PokerGO Tour Changes the Season-Ending PGT Championship to an Invitational

  • The PGT Championship prize pool is $500,000, all of it going to the winner
  • The top 21 players on the 2022 PokerGO Tour leaderboard will qualify for the tournament
  • Roc Gostisa won last year’s open, $50,000-buy-in Championship
  • Nick Petrangelo currently leads the chase for the PokerGO Tour Player of the Year title
PGT Championship logo
Only the top 21 players on the 2022 PokerGO Tour leaderboard will qualify for the winner-take-all PokerGO Tour Championship in December. [Image: PokerGO.com]

$500,000 to the winner

The PokerGO Tour season-ending tournament, the PokerGO Tour (PGT) Championship, has undergone some changes, going from an open high roller event to an invitational. On Thursday, PokerGO announced that the PGT Championship will be winner-take-all, with the participants battling it out for the $500,000 purse.

The PGT Championship is scheduled for December 20, after all PokerGO Tour events have finished. The top 21 players on the Tour leaderboard will compete, each starting with different chip stacks, depending on their leaderboard points totals. The two-day tournament will begin with seven three-handed tables; the final table will be six-handed.

we continue to celebrate the most talented players our game has to offer”

“The PGT is the battleground for the most elite poker players in the world, and it is only right that we honor the best of the best in an extraordinary fashion,” said PokerGO president Mori Eskandani. “We are proud to award the 2022 PGT season champion with a $500,000 prize as we continue to celebrate the most talented players our game has to offer.”

Though it was not specifically mentioned, it was implied that the PGT Championship will be a freeroll for those who qualify.

Roc Gostisa won the 2021 PGT Championship

Last year’s PokerGO Tour Championship was a bit different. The inaugural edition of the event was a $50,000 buy-in tournament and participation had nothing to do with the season’s points race, though it was players’ final opportunity to earn 2022 leaderboard points.

Anyone who could afford the steep buy-in – most events on the PokerGO Tour are high roller events – could enter. To attract the best players, PokerGO paid everyone who entered before the start of the tournament a $1,000 appearance fee and took no rake. Late entries and re-entries were not paid the appearance fee and had to pay a $2,000 tourney fee.

After entering the final day seventh out of seven in chips, Roc Gostisa won the 46-entry 2021 PGT Championship and $689,100.

Long way to go this season

It is still very early in the second season of the PokerGO Tour, as we have obviously just entered March. Nick Petrangelo is currently perched atop the leaderboard with 1,066 points. He already has three victories on the 2022 PokerGO Tour: PokerGO Cup 2022 Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em ($369,000 prize), Stairway to Millions 2022 Event #7: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em ($567,000), and Stairway to Millions 2022 Event #8: $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em ($1,026,000).

Petrangelo has one other cash to go along with those three wins.

His closest competitors so far are Sean Perry with 859 points (seven cashes, two wins) and 2021 PokerGO Tour Player of the Year Ali Imrisovic with 840 points (eight cashes, three wins).

The Wynn High Rollers just got underway this week, giving players more chances to earn leaderboard points to try to qualify for the PGT Championship. The next event is Wynn High Roller #3: $10,200 No-Limit Hold’em, which begins Sunday at the Wynn Las Vegas.

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