Ethan “Rampage” Yau walked into 2026 saying he would take tournament poker seriously, and in the first week of the year he is backing that up with results at the PGT Kickoff in Las Vegas. In his first four starts of the new PokerGO Tour season, the popular vlogger has already made two final tables and turned a wild image into a real scorecard.
Before the new season began, Yau told his audience he wanted to “put in the work” on tournaments in 2026 and prove he could hang with the full time high roller crowd. For a player best known for splashy cash game punts on stream, it sounded like a big shift.
The PGT Kickoff series, running January 26 to 31 inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA in Las Vegas, offered the perfect test. The schedule features six no limit hold em events with buy ins of $5,300 and $10,500, all with double PGT points. That means every early result can shape the season long race.
Yau fired all four of the $5,300 events to start the week and quickly showed this was not just talk. He reached the final table in the series opener, then came back with an even deeper run in Event 4, finishing heads up against veteran pro Taylor Paur in a field of about 145 entries.
For a content creator who built a brand on chaos, this stretch has been about control.
Deep run in PGT Kickoff opener tests his nerve
The story of Yau’s week really started in Event 1. The opening $5,300 no limit hold em tournament drew 135 entries, one of the largest fields ever at that price point inside the PokerGO Studio. It was packed with names like Alex Foxen, Shannon Shorr, and PokerGO founder Cary Katz.
Yau navigated the minefield and returned for Day 2 at the seven handed final table. He laddered to the final five, then found a dream spot: pocket aces against Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger’s pocket kings with all the chips going in before the flop.
The dream did not last. A king on the board gave Lichtenberger a set and sent Yau out in fifth place for $40,500 plus valuable double PGT points. The hand made the social rounds within minutes because it hit every poker nerve at once: big names, massive pot, classic cooler.
That exit could have tilted him off for the rest of the week. Instead, it became a real time test of the new approach he had promised.
In interviews and on his vlog, Yau has often talked about embracing variance, the natural swings of luck in tournaments. Losing with aces on a big stage is exactly the kind of spot that can either harden a player’s mindset or push them back toward short term thinking.
Key moments from that opener showed where Yau is trying to go as a player:
- He passed on several close early spots, choosing to keep stack depth rather than chase thin edges.
- He leaned into small pot poker against seasoned pros, picking safer value spots instead of hunting for viral hero calls.
For once, the biggest headline around Rampage was not a wild bluff, but a solid deep run in one of the toughest fields of the year so far.
Another cash and rising points in crowded fields
Yau did not stop at one score. Event 2 of the PGT Kickoff drew an even larger field, with 151 entries in another $5,300 event. Brian Battistone earned his first PokerGO Tour title there, but Yau quietly put together back to back deep runs.
He reached the final stages again and finished 10th for another $40,500 payout. It was not a final table this time, yet it mattered. In a double points series, stacking solid cashes is often more important than a single huge spike.
By the time Event 3 wrapped with Andrew Moreno winning a 159 entry field, the early PGT season picture looked like this:
| Player | Event Won | Entries Beaten | PGT Points From Win* |
|---|---|---|---|
| Andrew Lichtenberger | Kickoff Event 1 | 135 | 324 |
| Brian Battistone | Kickoff Event 2 | 151 | 347 |
| Andrew Moreno | Kickoff Event 3 | 159 | 366 |
*Points are doubled at the Kickoff series.
Yau sat just behind that group, but with two cashes and one final table already in the bag, he had done the hard part: putting himself in the mix from Day 1 of the season.
For fans watching from home, this matters more than it might seem. Strong early fields and double points signal that high stakes tournament poker is healthy, even as new tax rules and higher travel costs put pressure on live grinders. Bigger fields mean deeper prize pools, but they also mean even top players can go long stretches without a major result.
Yau’s week is an example of how to punch through that reality: show up, fire, and keep putting chips in good with a clear plan.
Runner up battle with Taylor Paur caps big week
The best sign that his new tournament focus is real came in Event 4. In another $5,300 no limit hold em event at the PokerGO Studio, Yau again outlasted most of the field and reached his second final table of the series.
This time, he did more than survive. He played his way all the way to heads up against two time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Taylor Paur, one of the most respected technical players of his generation. The field was reported at roughly 145 entries, another sign of how strong the Kickoff turnout has been all week.
Yau came up short of the title, settling for a runner up finish, but the shape of the result mattered as much as the payout. Throughout the series, observers pointed to a few clear changes in his game:
- Less limping and splashy isolation raises out of position.
- More balanced 3 bet ranges and a steady willingness to fold when the story from strong opponents did not add up.
Those are not the kind of moments that make viral clips. They are the tiny course corrections that move a high variance, high ego style toward something more stable.
