It was a relatively eventful week in the poker world, with several big stories breaking and some major events playing out at the PokerGO Studio.
The PGT Spring brought us a week of high-stakes tournament action, as the best of the best were at it again, and seven new PGT champions were crowned.
The Foxen couple came out with some interesting news, as they partnered up with Solana in an attempt to make the popular cryptocurrency a new WSOP payment method, starting with the upcoming WSOP Paradise festival.
A new season of the PokerStars Big Game on Tour also started, with the first episode launching on Sunday, available for free on the PokerStars YouTube channel.
If you didn’t have much time to stay on top of what’s happening in the poker world, keep reading and get all caught up in just a few short minutes.
PGT Sprint Takes the PGT Season Into the Final Stretch
With the Poker Masters in the books, the PokerGO Tour continued with another quick tournament series, the PGT Sprint, which played out at the PokerGO studio from October 27 to November 4.
A total of seven events were played during an action-packed week, and they produced seven different champions, as no player was able to produce more than a single victory.
The four initial events carried a $5,300 buy-in, and it was David “Chino” Rheem who kicked things off with a victory, taking home $119,600 in Event #1, as he came out on top ahead of Andrew Lichtenberger and Patrick Leonard.
Event #2 was lucky for Brock Wilson, who won his fifth PGT event of the season for $110,600, which helped bring him to second place on the overall PGT seasonal rankings.
Jesse Lonis came third in Event #2, only to come back the next day and close things out, as he won Event #3 for $101,000 after defeating Sam Laskowitz in a heads up battle.
PGT Sprint Event #3 winner @JesseLonis! 🏆 Lonis won $101,000 and 164 PGT points from his win on Thursday night. 📰 https://t.co/t1BnMRLXxx https://t.co/Lw9l2e89zW
— PGT (@PokerGOTour) October 30, 2026
Sergei Kislinskii was victorious over Brandon Sunshine in Event #4, giving the Russian player a $91,200 first-place prize and his first victory in this season of the PGT.
The buy-in was doubled for the final three events of the PGT Sprint, and Sam Soverel was the first to taste victory in these, as he defeated David Coleman to win $195,200 in Event #5.
Andrew Lichtenberger took down Event #6 ahead of Alex Foxen and Jesse Lonis, as he continued a string of strong results in the wake of his recent book release.
The PGT Spring finished on November 4, with former WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen winning the final event for $174,900 and putting another PGT mini-series to rest.
As the PGT season enters its final stretch, Sean Winter is the player to beat at the top of the leaderboard, as he sits on 2,223 points, almost 300 more than Brock Wilson in second place, while the likes of Alex Foxen, Jeremy Ausmus, and Eelis Parssinen look to play catch-up in the winter legs of the competition.
The Foxens and WSOP Partner Up with Solana
High-stakes poker players looking to play major tournaments in international locations, like the upcoming WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas, often face major issues in actually bringing their tournament buy-ins to those locations.
Carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash internationally can raise eyebrows and make players susceptible to getting robbed, while using credit cards can incur major fees and create other administrative issues.
To counter this problem, Alex and Kristen Foxen have teamed up with Solana, a popular cryptocurrency, which has been at the forefront of innovation in many areas.
The poker power couple both announced on their X profiles that they would be partnering with Solana for this year’s WSOP Paradise, looking to promote the cryptocurrency as a new way to buy-in to WSOP events.
Excited to share that I’m partnering with @Solana Anyone who’s played poker internationally knows what a headache moving money around for tournament buy-ins can be. Solana is teaming up with WSOP to make buying into WSOP Bahamas with crypto easier than ever! Here’s how it works 👇
— Kristen Foxen (@krissyb24poker) November 6, 2026
The registration process with Solana will be easy, as players will be able to buy-in to WSOP Paradise events using Solana directly through the WSOP Live app.
The app will allow players to skip lines, and using Solana will help reduce fees and maximize the value each player gets.
With Solana, high-stakes tournament grinders will no longer need to worry about how to get cash across borders, and will be able to focus on playing instead of waiting in registration lines and jumping over administrative hurdles.
The Foxens join former WSOP champion Jamie Gold in representing Solana in the poker world and looking to make the cryptocurrency a more commonly accepted payment method on the high-stakes circuit.
Polk and Esfandiari Star in the New Big Game on Tour Season
A new season of the PokerStars Big Game on Tour kicked off this Sunday, with Doug Polk and Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari in star roles.
The third season of the PokerStars Big Game on Tour introduced a new loose cannon, Scott Gaughan, a comedian and host of comedy game shows, who is guaranteed to liven things up.
He is joined by an even bigger name in comedy, as Tony Hinchcliffe of the “Kill Tony” comedy podcast joins him at the table. With Doug Polk also dabbling in stand-up comedy himself, the table promises to be one of the most entertaining ones we’ve see in TV poker history.
The group is also joined by two ladies: Estreh Tailor, a professional poker player, and the reality TV star Princess Love, who has already made appearances in major TV poker events.
The new loose cannon will have a total of 150 hands of poker across the season to outplay the pros and build up his $50,000 starting bankroll. The rules of the show allow him to walk away with any winnings beyond the $50k, but not a dollar of the initial buy-in.
The first episode saw the loose cannon play a conservative style and mostly stay out of the way, ending the day with just a $100 loss, while Tony Hinchcliffe and Princess Love had a great start, winning $59k and $16k over the first 20 hands of poker.
More Big Game on Tour Season 3 awaits next week, as Polk and Esfandiari look to salvage the honor of professional poker players and catch up to the amateurs, and Canadian Scott Gaughan starts to open up his game in an attempt to spin up his $50k stack.
