Adrian Mateos wins Poker Masters Event #5 for $229,500 after three bubbles and takes the Purple Jacket lead

Adrian Mateos won Event #5: $10,500 No-Limit Hold'em at the 2026 Poker Masters on Saturday, Oct 17, at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. He earned $229,500 and 230 PGT points, and moved to the top of the series leaderboard, according to PGT.com's official results. It was his first title of the series, after he had finished on the money bubble in three of the first four events.

The numbers

• Entries: 85, making a prize pool of $850,000. The top 13 were paid, and Joe McKeehen went out on the bubble in 14th.
• First prize: $229,500 and 230 PGT points.
• Runner-up: Nick Schulman, $148,750 and 149 PGT points.
• The event ran over two days, Oct 16 and 17, per Poker.org. Seven players came back for the final table, with Mateos leading.

Final results

Three bubbles, then a title

Mateos' week started badly. In Event #1 his pocket aces lost to Craig Mason's flopped set of nines on the bubble, Poker.org reported. He finished second to Nick Palma in Event #2, then went out on the bubble again in Events #3 and #4. He told PokerNews he had been playing 11 or 12 hours almost every day.

"I try not to focus too much on the results," Mateos told PokerNews. "I focus only on the process and what I can control. I cannot control when I lose or win."

How the final table went

Mateos added to his lead on the first hand of the day, when he flopped two pair against Jeremy Becker's top pair and moved all-in on the river, and Becker folded, per Poker.org. The two short stacks went next. Matthew Wantman got his last chips in with queen-ten against Keith Lehr's ace-ten and was out in seventh. On the very next hand, Lehr's king-queen ran into Mateos' ace-queen, and Lehr finished sixth, PokerNews reported.

Becker raised on the button, Martin Zamani moved all-in from the small blind with ace-queen, and Becker called with ace-king, which sent Zamani out in fifth, according to PGT.com. After roughly another hour of play, Robert French put in his short stack from the small blind with ace-king, and Schulman called with queen-nine and hit a nine on the river. French took fourth for $76,500.

Becker went out in a hand between the blinds. Mateos raised from the small blind with ten-four and bet the flop and the turn on a board of ten-eight-three-ten. When the river came a five, he moved all-in, and Becker called with king-eight for two pair. Mateos' three tens won the pot, and Becker took third for $106,250, per PokerNews and PGT.com.

Two hands of heads-up

Mateos started heads-up with more than four times Schulman's chips, and the match lasted two hands. Schulman won the first. On the second, Mateos had pocket aces and Schulman had the ten and nine of hearts. By the turn, the board read king-jack-seven-three with two hearts, so Schulman had a flush draw plus a straight draw at either end, and the chips went in. Any heart, queen or eight would have doubled him up, which Poker.org counted as 15 outs. The river was a nine, and Mateos won, according to PGT.com.

Schulman, a Poker Hall of Famer, earned $148,750 for second.

Mateos leads the Purple Jacket race

The 230 points from this win, added to the 151 from his second place in Event #2, put Mateos on 381 points and $380,700 from two cashes, PGT.com reported. That moved him past Nick Palma at the top of the series leaderboard.

Palma, Weissman and Zavorotnijs have each won one event. The overall winner gets the Purple Jacket and a $25,000 PGT Passport. The series runs through Oct 23 at the PokerGO Studio, with buy-ins from $10,500 to $51,000.

"Right now I think I'm leading, but there are a lot of tournaments. We're only halfway through," Mateos told PokerNews.

And then a fourth bubble

Mateos went straight into Event #6, another $10,500 No-Limit Hold'em event, and later that night finished on its money bubble too. Poker.org reported that his ace-queen was up against Robert Chorlian's ace-six and Justin Vaysman's pocket sevens, and the sevens held, so both Mateos and Chorlian were out on the same hand. That makes four bubbles in six events for Mateos, along with his first and second place.

Seven players are left in Event #6, led by Sean Winter with 1,405,000 chips and Victoria Livschitz with 1,395,000, per Poker.org. Sunday is a day off, and the Event #6 final table plays on Monday, Oct 19, the same day Event #7, a $15,700 No-Limit Hold'em event, begins, PokerNews reported.

Who is Adrian Mateos?

Mateos is from Spain and is a Winamax ambassador, according to PokerNews. Poker.org puts his recorded live tournament earnings at $70,601,955 after this win, citing the Hendon Mob database. He told PokerNews he has played poker professionally for 14 or 15 years: "I love poker. I'm a big poker fan too, and titles are something that motivates me."

A note on the buy-in

The buy-in is $10,500. Of that, $10,000 from each entry goes into the prize pool, which is why 85 entries made an $850,000 pool. The other $500 is the fee the house keeps. Some outlets call it a $10K event, after the prize-pool share.