The PGT Mixed Games series has evolved into a must-play stop on the high-stakes calendar for mixed game lovers. The upcoming fifth iteration of PGT Mixed Games, scheduled to take place between February 3-11, demonstrates how niche poker offerings can thrive when they are built deliberately, and with players firmly at the center of the conversation.
To better understand the thinking behind the 2026 edition of the series, I spoke with PokerGO Tour Commissioner Tim Duckworth. Tim shared some candid insight into how the PGT uses historical data and player feedback to shape the series, why February has become its permanent slot on the yearly calendar, what ultimately drives livestream decisions for mixed games, and where responsibility lies for growing the mixed-game ecosystem. Our conversation also touched on satellites, viewership realities, and more.
This is now the fifth iteration of PGT Mixed Games. How do you go about populating the tournament schedule? What data do you look at from years past? What goals are you trying to hit? What “metrics” are you trying to maximize from the PGT perspective and for the players?
The reason we started PGT Mixed Games was to give mixed game loyalists an opportunity to play their own dedicated mixed game series – something no one else was doing. Being part of the PGT, it was always going to be for high-stakes, so the schedule has always been crafted by the players.
The first, in February 2023, involved extensive discussions with players to create a schedule that would attract large numbers while offering a variety of events. Since then, each PGT Mixed Games series has undergone minor adjustments to maximize turnout or accommodate player requests. In 2024, we dropped the opening events buy-ins to $5,000. In 2025, we shortened the series and experimented with Mori’s Mix (six limit one-winner games). For 2026, due to player requests, we’re bringing back Big Bet Mix to replace Mori’s Mix.
Ultimately, I view all our PGT events as the players who are putting up the money. We need to create schedules that appeal to them and foster the desire to play.
When it started out, the series took place twice a year, but now it’s just once a year, in February. Why not more often, and why that time of year?
It was actually never planned to be twice a year. The popularity of the first prompted players to request a second, so we did a second in October 2023. Unfortunately, that was a mistake. It stretched the players’ bankrolls too thin because they now had three high-stakes series (two PGT Mixed Games and the WSOP), and we saw a significant drop in numbers.
I decided, heading into the 2024 PGT season, that PGT Mixed Games would be held once a year. My goal was to deliver a single, high-impact series with strong attendance. I knew 2024 wouldn’t see a massive increase because 2023 was so packed, but I knew 2025 would rebound strongly. And it did. We set records for PGT Mixed Games in both the $5k and $10k variants of H.O.R.S.E. and 8-Game, with a whopping 148 entrants in the $5k 8-Game – pretty crazy numbers for a turbo mixed game event … something that mixed game players normally hate.
What factors govern which Mixed Game Series get streamed for fans on PokerGO, and what sort of viewing targets are you hoping to achieve, given that it’s obviously not a NLHE series of events?
We will be live streaming the following five events:
- Event #1: $5,100 H.O.R.S.E.
- Event #4: $10,200 8-Game
- Event #5: $15,200 Big Bet Mix
- Event #7: $25,300 10-Game Championship
Unfortunately, mixed games have never had high viewership. Even when we livestreamed the WSOP $50k Poker Players Championship with Phil Ivey as the headlining player, it performed worse than a $500 or $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event.
Originally, for 2026, we weren’t planning on livestreaming PGT Mixed Games. But the mixed game community is super engaged and rallied together to provide us with enough feedback that we called an audible and decided to livestream four of the final tables.
Join us at the @PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas for the next edition of the PGT Mixed Games series! 🏆
Seven tournaments from February 3-11, buy-ins $5,300 to $26,000, and rake discount for on-time registration.
➡️ https://t.co/5h9xtQBQNN pic.twitter.com/4DNiyPKplF
— PGT (@PokerGOTour) January 29, 2026
The four final tables we chose offered a variety of poker variants that will appeal to the viewers. H.O.R.S.E. is obviously a staple of the PGT Mixed Games series, and the $5k price point opens the door to seeing a few new faces at the final table. The stakes get bumped for the $10k 8-Game, so we will hopefully see some of the mixed game stalwarts reach that final table.
The Big Bet Mix will be a high-action final table featuring unique games you don’t see often. Finally, if there was only one final table to livestream, you would obviously pick the series finale of the $25k 10-Game Championship. Big names, big money, and likely the decider to see who is crowned the 2026 PGT Mixed Games champion!
Mixed games are obviously niche within poker and aren’t watched by as many people as NLHE and PLO events. But there’s also a “chicken and egg” argument, that if more mixed games were televised and streamed, more people would learn them, want to play them, and they’d grow in popularity. Plenty of people want to see more mixed games being broadcast, and that includes many of the high rolling players who play in the PGT Mixed Game series. That said, there’s a high price tag to produce live streams. How, in your view, can that gap be breached in order to further help facilitate the growth of mixed games on the whole?
Livestreaming is expensive and companies will always look at the ROI when making a decision on whether or not something should be livestreamed. Mixed games are significantly more niche than No-Limit Hold’em or Pot-Limit Omaha, but they obviously do belong in the poker world.
The problem with livestreaming mixed games is that they don’t appeal to the general poker fan. The games are confusing, and most people understand and only really care about No-Limit Hold’em.
I don’t think growing mixed games should fall on the shoulders of PokerGO or any other livestreaming company. It’s also hard for operators such as the WSOP to offer a $1,500 Dealer’s Choice over a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. They know their revenue is capped with the Dealer’s Choice, but as an operator, they understand that the health of their tour is based on offering a well-rounded product.
Growing mixed games stems from the grassroots: low-stakes games and Mixed Game Festivals like the ones you host. I’ve seen this happen for years. You’re sitting in a $4/8 or $6/12 mixed game, and a random player walks over to look at the games. They understand the basic ones, but when they see plaques for Dramadugi and Badeucey, etc., they are immediately turned off and go play something else. Personally, I love some of these games, but they will always be a barrier to new players.
Satellites are key to populating higher-buy-in tournaments the world over. Given that there’s a full year’s worth of lead time into each PGT Mixed Game Series, do you think we might see more satellites popping up throughout the year (online, live, multi-seat, etc.) that could potentially increase field sizes?
We have always put an emphasis on satellites for PGT events – from 2023 onwards, we have awarded 250 seats in PGT events and had 2,599 participants in those satellites. However, the data doesn’t support running satellites even several days out from the series. So we’re basically all-in on satellites prior to the event. Even running them throughout the series hasn’t worked for us.
We would love to have an online partner to help satellite players qualify for PGT events, but we need a few things to fall our way for that to become a staple of the tour.
I’ve heard there is a new trophy for this year’s PGT Mixed Games. What can you tell me about the decision behind the new trophy and how you go about that process?
We had a somewhat lackluster trophy for the first four PGT Mixed Games series, but about this time last year, I was empowered to handle PGT trophies – probably due to our Global Poker Award-winning Texas Poker Open belt buckle. My goal was to reduce costs while creating better trophies.
The PGT PLO Series and PGT Mixed Games have always used the same trophy. For PLO, we worked with a European 3D printing company that designed a trophy with four cards fanned out from the base. For PGT Mixed Games, we used a similar design but with five cards. Obviously, with mixed games, there are so many game variants, so we picked an option that was synonymous with mixed games – five cards with different suits. It represents a wheel in 2-7 or nut-nut in Badeucey.
I hope the players like the new trophy and that it gives them a little extra motivation to try and win one. It just needs a cool nickname … maybe ‘The Mori’.
