The first starting flight of the opening event of the 2026 PokerGO Cup in Las Vegas took place today and saw eight players bagging.
Event #1: $3,000 PokerGO Cup Showcase, the lowest buy-in offering of the prestigious series, drew 54 runners in the first starting flight, including top poker pros like Sean Winter and Anthony Zinno, as well as up-and-coming qualifiers looking to make their mark in the PokerGO Studio.
One of those qualifiers was Adam Bonilla, a daily tournament regular with under $20,000 in live earnings who bagged the Day 1a chip lead over Winter, Zinno and other poker pros including Samuel Laskowitz, Mitchell Halverson and Victoria Livschitz.
End of Day 1a Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adam Bonilla | United States | 1,765,000 | 71 |
| 2 | Mitchell Halverson | United States | 1,230,000 | 49 |
| 3 | Kai Nicholls | Australia | 965,000 | 39 |
| 4 | Michael Berk | United States | 650,000 | 26 |
| 5 | Anthony Zinno | United States | 570,000 | 23 |
| 6 | Victoria Livschitz | United States | 555,000 | 22 |
| 7 | Samuel Laskowitz | United States | 525,000 | 21 |
| 8 | Sean Winter | United States | 490,000 | 20 |
Nicholls Runs Over Opponents
Shakespeare's Hamlet is one of the most famous tragedies in the history of literature, and Brandon Hamlet's exit in the PokerGO Studio four centuries later was just as tragic.
The New York grinder got his chips in with aces against the queens of Kai Nicholls, who flopped queens full to put a tough beat on Hamlet.
It wasn't Nicholls' first casualty. The Australian entertained the table earlier in the day by telling the story of when he hit two wild boars while driving in the Czech Republic before fleeing the scene and being detained for three hours at the German border.
Unlike on the Czech roads, Nicholls, who held the chip lead for part of the evening, was able to dodge obstacles on Day 1a. He correctly folded kings toward the end of the night in a heads-up pot against Bonilla, who used some table talk to persuade his opponent to fold as he protected his pocket aces from a two-outer.
Other casualties in the Showcase event included PokerGO founder Cary Katz and longtime pros Shannon Shorr, Jonathan Little and Justin Zaki, who was eliminated on the soft bubble after several orbits of nursing a micro stack.
Shortly after, 2025 WSOP Main Event finalist Adam Hendrix fell on the money bubble as his pocket nines were stone pipped by the pocket tens of Halverson, who launched to second in chips after winning the pot.
There is another starting flight left to play in the Showcase event, which will kick off on Monday at noon local time. Day 1b will follow the same structure as the first starting flight, with starting stacks of 125,000 and blinds of 500/1,000/1000.
Levels will once again be 30 minutes in duration with short breaks every four levels.
Stay tuned as the PokerNews live reporting team will be back on site on Monday for continued coverage of the PokerGO Cup in Las Vegas. Check out the live reporting portal in the meantime.
