Sam Soverel Wins Record 18th PGT Title for $195,200

Quick facts: Sam Soverel (USA) won PGT Sprint Event #5, a $10,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, beating 61 entries for $195,200. It is his 18th career PokerGO Tour title, the most in tour history, and his fifth PGT win of 2026.

High-stakes regulars have a running joke: if you sit down at a PokerGO Studio final table, check whether Sam Soverel is in the seat to your left before you get comfortable. This week he gave them another reason to keep telling it.

Barely a month after picking up his 17th PGT trophy in a Pot-Limit Omaha Mystery Bounty, the 38-year-old pro switched back to hold’em and ran over a tough $10,500 field to push his own record to 18. No one else on the PokerGO Tour is even close.

A Quick Correction: Event #5, Not the Sprint Finale

You may see this win described online as the “Sprint finale.” It wasn’t. The 2026 PGT Sprint ran seven single-day events from October 27 to November 4, and Soverel’s victory came in Event #5, the first of three $10,500 tournaments that closed the series. The actual final event (#7) went to 2015 WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen.

PGT Sprint Event #5 at a Glance

Detail	Figure
Event	2026 PGT Sprint Event #5: No-Limit Hold’em
Venue	PokerGO Studio at ARIA, Las Vegas
Buy-in	$10,500
Entries	61
Prize pool	$610,000
Places paid	9 (the final-table bubble was also the money bubble)
Winner	Sam Soverel (United States)
First prize	$195,200 + 195 PGT points
Winner’s return on buy-in	About 18.6x

How the Final Table Played Out

Soverel came into the official final table as the chip leader, which is the most dangerous version of him. With a big stack he can pressure medium stacks who can’t afford to bust before the pay jumps, and he did exactly that.

Nicholas Schulte busted in 10th, missing both the cash and the final table. Sam Laskowitz (9th, $18,300) and Victoria Livschitz (8th, $24,400) followed quickly, and Michael Berk went out in 6th for $33,550.

The hand that broke Jeremy Becker

Five-handed, Soverel opened from the small blind with 9♠6♠ and Jeremy Becker three-bet from the big blind holding A♥K♦. Soverel called, and the 8♠7♥5♠ flop gave him a straight plus a flush draw, about as good as it gets for a suited connector. Becker paired his ace on the turn and kept betting. The 2♠ river completed Soverel’s flush. He moved all-in over Becker’s bet, and Becker called off for 5th place ($45,750).

Beginner takeaway: This is why strong players defend hands like 9-6 suited against a three-bet in deep-stacked pots. You’ll often miss, but when you connect, an opponent holding a big ace has a very hard time folding. The hand isn’t “lucky” so much as built to win big pots occasionally.

Down to two

Nick Seward ran into David Coleman’s pocket aces and left in 4th ($61,000). Then Kuan Han Lee got his chips in with ace-jack against Soverel’s ace-three, a classic dominated spot where Lee was a big favourite, and lost anyway, finishing 3rd for $85,400.

That left Soverel with roughly a 4-to-1 chip lead heads-up against Coleman. It took just two hands. Coleman shoved A♥T♠, Soverel called with 8♦7♦, and the board ran Q♠J♣5♣ 6♠ 7♠. The river seven gave Soverel a pair and the title.

Why the call makes sense: With a 4:1 chip lead, Soverel risked only a quarter of his stack to end the match. Eight-seven suited still wins around 40% of the time against ace-ten offsuit, and the price was so good that folding would have been the bigger mistake. Big stacks call wider for exactly this reason.

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Sam Soverel	United States	$195,200
2	David Coleman	United States	$122,000
3	Kuan Han Lee	Taiwan	$85,400
4	Nick Seward	United States	$61,000
5	Jeremy Becker	United States	$45,750
6	Michael Berk	United States	$33,550
7	Kent Stephens	United States	$24,400
8	Victoria Livschitz	United States	$24,400
9	Sam Laskowitz	United States	$18,300

A useful detail for tournament players: first place took 32% of the prize pool and earned 1.6 times what second place did. In small, elite fields the payout curve is flatter than in a 1,000-player online tournament, but the jump from 3rd to 1st is still worth more than $100,000. That’s why heads-up and three-handed skill matters so much at this level.

The All-Time PGT Title Race: How Far Ahead Is Soverel?

Short answer: a long way.

Player	Career PGT titles
Sam Soverel	18
Alex Foxen	13
Stephen Chidwick	12
Daniel Negreanu	12
Jeremy Ausmus	10

Five titles is a huge gap on a tour where every field is packed with elite pros. Soverel was on 13 at the start of 2026, which means he has added five trophies in a single season.

Soverel’s 2026 Season vs. 2025: More Wins, Fewer Points?

Season	PGT titles	PGT cashes	PGT earnings	Leaderboard
2025	4	32	$4,160,568	2nd (2,979 pts, lost POY to Alex Foxen by 155)
2026 (so far)	5	22	$1.7M+	Around 8th after Event #5

Here’s something many casual fans miss. PGT points are tied closely to prize money: Soverel’s $195,200 converted into 195 points. So a player can win more trophies but score fewer points if those wins come in $5,000 to $15,000 events rather than $100,000 super high rollers. At least three of Soverel’s five 2026 wins came in PLO events with buy-ins of $15,700 or less. His trophy cabinet is fuller than ever; his points total is lighter because the biggest-money events haven’t gone his way this year.

Off the PGT, he remains one of the most decorated tournament players around, with four WSOP bracelets and more than $34.1 million in career live earnings.

How the PGT Sprint’s $10,500 Closing Trio Compared

Event	Entries	Winner	First prize	Runner-up
#5 NLH	61	Sam Soverel	$195,200	David Coleman ($122,000)
#6 NLH	60	Andrew Lichtenberger	$192,000	Alex Foxen ($120,000)
#7 NLH (finale)	53	Joe McKeehen	$174,900	Daniyal Gheba ($111,300)

Earlier in the series, Chino Rheem won Event #1, Brock Wilson took Event #2, Jesse Lonis won the $5,300 Event #3 for $101,000 after making three straight final tables, and Sergei Kislinskii claimed Event #4. Seven events produced seven different winners, a reminder of how deep these fields are and why Soverel’s repeat success stands out.

The most dramatic of the three closers was Event #6, where Andrew “Chewy” Lichtenberger came back from roughly a 10-to-1 chip deficit heads-up against Alex Foxen.

What It Means for the PGT Leaderboard and Championship

With the Sprint finished, attention moves to the season-ending PGT Championship, a $500,000 freeroll on January 11–12, 2027. The top 40 on the leaderboard (plus Dream Seat winners) get in, and the champion collects $250,000: $100,000 in cash and a $150,000 PGT Passport.

Rank	Player	PGT points
1	Sean Winter	2,223
2	Brock Wilson	1,942
3	Alex Foxen	1,897

Standings as reported after PGT Sprint Event #6. Check PGT.com for live figures.

Soverel is comfortably inside the top 40, so his Championship seat isn’t in doubt. Catching Sean Winter for Player of the Year is a different matter. The gap is several hundred points, and since points follow prize money, he’d likely need a deep run in a big-buy-in event rather than another $10K trophy.

What Recreational Players Can Learn From Soverel

• Volume plus selection. Twenty-two PGT cashes in one season means he plays a lot, but almost all of it in formats he knows inside out.
• Play more than one game. His 2026 titles are split between Pot-Limit Omaha and No-Limit Hold’em. Being comfortable in several games opens up softer spots.
• Use the big stack. His knockouts of Becker and Lee came from applying pressure as chip leader, not from waiting for premium hands.
• Accept variance. He won this event partly by winning flips and coolers. Over hundreds of tournaments the edges add up; no single result defines you.

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