | 68 |
| 7th | Spencer Champlin | United States | $27,000 | 54 |
Brian Battistone wins first PGT title
Brian Battistone pushed his lifetime tournament winnings up and over the $1 million mark by winning his first PGT title in the second event of the Kickoff, a $5,100 affair that attracted 151 entrants.
The $173,600 is his third-largest tournament cash, just $400 behind his score for finishing 14th in last month’s $10,400 World Poker Tour Championship.
His largest cash was for $304,920 for winning the $25,000 high-roller event on the WPT Voyage in 2024.
He beat Dan Smith heads-up at the PokerGO Studios at the Aria in Las Vegas.
From Omaha, Neb., Battistone scored dozens of four and five-figure tournament cashes over the last five years or so. Working out of his home-base of Las Vegas, he might be a name to watch in 2026.
2026 PGT Kickoff Event #2: $5,100 No-Limit Hold’em Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize | PGT Points |
| 1st | Brian Battistone | United States | $173,600 | 347 |
| 2nd | Dan Smith | United States | $109,475 | 219 |
| 3rd | Maksim Pisarenko | United States | $75,500 | 151 |
| 4th | Mike Zulker | United States | $56,625 | 113 |
| 5th | Yifu He | United States | $45,300 | 91 |
| 6th | Sam Laskowitz | United States | $37,750 | 76 |
| 7th | Nick Schulman | United States | $30,200 | 60 |
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