Nick Seward beats Daniel Negreanu heads-up to win Poker Masters Event #9 for $412,500

Nick Seward won Event #9: $26,000 No-Limit Hold'em at the 2026 Poker Masters on Thursday, Oct 22, at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. He beat Daniel Negreanu heads-up for $412,500, 248 PGT points and his first PGT title, according to PGT.com's official results. Negreanu led going into the final table and was still ahead when heads-up play started, but Seward took over the match after about two hours of trading pots.

The numbers

• Entries: 50, making a prize pool of $1,250,000, the biggest of the series up to that point. The top eight were paid, per PGT.com.
• First prize: $412,500 and 248 PGT points.
• Runner-up: Daniel Negreanu, $262,500 and 158 PGT points.
• The event started on Wednesday, Oct 21, and seven players came back for Thursday's final table.

Final results

Adrian Mateos went out on the money bubble in ninth, his fifth bubble of the series, and David Coleman finished eighth on Wednesday night, per PGT.com.

The final table

• Jesse Lonis, the shortest stack, went first. He called Seward's small-blind shove with king-queen against jack-nine. Both flopped a pair on queen-jack-five, but a jack on the turn gave Seward trips, per PGT.com.
• Brandon Wilson, who won Super High Roller Bowl XI, three-bet nearly all of his chips with the ace-two of clubs and ran into Seward's pocket jacks. Negreanu knocked him out a few hands later in a three-way pot.
• Sean Perry got his chips in with a combination draw, eight-six of clubs on a ten-seven-three flop with two clubs, against Negreanu's pocket jacks, and missed. "I still own 14 Ferraris," Perry told the room, PokerNews reported.
• Negreanu also put out Matthew Wantman in fourth, his king-ten making top pair against ace-queen.
• Daniyal Gheba was left short after a pot against Negreanu, then went out in third to Seward's ace-queen against king-six. It was Gheba's fourth final table of the series, PokerNews said.

Heads-up: Seward comes back

Negreanu started heads-up with 4,200,000 chips to Seward's 3,305,000, per PGT.com, or 84 big blinds to 66, per Poker.org. Negreanu pulled further ahead early. Seward got back to about even by catching a Negreanu bluff, and later closed the gap again after Negreanu rebuilt his lead. The match turned on two hands, per PGT.com and Poker.org:

• Seward flopped four kings while Negreanu had two pair. Negreanu folded to Seward's river bet, but the pot still gave Seward the lead.
• Soon after, Seward made a full house on the river as Negreanu made a flush. Seward again didn't get called on the river, but the pot left Negreanu at his lowest point of the match.

On the final hand, at blinds of 50,000/100,000, Negreanu moved all in for about 20 big blinds with king-ten over Seward's raise. Seward called with the king of diamonds and jack of hearts. The board ran nine, three, three, five, seven, and Seward's jack played. "GG," Negreanu told him. "You got me, fair and square. Congrats, kiddo," Poker.org reported.

Who is Nick Seward?

Seward is an American pro who won a WSOP bracelet two years ago and had $4.7 million in Hendon Mob earnings going into the event, PokerNews said. He told PokerNews he grew up watching Negreanu play. "It was definitely special playing heads-up against him," he said. This was his 30th cash in a PGT event, per Poker.org, and his fourth cash of this series, per PGT.com. He also went out in fifth in Event #2 and fourth in Event #8.

The Purple Jacket race after Event #9

The win moved Seward up to third on the series leaderboard, behind Mateos and Nick Palma, per PGT.com. Neither of the top two cashed in Event #9.

The finale: Negreanu sits out, and only Ausmus can catch Mateos

Negreanu didn't play the last event, the $51,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship. "The thing I'm most proud of today is the mature decision to skip the final $50k," he posted on X that night. "Just a few years ago it would be an auto play but I'm exhausted and it would feel miserable." By Friday morning the post had about 45,000 views and more than 400 likes, by X's count. PokerNews reported that he sat out after learning his second place wasn't enough to put him in the Purple Jacket race.

The finale drew 31 entries from 22 players for a $1,550,000 prize pool, with $620,000 for first and five places paid, per PokerNews and the PGT. Day 1 shook up the race:

• Mateos was knocked out by Sam Laskowitz, which leaves him on 451 points.
• Seward was eliminated by Sean Winter.
• Palma was the last player out on Day 1, after a heated exchange with Chris Brewer at the table. That ended his chances.

That leaves Jeremy Ausmus, who won Event #7, as the only player who can pass Mateos. He starts the final day on 321 points and needs to finish first or second, PokerNews said. Second place is worth 155 points, which would take him to 476. Third, worth 99, would leave him short.

Play resumes today, Friday, Oct 23, at 12:45 PM local time (3:45 PM ET), and two more players have to go before anyone is paid. The Purple Jacket winner gets a $25,000 PGT Passport, per PGT.com. If Ausmus finishes third or worse, the jacket goes to Mateos.

A note on the buy-ins

The Event #9 buy-in is $26,000. Of that, $25,000 from each entry goes into the prize pool, which is why 50 entries made a $1,250,000 pool. The other $1,000 is the fee the house keeps. The finale works the same way: $50,000 of each $51,000 buy-in goes to the pool, so 31 entries made $1,550,000.