Joey Weissman wins Poker Masters Event #3 for $218,400 and his fifth PGT title

Joey Weissman won Event #3: $10,500 No-Limit Hold'em at the 2026 Poker Masters on Thursday, Oct 15, at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. He earned $218,400, 218 PGT points and his fifth career PokerGO Tour (PGT) title, according to PGT.com's official results. His heads-up match against Daniyal Gheba lasted one hand.

The numbers

• Entries: 78, making a prize pool of $780,000. The top 12 were paid.
• First prize: $218,400 and 218 PGT points.
• Runner-up: Daniyal Gheba, $140,400 and 140 PGT points.
• The event ran over two days, Oct 14 and 15, per Poker.org. Six players came back for the final day.

Final results

How the final day went

Jeremy Ausmus started the final day with the chip lead, and Weissman was fourth of the six, PGT.com reported. Ausmus' day went wrong early. PokerNews reported that he doubled up Gheba when Gheba's king-queen made a flush against his ace-nine, then lost another pot to Gheba. Short on chips, Ausmus moved all-in from the small blind with ten-nine, and Weissman called from the big blind with ace-queen. No help came, and Ausmus was out in sixth for $39,000. He "went from chip leader to out in under two hours," PokerNews wrote.

Gheba took over from there. Brock Wilson lost a flip to Dylan Linde and was left short, per PGT.com. Then Linde's pocket queens ran into Gheba's pocket kings, and Linde was out in fifth for $54,600. Gheba knocked out Wilson in fourth for $74,100, and took a big chip lead into three-handed play.

It turned fast. After about 45 minutes three-handed, Weissman won a sizable pot from Shannon Shorr, Poker.org reported. On the very next hand, Weissman limped from the small blind, Gheba raised, Weissman three-bet and Gheba moved all-in. Weissman had pocket queens and Gheba had pocket sevens, per PGT.com and PokerNews, and Gheba was drawing dead by the turn. One hand later, Shorr moved all-in from the blinds, Weissman had him dominated, and Weissman's ace-high held up. Shorr finished third for $101,400.

One hand heads-up

Weissman started heads-up with nearly all the chips, per Poker.org. On the first hand, he moved all-in from the button with Q♣8♣, and Gheba called all-in for 12 big blinds with Q♠3♠, PGT.com and Poker.org reported. With one card to come, the board showed three deuces and a jack, so both players had the same hand and were set to split the pot. The river was an eight, which gave Weissman a full house and the title.

"Variance comes in waves and you got to be ready to take advantage of it when it comes. And I ran super, super hot," Weissman told PokerNews afterward.

Purple Jacket race

This was Weissman's second cash of the series. He also finished 10th in Event #1 for $23,400, according to his PokerNews profile. With 241 points, he moved to second on the Poker Masters leaderboard behind Myles Mullaly, who has 274 points after adding eighth place in this event to his Event #1 win, per PGT.com. Nick Palma, who won Event #2, is third with 235, followed by Gheba with 195 and Adrian Mateos with 151. The overall winner gets the Purple Jacket and a $25,000 PGT Passport. The series runs through Oct 23 at the PokerGO Studio, with 10 events and buy-ins from $10,500 to $51,000.

Who is Joey Weissman?

PokerNews describes Weissman as a longtime pro from New York. He won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event at the 2012 WSOP, for $694,609, and his second days before this win, in a $500 Mystery Bounty event in the WSOP.com Online Fall Series, for $45,370, according to his PokerNews profile. He also won the 2022 $3,500 BetMGM Poker Championship at the PokerGO Studio, which he told PokerNews is "my favorite place to play in the world." Poker.org lists his career earnings at $10,787,076 after this win.

Adrian Mateos' bubble streak

Event #3 also handed Adrian Mateos his second bubble of the series. He went out in 13th, one place short of the money, when his ace-king lost to Michael Rossitto's suited jack-nine, which flopped two pair, according to PGT.com and PokerNews. He had bubbled Event #1 with pocket aces against pocket nines. A day later, PokerNews reported, he bubbled Event #4 in 13th as well, with A♣7♣ against Chris Hunichen's pocket nines. That's three bubbles in four events. The other one was Event #2, where he finished second to Palma for $151,200.

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 78 entries made a $780,000 pool. The other $500 is the fee the house keeps. Some outlets, including Poker.org, call it a $10,000 event, after the prize-pool share.