Masato Yokosawa from Japan emerged victorious in the PGT Kickoff Event #3 inside ARIA Las Vegas, while rookie Young Kyu Kim from South Korea won the prestigious Taiwan Million Tournament 17th edition for a career-best $125,285. In this report, we will recap the latest victories of Masato Yokosawa, and Young Kyu Kim in PokerGoTour kickoff and the TMT 17.
Masato Yokosawa Clinches His First PGT Title in PGT Kickoff Event #3
Former WPT Jeju Champion, Masato Yokosawa, claimed his career’s first PokerGo title, winning Event #3 of the 2025 PGT Kickoff series, securing a six-figure payout of $142,800, and the PGT trophy. Yokosawa. The latest victory brought his live earnings close to $2 million.
The $5,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em series attracted 112 players, making it the third-highest number of players for a $5k buy-in PGT tournament. The impressive turnout created a total prize pool of $560,000, which was paid out to the top 16 players.
Yokosawa entered the final table as the chip leader and held it till the end to secure a victory after nearly three years. Heads-up play between Yokosawa and Neil Warren was short-lived as the former held a two-to-one chip lead and easily defeated Warren to win the event. The final hand saw, Warren shoved with ace-six and got called by the ace-deuce suited of Yokosawa. Despite an upper hand on Yokosawa, Warren’s lead didn’t last long as a deuce on the flop sent him out in 2nd place, collecting $89,600.
PGT Kickoff Event #3: $5,100 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Payouts
| Rank | Player | Payout |
| 1st | Masato Yokosawa | $142,800 |
| 2nd | Neil Warren | $89,600 |
| 3rd | Nicholas Seward | $64,400 |
| 4th | Blake Vogdes | $50,400 |
| 5th | Erik Seidel | $36,400 |
| 6th | Michael Vanier | $28,000 |
| 7th | Justin Saliba | $22,400 |
Source – PGT Blog
Young Kyu Kim TMT 17 Main Event Champion
The 17th installment of the Taiwan Millions Tournament has officially concluded, crowning South Korea’s Young Kyu Kim as its newest champion. The 17th Taiwan Millions Tournament NTD 9k (~$280) buy-in Main Event drew a record 6,463 entries across ten starting flights, generating a gigantic NTD 48,958,700 (~$1,456,825) prize pool.
Of the 6,463 players, only 949 ended up making it to the money, with the top 3 finishers receiving a six-figure score. Kim outlasted them all, earning a career-best score of $125,285, defeating Japan’s Yamaguchi Juny in the heads-up. It was Kim’s first victory in live poker since starting his poker career a few months back in November 2024.
The main event was mostly filled with Southeast Asia players but also saw a few European and United States players making it into the money. However, it was Germany’s Denny Kruezi who earned a career-defining $109,820 for his 3rd place finish, crossing the $100k mark in live poker earnings.
2025 TMT 17 Main Event Final Table Payouts
| Rank | Player | Payout |
| 1st | Young Kyu Kim | $125,285 |
| 2nd | Yamaguchi Junya | $109,820 |
| 3rd | Denny Kruezi | $109,820 |
| 4th | Ching En Chen | $54,910 |
| 5th | Zi En Huang | $40,875 |
| 6th | Liang Hao Lin | $31,695 |
| 7th | Shih Yu Hsiao | $25,165 |
| 8th | Cheng Chih Cheng | $20,195 |
| 9th | Kim Chang Chang | $16,260 |
Source – CTP Club Facebook & Twitch
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