Sergei Kislinskii has picked up his first PokerGO Tour title after coming through a 57-entry field in Event #4 of the 2026 PGT Sprint in Las Vegas. The win, wrapped up on Friday night at the PokerGO Studio and confirmed in the official PGT report on Saturday morning, was worth $91,200 plus 137 leaderboard points.
The $5,300 buy-in event built a $285,000 prize pool, with only the last nine players getting paid. Kislinskii had to beat Brandon Sunshine in a heads-up match that swung one way and then the other before he closed it out.
A first PGT title for Sergei Kislinskii. Kislinskii topped 57 entries in PGT Sprint Event #4: $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em, defeating Brandon Sunshine heads-up to earn $91,200 and 137 PGT points.
PGT (@PokerGOTour) October 31, 2026
A see-saw duel with Sunshine
Sunshine was the man to catch for most of the day. He burst the bubble by eliminating Daniel Sepiol in tenth, then removed Sam Soverel in eighth and sat on the biggest stack when seven players remained. Kislinskii made the first final-table knockout by sending Mike Zulker home in seventh, while Sunshine took care of Pierce McKellar and Dorian Pavon.
Andrew Lichtenberger survived three all-ins during four-handed play before his ace-two ran into the king-nine of 2015 world champion Joe McKeehen, who paired a nine on the flop. McKeehen then went out in third for $39,900 when his ace-four of diamonds could not catch up with Sunshine’s ace-queen, leaving Sunshine with close to twice as many chips as Kislinskii going into heads-up.
The decisive swing came soon afterwards. According to Card Player’s write-up of the final, Kislinskii flopped a straight against top two pair and moved more than 3 to 1 in front after the chips went in before the turn. Sunshine doubled back once but never regained the lead. On the final hand he moved all in from the button with king-nine, Kislinskii called with ace-ten, and the ace on the flop held up.
Biggest live score of his career
Card Player reports that the result is Kislinskii’s largest live tournament cash and takes his career earnings beyond $1.1 million. His previous best was $78,750 for finishing second in PGT Kickoff Event #2 in 2024, a couple of months after a $73,019 victory in the main event of the 2023 Mid-States Poker Tour stop at the Venetian.
Sunshine banked $57,000 for second, a day after finishing fourth in Event #3. The rest of the final table paid Lichtenberger $28,500, Pavon $21,375, McKellar $15,675, Zulker and Soverel $11,400 each, and Nick Palma $8,550 in ninth.
Lichtenberger climbs the leaderboard
Although the top ten of the season-long PGT leaderboard did not change, Lichtenberger’s fourth place was his third final table of the Sprint so far. PGT says the 43 points lifted him four places to 21st on 1,200 points, comfortably inside the top 40 who qualify for the $500,000 freeroll PGT Championship on 11 and 12 January 2027. McKeehen’s third place moved him up 27 places to 166th.
The leaderboard is still headed by Sean Winter, whose run this autumn included the $620,000 finale at the Poker Masters, where Adrian Mateos claimed the Purple Jacket. The PGT Sprint runs at the PokerGO Studio until 4 November, with three $10,500 events to come after the four $5,300 tournaments.
