With the completion of the 2026 PGT Last Chance Series, the field is now set for the 2025 PGT Championship Invitational. This tournament will crown the 2025 PGT World Champion and features the Top 40 players on the season-long PGT Leaderboard, with alternates replacing players who choose not to participate, and fourteen “wild card” choices for the event. When the 54-player field comes to the tables this afternoon at the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas, Alex Foxen (who won the final Last Chance event to seize the overall Leaderboard edge) will be the player with the biggest stack.
Seven Players Opt Out of PGT Championship Invitational
The top 40 players who qualified for the Invitational were the best in the world in 2025. Alas, some of those players either decided not to play in the $1 million freeroll tournament or could not work the tourney into their schedules. Seven players from the Top 40 will not be playing in this year’s Invitational. They are:
Bernhard Binder (Austria) – 12th place finisher on the Leaderboard
Michael Moncek (USA) – 14th place
Lautaro Guerra (Spain) – 19th place
Viktor Blom (Sweden) – 28th place
Braxton Dunaway (USA) – 31st place
Kenny Hallaert (Belgium) – 37th place
Jean-Noel Thorel (France) – 38th place
Because of these withdrawals/no-shows, seven alternate players from down the leaderboard standings earned the opportunity to take part in the 2025 PGT Championship Invitational. Those players (and their Leaderboard standing) are:
Eric Blair (USA) – 41st place
Masato Yokosawa (Japan) – 43rd place
Jason Koon (USA) – 45th place
Richard Gryko (United Kingdom) – 48th place
Jim Collopy (USA) – 49th place
Jeremy Ausmus (USA) – 50th place
Ben Tollerene (USA) – 51st place
The five players who were atop the standings for the PGT Last Chance Series in overall points also earned their seats in the Invitational. Those players were:
David ‘ODB’ Baker
Neil Warren
Clemen Deng
Chi-Jen Chu
Jeremy Becker
Finally, eight other players were awarded a seat in the Invitational for their performances and/or selections by PokerGO. These players are:
Nick Petrangelo (NAPT Las Vegas overall leaderboard champion)
Ed Miller (RunGood Poker Series)
Travis Hague (PokerGO Subscriber, chosen by PokerGO)
David Friedler (PokerGO Subscriber, chosen by PokerGO)
Timothy Tuveson (PokerGO Subscriber, chosen by PokerGO)
Daniel Van Dyke (PokerGO Social Media choice)
Matthew Petry (PokerGO Podcast choice)
Aaron Kupin (WSOP Paradise PGT Nine-Game Mixed Champion)
These are the fifty-four participants who will come to the felt on Monday afternoon (representing the ladies will be Kristen Foxen, who finished in tenth place on the Leaderboard).
Chip Stacks Based on Positioning
So why is the positioning important? It is the basis for the player’s starting stack in the 2025 PGT Championship Invitational. The eight players assigned positions by PokerGO will start with 100,000 in chips. The five PGT Last Chance Series participants will have 125,000 to begin with, and the players who earned their place through the Top 40 (or thereabouts) will receive a minimum of 130,000 in chips and move up in increments after that.
This naturally benefits players who finished at the top of the Leaderboard, who will have the best chance of making the Invitational final table. We can also have a Top Five right at this moment, as Alex Foxen will start the day as the chip leader.
1. Alex Foxen (USA), 350,000
2. Sam Soverel, 340,000
3. David ‘Chino’ Rheem, 330,000
4. Michael Mizrachi, 320,000
5. Joao Simao, 310,000
The plan for the two-day tournament is for the fifty-four players to play down to the final six positions on Monday, which are also the only positions that will earn anything from the $1 million freeroll. Those six finalists will return on Tuesday to determine the champion, who will receive a $500,000 prize package of money and a PGT Passport for future PGT events.
Can Alex Foxen ride the leading chip stack to the final table? Who will be the players who fight from the bottom of the table to make their mark? It will all be a part of the action on PokerGO for the 2025 PGT Championship Invitational, the final thread left untied from the 2025 poker season.
(Photo provided by PokerGO)
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