Clemen Deng emerged victorious in Event #1 of the PGT Last Chance series, topping a star-studded final table to win $277,950, the trophy, and 278 PGT Leaderboard points. Deng outlasted David ‘ODB’ Baker, Jesse Lonis, Phil Hellmuth, Cary Katz, and Matthew Wantman to climb to the top of the PGT Last Chance 2025 Leaderboard. Deng is now in prime position to win a ‘Dream Seat’ to the $1,000,000 PGT Championship freeroll.
PGT Last Chance Event #1 results
| Place | Name | Prize | PGT Points |
| 1st | Clemen Deng | $277,950 | 278 |
| 2nd | David ‘ODB’ Baker | $174,400 | 174 |
| 3rd | Jesse Lonis | $125,350 | 125 |
| 4th | Phil Hellmuth | $98,100 | 98 |
| 5th | Cary Katz | $70,850 | 71 |
| 6th | Matthew Wantman | $54,500 | 55 |
Final table action
Jesse Lonis came into the Day 2 final table as the massive chip leader with 101 of the 227 big blinds on the felt. Deng into the day as the short stack with just over 14 bigs. In poker, we all know that it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
Deng would start the day with a double through Lonis, with his AQ holding up against the AJ of Lonis to get back to about 26 bigs (1,550,000). Only a couple of hands later, after the blinds moved up from 30,000/60,000 to 40,000/80,000 it was Matthew Wantman to bust in sixth place. Wantman’s 1,000,000-chip stack had dwindled down to just 500,000 and virtually committed from under the gun with A7o. Hellmuth min-clicked from the button with 88, and Wantman called it off. The flop cruelly ran out T8762, giving Hellmuth a flopped set and sending Wantman home in sixth for $54,500.
After Deng scored a massive double through Cary Katz with KK vs AK, Katz would be the next one to go, losing a flip to Lonis with 88 vs JTs, with Lonis flopping a pair of tens. Katz finished in fifth, adding $70,850 to his over $42.4 million in career live tournament earnings.
The next couple of blind levels would be all Deng, taking huge pots from both Lonis and Hellmuth to take a commanding chip lead, owning 50% of all the chips in play.
With blinds soaring to 75,000/125,000, Hellmuth was getting pretty short. ODB Baker opened to 250,000 from the button with JJ, and Hellmuth defended his big blind with A2o. On the T62r flop, Baker c-bet to 200,000, and Hellmuth immediately went all in. Baker called. The board ran out a meaningless T62T6, and Hellmuth was eliminated for $98,100.
Deng built his commanding lead even further in three-handed play, which ended up seeing Baker and Lonis swap second and third place stacks on multiple occasions. Eventually, a wild hand involving all three players would see this tournament reach its inflection point.
Baker went virtually all in from the button, leaving 500,000 chips (2.5bbs) behind. Lonis moved all in from the small blind with 99. Deng then jammed with AKo from the big blind. Baker went into the tank for quite some time before folding, hoping to get both the pay jump and the huge jump in points.
The board ran out A73A3 to give Deng a full house and a 26-to-1 chip lead heading into heads-up play. Lonis settled for third place and $125,350.
Though Baker earned a quick double-up, he wouldn’t last long in the heads-up battle. Deng limped in with 84o, and Baker checked back with 63o with just 5.5 big blinds behind. The flop came K54, and Baker jammed. Deng called with bottom pair and a backdoor flush draw. The board ran out K545J, and Deng completed his stellar come-from-behind victory to earn the $277,950 top prize. Baker earned a healthy $174,400 and assumed second place on the Dream Seat Leaderboard.
What is the PGT Last Chance series?
The PokerGO Tour Last Chance marks the end of the 2025 PGT season, as players get one final shot at moving into the top-40 on the PGT leaderboard, thus giving them access to the $1,000,000 PGT Championship freeroll. Players who have already qualified for the freeroll can accumulate more points and add to their starting stack for the Championship event.
The series has six events, all at the $10,100 buy-in level. The series hosts a two-day event every single day from January 5 to January 10, with the exception of the one-day Turbo, which is the final event of the series.
The top-five point-earners from the PGT Last Chance series who do not qualify for the season-long top 40 will earn a ‘Dream Seat’ to the PGT Championship. Given that all six events are $10,100 buy-ins, each $1,000 in cashes are equal to one point. You can find out more about the PGT Points System by clicking the link.
2025 PGT Championship
Two additional ‘Dream Seats’ are awarded throughout the year at the RunGood Poker Series Dream Seat Invitational and the Champions Club Texas Championship. PokerGO also gives away three ‘Dream Seats’ via a PokerGO Annual Subscriber Sweepstakes, a PokerGO Social Media Drawing, and a PokerGO Podcast Drawing.
In total, the PGT Championship will see a maximum of 50 players competing for $1,000,000 in prizes, with $500,000 going to the champion. This is awarded via a combination of cash and PGT Passports, which is money that can be used to buy into PGT events. Jeremy Ausmus won last year’s PGT Championship, taking home $150,000 in cash and an additional $350,000 PGT Passport.
Chip counts are based on a player’s total points for the season, with players receiving a minimum of 100 big blinds. ‘Dream Seat’ winners are awarded 125 big blinds.
The 2025 PGT Championship takes place from January 12-13, 2026. The 2026 PGT season will begin two weeks later, with Event #1 of the PGT Kickoff taking place on January 26.
References
PokerGO Tour – https://www.pgt.com/
