2026 Poker Masters by the Numbers

The 2026 Poker Masters ran 10 No-Limit Hold'em events at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas from Oct 12 to Oct 23, per the PokerNews schedule (retrieved Oct 24, 2026). We went through every event's payout page and Day 1 chip counts on PokerNews and added it all up. Unless we say otherwise, every figure below is either taken from those pages (retrieved Oct 23–24, 2026) or is our own count from them.

Quick answer

• 664 entries across the 10 events, per PokerNews payout pages.
• $9,200,000 in prize pools. PokerNews lists a pool for nine events. For Event #5 it doesn't show one, so we used the sum of its listed payouts, $850,000.
• 101 paid finishes, so about 15% of entries got paid, or roughly 1 in 6.6. The structure sheet says events pay "approximately one in seven entries."
• 84 different players show up by name in the chip counts and payouts. 12 of them played all 10 events. 35 cashed nothing.
• 227 entries (34%) have no name attached on PokerNews. Those are re-entries, or players who never showed up in the chip counts, and they're the biggest limit on everything below.

Ten events, ten different winners

No one won twice. Winners and first prizes per PokerNews (retrieved Oct 23–24, 2026):

*PokerNews shows no prize pool for Event #5. $850,000 is the sum of its listed payouts, which also equals 85 entries × $10,000. Separately, the Event #2 payouts on PokerNews add up to $839,800 against the $840,000 pool it lists. We've reported both as shown.

The finale went to Sean Winter, who beat Sam Laskowitz heads-up for $620,000, per PokerNews (retrieved Oct 24, 2026). The same report says Adrian Mateos won the series Purple Jacket after Jeremy Ausmus, the last player who could catch him, went out in fourth. The structure sheet says the jacket goes to the player with the most PGT points across the series, along with a $25,000 PGT Passport, and that a player has to cash in at least two events to be eligible.

Fields shrank as the buy-ins rose

The five $10,500 events from Oct 12 to 16 drew 78 to 85 entries each. The sixth drew 64. The two $15,700 events drew 58 and 56, the $26,000 event 50, and the $51,000 finale 31. Event #5 was the biggest field, at 85. The first six events made up 469 of the 664 entries, or 71%, but just $4,690,000 of the $9,200,000 in prize pools, or 51%. The last four events were smaller fields, but the bigger buy-ins meant bigger pools. Our chart data, with sources, is in the CSV that goes with this article.

Where the buy-in goes, and what re-entry costs

The PGT structure sheet (retrieved Oct 24, 2026) splits every buy-in into the part that goes to the prize pool and a fee, and the fee depends on when you register:

What the sheet says about registration and re-entry, in its own words:

• "Players must be in the registration line by the scheduled start time to receive any applicable discount."
• "Late registrations and re-entries pay full tournament fee. Each player is limited to two re-entries per event." So one player could buy in at most three times in a single event.
• "Registration remains open until the start of Level 9 for all events."

The prize pools PokerNews lists match entries × the prize-pool share in every event. For example, 31 × $50,000 = $1,550,000 in Event #10. That means the fees sit on top of the $9,200,000. By our math, they came to somewhere between $74,500 (if every entry had paid the on-time fee) and $395,300 (if every entry had paid the late fee). The actual split between on-time, late and re-entry purchases isn't published, so we can't narrow that range.

The ironmen: 12 players in all 10 events

Twelve players appear by name in every one of the 10 events. Playing all 10 once each at full price costs $171,400 (six × $10,500, two × $15,700, plus $26,000 and $51,000). If someone registered on time for every event, the floor is $166,200. Any re-entry adds to either figure.

Half of the 12 cashed for more than $171,400 and half didn't. Cary Katz played all 10 and didn't cash. Because PokerNews lists each player once per event, an ironman who re-entered spent more than $171,400, and the right-hand column overstates how they did.

Cashes against minimum buy-ins: the top of the list

This table ranks every named player by what they cashed minus one full-price buy-in per event they appear in. It is not a profit table. The cost column is what one entry per event costs. It leaves out re-entries, which we can't see, and also doesn't account for on-time discounts of $400 to $800 per entry. It ignores staking, swaps, travel and everything else. Treat the last column as "cashed more than one entry per event would have cost," and nothing more.

Winter's total is two cashes: second in Event #6 for $124,800 and first in Event #10 for $620,000. He isn't in the Event #8 chip counts. He told PokerNews he "took an event off, the 15K, to just reset." Of the 84 named players, 29 cashed more than one entry per event would have cost them. The other 55 didn't, before counting any re-entries.

Most players cashed nothing

• 35 of the 84 named players (42%) didn't cash in any event they appear in. Three of them played six or more: Cary Katz (all 10), Chino Rheem (8) and Dan Smith (6). At one full-price entry per event, that's at least $171,400, $150,400 and $129,400.
• 49 players shared the 101 paid finishes. 24 cashed once, 10 twice, 7 three times, and 4 each cashed four and five times.
• About 1 in 6.6 entries got paid (101 of 664, 15.2%). Event by event, it ran from 1 in 6.2 (Event #10: 5 paid from 31) to 1 in 7.0 (Events #2 and #8).

Those counts are per named player. If you could see the 227 unnamed entries, the paid share wouldn't change, because it's based on total entries. The share of players who cashed nothing could, since some unnamed entries may belong to players we never saw named.

What these numbers can't show

• Re-entries. PokerNews lists each player once per event. Each player could re-enter up to twice per event, per the structure sheet, but we can't tell who did. We counted every named player as one entry. That understates costs, and overstates the "cashed minus cost" column, for anyone who re-entered.
• Unnamed entries. 227 of 664 entries have no name attached. That's 9 of 31 in Event #10, and as many as 33 of 85 in Event #5. Some are re-entries. Some may be players who busted before PokerNews took its first chip count. We can't tell which, and no full entrant list is published.
• On-time vs. late pricing. We used the full listed price for every entry. Players who registered on time paid $400 to $800 less per entry, per the structure sheet.
• Staking, swaps and backing. At this level, players often sell pieces of their action or swap percentages with each other. None of that is public. A player's "cashed" figure isn't necessarily what they kept.
• Taxes, travel and fees. None of that is here. The structure sheet notes withholding for residents of countries without a U.S. tax treaty.
• Names. We merged four spelling variants that PokerNews shows for what look like the same players, such as "Nick Palma" and "Nicholas Palma." We kept Brandon Wilson and Brock Wilson separate. The full surname of one player, shown on PokerNews as "Christopher Par," is unverified. We didn't cross-check our counts against PGT.com's own records.

How we counted

For each event, we took total entries, the prize pool and every paid finish from the PokerNews payouts page. For the list of players, we combined the names in the Day 1 chip counts (including players marked as busted) with the names on the payout list. Events #1 to #9 were retrieved on Oct 23, 2026, and Event #10 on Oct 24, 2026. A script did the adding up, and our sources file has the event-by-event links.

For adults 21+. The structure sheet says players must be at least 21 to play in these events. Gambling problem? Get help from the National Council on Problem Gambling.