One of the “signature” events of the PokerGO Tour is their yearly venture with the PokerGO Cup. The 2026 version of the tournament schedule is underway, with the champion being crowned in Event #1, the $3,000 PokerGO Cup Showcase. After three days of battle, it was Kent Stephens emerging with his first-ever PGT title, defeating such stalwarts of the PGT like Aaron Messmer and Jim Collopy on the way to taking the crown.
Lower Buy-in, Bigger Crowd
The PGT is known for its large buy-in tournaments, so the 2026 PokerGO Cup Showcase provided some players with a lower cost alternative than diving in with the ‘big boys’ with four- or five-figures on the line. The $3,000 buy-in tournament was built from two Day One flights, and in the end, 215 entries were received in the cage. It set up for 31 of the players to take home something for their efforts, with the eventual champion walking off with $130,000.
The 31 players who came back for action on Wednesday featured a wide array of PGT mainstays and mid-stakes players taking their shot at those players. But, as usual with these tournaments on the PGT, the players around the bottom of the leaderboard were in “double up or move on” territory, looking to double up in Event #1 or move on to Event #2. As such, notable names (and PGT champions) like Jonathan Little, David ‘Chino’ Rheem, Clemen Deng, and David ‘ODB’ Baker left the Day Two action early, taking home the min-cash ($5,100).
More notable names dropped from the tournament as it moved into its later stages. One of two women who would cash in the tournament, Victoria Livschitz, exited in 25th place with Sean Winter, Manig Loeser, Cary Katz, Anthony Zinno, and Dylan Linde, all joining her on the rail before the final table was set. Once the final seven players were determined, Sandeep Koralla was the chip leader with 6.65 million chips, closely followed by Myles Mullaly and Daniyal Gheba on the leaderboard.
Starting the Charge
Lurking in the middle of the pack was Stephens, however, who entered the fray with a double through Koralla to move to the top of the standings. Koralla looked to make his way back to the lead by eliminating Collopy from the tournament in sixth place, but Mullaly staked his claim to the title by devastating the stack of Natalie Ferguson. The hand that basically eliminated Ferguson from the tournament was not without some controversy.
In a ‘battle of the blinds,’ the board read 8♥ 8x K♥ 2x 10x, and Ferguson led out for the first time in the hand on the river with a million-chip bet while holding 10-2 for a rivered two pair of tens and eights. Mullaly was undaunted, moving all in with 8-4 for trip eights, as he sat back to await Ferguson’s decision. In the PGT, the final table features a 30-second shot clock, which means you must make your decisions within 30 seconds, or your hand is dead (unless you use a time extension). Ferguson, lacking any further time bank chips, announced “call” just as the time bank expired, and the tournament collapsed into chaos.
Several members of the PGT floor staff were brought to the table, and after further discussion among them, they reviewed the tape and found that the clock had expired before Ferguson announced her intentions. That made her hand dead (she would have lost anyway) and left her on scraps; Koralla would finish off Ferguson, who had to be unhappy with her fifth-place finish.
Koralla could not keep a hold on those chips from Ferguson, doubling up Stephens, but it was arguably Mullaly who seized control at this mark. He knocked out Koralla when his pocket treys stood over Koralla’s A-10 and held 20 million chips, more than three times the chips Stevens and Gheba held combined. When Gheba became Mullaly’s next victim in third place, he entered heads up against Stephens with 22.625 million chips to Stephens’ 4.25 million.
On paper, it looked over. But that is why they play out these tournaments.
Stephens found a double to bring the two stacks closer together, then pulled ahead after about an hour of play. The lead would yo-yo between the two men before Stephens grabbed the edge and put the finish on the tournament. On the final hand, Stephens’ pocket treys were enough to stand against Mullaly’s 9-8 off suit as the board ran out 10-A-2-2-6 to end the tournament.
1. Kent Stephens, $130,000
2. Myles Mullaly, $85,000
3. Daniyal Gheba, $61,000
4. Sandeep Koralla, $48,000
5. Natalie Ferguson, $38,000
6. Jim Collopy, $31,000
7. Aaron Messmer, $25,000
The PokerGO Cup is a series of tournaments with buy-ins of $5,000 or more. This 10-event roster usually brings the crème de la crème of the tournament poker world together in Las Vegas, with the PokerGO Cup considered one of the biggest events on the yearly tournament schedule. The price of poker will go up later this week, as Event #6 is the first of the $10,000 buy-in tournaments; the finale of the 2026 PokerGO Cup, and the crowning of the overall champion and recipient of the PokerGO Cup, will be next week.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO)
The post 2026 PokerGO Cup Underway, Kent Stephens Captures Opening Event appeared first on Poker News Daily.
About The Author
