Michael ‘Texas Mike’ Moncek Tops Record Field In PokerGO Cup Kickoff Event

The kickoff event of the 2025 PokerGO Cup drew 177 entries, setting a record for the largest field in a PokerGO Tour owned and operated no-limit hold’em event held inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas. The strong turnout for the $5,000 buy-in tournament resulted in a prize pool of $885,000. While 27 players ultimately earned a share, the largest chunk was awarded to eventual champion Michael Moncek.

The two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, known to many as ‘Texas Mike’, walked away with $185,850 for the win. He is now approaching $4.2 million in career earnings, with seven total tournament titles to his name.

This victory also came with plenty of rankings points for Moncek. The 624 Card Player Player of the Year points he earned moved him into 84th place in the 2025 POY standings presented by Global Poker. He also shot into 12th place in the season-long PGT race with 186 points and is understandably the early leader in the PokerGO Cup series rankings.

Moncek was the chip leader at the end of day 1, with 37 percent of the total chips in play with seven contenders remaining.

Two-time bracelet winner Eric Baldwin was the first to fall on day 2, with a brutal runout spelling the end of his tournament. He min-raised to 200,000 with AK from the hijack and Moncek called from the big blind with 98. The flop came down K84 and Moncek check-called 150,000 with middle pair. The A turn gave Baldwin top two while Moncek picked up a flush draw to go with his pair of eights. He check-called again, this time to the tune of 575,000. The river brought the 10 to complete Moncek’s flush and he moved all-in, an effective bet of 1,550,000. Baldwin made the call with his aces up and was eliminated in seventh place ($35,400).

Top two no good for basebaldy</a> after <a href="https://twitter.com/TexasMike2014?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">TexasMike2014 backdoors a flush.

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— PokerGO (@PokerGO) February 12, 2025

Danny Qutami was the next to hit the rail. He got his last handful of big blinds in on a Q43 flop with K4 facing the 75 of Michael Brinkenhoff. The A turn kept Qutami in the lead, but the 2 on the end gave Brinkenhoff the wheel and the knockout. Qutami earned $44,250 as the sixth-place finisher.

Bracelet winner Cherish Andrews doubled up early in five-handed action with pocket aces, leaving fellow bracelet winner and reigning European Poker Tour Barcelona main event champion Stephen Song as the clear short stack. Song managed a double-up as well, giving himself some much-needed breathing room.

Despite that fact, Song was ultimately eliminated in fifth place ($53,100). He lost a big chunk of his stack with top pair of kings against the jacks and fours of Moncek. He then got his last 10 or so big blinds in calling off with A6 from the big blind facing a small-blind shove from Andrews, who held KQ. A king-high runout catapulted Andrews into a virtual three-way tie for second in the chip counts at the time, while Song grew his career earnings to nearly $9.3 million thanks to this, his 281st recorded tournament cash.

Andrews then doubled up in a big pot, with her jacks full of sevens besting the jack-high straight of Moncek to see her overtake the lead for a time.

It just keeps getting better for @CherishAndrews on this one.

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— PokerGO (@PokerGO) February 12, 2025

Moncek had regained the top spot by the time the next bustout took place, though. Joey Weissman made a committing raise with K10 and called the shove of Brinkenhoff, who moved all-in for slightly more than the initial raise out of the small blind with AQ. The board came down 109789 and Brinkenhoff was sent packing in fourth place ($66,375).

Not long after that, Andrews opened with 88 from the small blind and called off for just shy of 32 big blinds total facing a three-bet shove from Moncek, who held A4. The A75J7 runout gave Moncek aces up for the win. Andrews earned $88,500 for her efforts, growing her lifetime haul to nearly $3.1 million in the process.

Heads-up play began with Moncek holding more than a 3.5:1 chip lead over Weissman. The final showdown didn’t last very long. A few hands into the match, Weissman raised with QQ on the button and snap-called when Moncek three-bet shoved with A10. The flop came down A63 to see Moncek surge into the lead. The 2 on the turn left Weissman in need of a queen on the river in order to extend the battle. Instead, the final card was the 10, giving him aces up and the title. Weissman was awarded $123,900 as the runner-up. The bracelet winner’s career earnings are now just a bit shy of $8 million.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.