Chad Eveslage Proves Hold'em Dominance With PGT Championship Victory for $500,000
Chad Eveslage entered the 2025 PokerGO Tour (PGT) $1,000,000 Championship Freeroll with something to prove. The four-time bracelet winner, who won the $100,000 Super High Roller Bowl Mixed Games in the PokerGO Studio in March 2025, is widely recognized as a mixed game expert and today showed he can compete at the highest levels of Texas No-Limit Hold'em by winning the million-dollar freeroll for $500,000.
"It feels great," Eveslage told PokerNews in a winner's interview. "I don't feel super confident in my No-Limit game, and battling against all these guys (and winning), it feels great. Ten out of ten. It feels awesome."
The freeroll event field included the top 40 players on the PGT leaderboard and 14 Dream Seat qualifiers. Day 2's final table featured Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu (4th - $80,000), American pros Michael Wang (3rd - $120,000) and John Riordan (6th - $40,000), Dream Seat winner Aaron Kupin (5th - $60,000) and runner-up Andrew "LuckyChewy" Lichtenberger ($200,000), who dominated most of the event but fell after a brief heads-up battle.
2025 PGT Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chad Eveslage | United States | $500,000 |
| 2 | Andrew Lichtenberger | United States | $200,000 |
| 3 | Michael Wang | United States | $120,000 |
| 4 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $80,000 |
| 5 | Aaron Kupin | United States | $60,000 |
| 6 | John Riordan | United States | $40,000 |
Negreanu Final Tables His First Event of 2026
The day began with seven players and only six spots paid, but it didn't take long to burst the bubble as Eric Blair lost a flip with ace-queen against the pocket nines of Kupin.
Negreanu, who was playing his first tournament of the year, started the day strong by flopping a full house against start-of-day chip leader Wang and he had the energy to match it. He showed off his golf stroke multiple times throughout the stream and continued his Day 1 trend of leading enlightening discussions ranging from aliens to nutrition hacks.
"You learn all kinds of things here," he told PokerNews during an interview on break. "This is like social media, except better, because we're playing poker and doing it. This is a show ladies and gentlemen, this is a show. An informative, educational show."
Negreanu also gave PokerNews some insight into a classic Negreanu hand on Day 1 where he just called a river bet with a set of eights against Wang, who ended up having a set of kings.
"There's like, no theory that says you're not raising there," said Negreanu. "I chose not to. I just called him. He had three kings. I'd be out of here."
"There's a real deeper reason though, exploitatively, why I have to do stuff like that. But that will be like a whole we'll write at some point."
Negreanu's first tournament of the year ended in fourth place when his ace-six couldn't pull ahead of the pocket jacks of Eveslage.
Jiggities are the hand that Eveslage would win the tournament with, as he later picked them up against Lichtenberger, who had been running the show on Day 1 with a dominant chip lead before dwindling late at the final table.
"Mission one was just to make the money," said Eveslage, who started the day as the second shortest stack. "After that, it was pretty smooth sailing. I was on the right side of a few coolers. Every bluff worked, every call worked. I ran very well in (that) regard."
For the mixed game specialist, the victory felt like a return to his poker roots.
"I started playing No-Limit tournaments ... I (later) started playing mixed because we finished our cash games and then we would screw around for a couple hours playing mixed games. But I've probably played more No-Limit than mixed by a lot, so I have a love for it. It's fun."
That wraps up PokerNews' coverage of the PGT Championship as the 2025 PGT season reaches its conclusion. Be sure to check out the live reporting portal for other highlights.
*Photos courtesy of PokerGO & Antonio Abrego