Joey Weissman Takes 2025 PokerGO Cup Title as Kristen Foxen Goes Close

The 2025 PokerGO Cup ended with a final event victory for Justin Zaki as Joey Weissman came second for the third time in eight events to cement his position as leaderboard winner. The American won over $900,000 at the felt in Las Vegas at ARIA as the PokerGO Studio was packed for all eight No Limit Hold’em high roller tournaments.

Sergio Aido Stars Wins Event #5 for $255,000

Spanish professional Sergio Aido took home $255,000 as he won the fifth event of the series. With 100 entrants creating a $1m prizepool, Aido took down the six-player final table after players such as Jeremy Ausmus (11^th), Victoria Livschitz (10^th) and Brock Wilson (9^th) each won $30,000 but missed out on the final table.

Sergio Aido began the final as he meant to end it, eliminating both Brandon Wilson in sixth for $50,000 and Nick Seward in fifth for $65,000 as he grabbed the chip lead. Soon, PokerGO’s own Nick Schulman’s lost out in fourth for $90,000 as his king-high was crushed by pocket tens, then Texas Mike left with $115,000 in third, making a flush but losing to Shannor Shorr’s nut flush.

That pot gave Shorr a convincing lead of more than 2:1 in chips but Aido surged back, doubling through Shorr when the Spaniard found a nut flush himself. Aido then got all his chips in with ace-eight on a board of A-8-7-7 whith Shorr holding a flush draw and the river was safe, sending Shorr home with $165,000 and giving the latest major title to Aido, a man who has grown familiar with taking titles around the world in the past decade.

Eric Blair Wins Event #6 for $352,350

In Event #6, the winner of Event #4 made it a double as Eric Blair took home a top prize of $352,350 for conquering the 87-strong field. With a prizepool of $1.3 million, the $15,000 buy-in event saw players such as former GPI world number one Alex Foxen came 12^th for a score of $32,625, PokerGO creator Cary Katz finished 10^th for $39,150 and Sam Laskowitz cashed for the same amount in ninth place as the final table hosted just six players.

PokerGO commentator Nick Schulman busted in sixth place for the second consecutive event, this time for $65,250, before Matthew McEwan left in fifth place for $91,350. All-in with king-five of diamonds, McEwan ran into Michael Berk’s suited ace-queen in spades and as the flop came A-Q-3, already difficult turnaround was rendered almost impossible. A jack on the turn did give McEwan miracle outs to a straight but another jack on the river ended those hopes and the field was reduced to four.

After Christian Roberts ran his bottom pair into Keith Lehr’s nut flush draw which came in to bust for $117,450, the Venezuelan’s exit was followed by that of Michael Berk. He was all-in pre-flop with pocket sixes but hit the brick wall of Eric Blair’s pocket queens and three-handed, it counted as a cooler. No six – or other help – came to save Berk and play moved heads-up with Blair in the lead with 80% of the chips in play.

Heads-up was a short affair, as Eric Blair bet with queen-three on the 5-5-3 flop and called off Lehr’s shove with ace-king. A queen on the turn changed nothing although it did give Blair a better two pair. Lehr still needed to find an ace or king on the river to double back into the event and couldn’t manage it, a seven on 5^th street giving Eric Blair his second trophy from six events – a remarkable achievement.

Kristen Foxen Wins Event #7 for $348,300

The Canadian poker legend Kristen Foxen claimed Event #7, as she won the penultimate event of the series for a top prize of $348,300 and her second PGT title of 2025. Costing $15,100 to play, Event #7 had a $1.29 million prizepool and saw 13 players reach the money as Darren Elias (13^th for $32,250), Nick Schulman (12^th for the same amount) and Eric Blair (10^th for $38,700) all just fell short of the final table.

After Farrid Jattin busted Eric Wasserson in seventh place for $51,600, David Peters won $64,500 in sixth place, his ace-queen losing to Foxen’s ace-four, as a four arrived on both flop and river to give the Canadian unassailable trip fours. The Event #6 winner Sergio Aido was next to go, cashing for $90,300 in fifth place before the overnight leader Erik Seidel busted in fourth for $116,100. Seidel’s pocket queens were overtaken by the fortunate Jattin’s ace-jack, as the Colombian got lucky once again to move a step closer to glory.

With three left, Jattin ran out of luck as he cashed in third place for $161,250. All-in with king-queen, he was dominated by Foxen’s ace-queen and this time the best hand stood up, sending the Canadian into the heads-up battle against British player Patrick Leonard with 80% of the chips in play.

It wasn’t long before Foxen had all the chips in play. All-in with king-jack, she got lucky in the final hand, as Leonard’s ace-jack couldn’t hold, a board of T-4-4-Q-J giving Kristen Foxen top pair on the river and she claimed the PGT trophy and the top prize of $348,300, with Leonard forced to settle for $225,750 as runner-up.

Justin Zaki Wins Event #8 for $417,000

The final event of the series saw 59 entries, the slightly lower number due to the higher buy-in level of $25,200. A bumper prizepool of $1,475,000 was topped with a first prize of $417,000 after a heads-up deal and Justin Zaki beat the overall championship winner Joey Weissman to the win in the final event. With Americans Sam Soverel (4^th for $147,500) and Jesse Lonis (7^th for $59,000) both making the final table of Event #8, there were nine players who made the money, including David Peters (9^th for $44,250) and Keith Lehr, who followed up a previous runner-up result with a score of $59,000 in eighth place.  and David Peters scoring a $44,250 min-cash in ninth place.

After an exciting final event, it was Joey Weissman who won the $25,000 PGT Passport, along with $930,000 across his four cashes from the eight events, rising into the top 100 players in U.S. poker history according to The Hendon Mob.

After previous wins in the PokerGO Cup from legends such as Jonathan Little (2024), PokerGO owner Cary Katz (2023), Jeremy Ausmus (2022), and Kid Poker a.k.a. Daniel Negreanu (2021), Weissman’s win was perhaps the most impressive of them all, as he became the first player to reach heads-up in four of the eight events.

*denotes heads-up deal.