Michael “Texas Mike” Moncek has won PGT Cup Event #1 for $185,850 after beating Joey Weissman at a heads-up battle. The event had 177 entries who paid a buy-in of $5,100 and generated a prize pool of $885,000.
Moncek’s most significant win was in December 2024, when he came ninth in the $525,000 No Limit Hold’em—Triton Million and won $1,200,000. This pushed his total live earnings up to $4,153,900.
2025 PokerGO Cup Event #1 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Michael Moncek | United States | $185,850 |
| 2 | Joey Weissman | United States | $123,900 |
| 3 | Cherish Andrews | United States | $88,500 |
| 4 | Michael Brinkenhoff | United States | $66,375 |
| 5 | Stephen Song | United States | $53,100 |
| 6 | Danny Qutami | United States | $44,250 |
| 7 | Eric Baldwin | United States | $35,400 |
The Final Table
Coming into the final table, Moncek had almost 40 percent of all the chips in the game. He got even more chips when he made the first elimination of the final table when he hit runner-runner flush and eliminated Eric Baldwin in seventh place for $35,400.
The next one to hit the door was Danny Qutami, who was all-in blind vs blind against Brinkenhoff, who managed to river the wheel straight against Quatami’s pair of fours. Qutami was eliminated in sixth place for $44,250.
Stephen Song started the day as a short stack and got two payjumps by surviving, but this time, his ace-six was not good enough against Andrew king-queen in blind vs blind all in hand, where Andrew hit the king on the flop, and there was no help for Song on the turn or river. Song was eliminated in fifth place for $53,100.
Brinkenhoff was all-in with just ten big blinds holding ace-queen, and he got called by Weissman, who had king-ten. The flop was king high, and Weissman was still ahead after the river. Brinkenhoff had to pick up his bags and get his $66,375 at the cashier for his fourth-place finish.
Andrews and Moncek went into a blind vs blind war where money went into the middle, creating the biggest pot of the tournament with 17 million chips on the line. Andrews was ahead, holding pocket eights against ace-four from Moncek. The tables turned quickly as flop gave the top par for Moncek, and bricks on the turn and river sent Andrews home with $88,500 for her third-place finish.
The Heads-Up
The heads-up didn’t last long, as Moncek had most of the chips and managed to get his ace-ten against Weissman’s pocket queens for all of the marbles.
It was an ace-high flop, and again, Moncek managed to crack a better hand and eliminate his competitors, as no queens showed up on the turn or river. Weissman was eliminated in second place for $123,900.
*Images courtesy of PokerGo and PokerNews
