Sean Winter wins the Poker Masters finale for $620,000 as Adrian Mateos takes the Purple Jacket

Sean Winter won Event #10: $51,000 No-Limit Hold'em, the last event of the 2026 Poker Masters, on Friday, Oct 23, at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. He beat Sam Laskowitz heads-up for $620,000 and 248 PGT points, according to PGT.com's official results. The bigger story of the night was the series title. Jeremy Ausmus, the only player who could still pass Adrian Mateos on the leaderboard, went out in fourth, and that gave Mateos the Purple Jacket.

The numbers

• Entries: 31, making a prize pool of $1,550,000. The top five were paid, and the smallest prize was $124,000, per PGT.com.
• First prize: $620,000 and 248 PGT points.
• Runner-up: Sam Laskowitz, $387,500 and 155 PGT points. PGT.com says it's the biggest live tournament score of his career.
• The event started on Thursday, Oct 22, and seven players came back for Friday's final day.

Final results

Dan Smith went out in seventh and Chris Brewer in sixth, both without a cash, per PGT.com.

Aces, aces and the money bubble

The final day opened with a run of big pairs, per PGT.com and PokerNews:

• Brewer picked up pocket aces early and doubled through Smith's ace-king. Smith then doubled through Laskowitz with eights against sixes, but moved all in with ace-eight over a Brewer raise and ran into Marius Gierse's ace-queen. The ace-queen held, and Smith was out in seventh.
• Six-handed, one place from the money, Brewer got his pocket kings in against Laskowitz's pocket aces in a six-bet pot. PokerGO posted the bubble cooler on X as "the mother of all coolers," and the clip had about 34,000 views by Saturday morning, by X's count, the most of any poker post we found from the day.
• Winter's pocket queens held against Gierse's ace-jack, and the double put him in the chip lead, per PGT.com.
• Brewer, now short, moved all in with ace-jack and ran into aces again, this time Ausmus's. He was drawing dead by the turn and went out on the bubble.
• Gierse, who started the day with the most chips, check-raised all in with ten-nine on a ten-seven-six flop. Laskowitz had pocket queens, they held, and Gierse finished fifth.

Ausmus falls short, and Mateos wins the Purple Jacket

Ausmus started the day needing to finish first or second to pass Mateos. On his last hand, Winter raised from the small blind with the ace-king of diamonds, and the chips went in before the flop against Ausmus's pocket fives in the big blind. The jack-nine-three flop kept Ausmus ahead, but an ace came on the turn and another on the river, per PGT.com. Fourth place was worth 68 points, which took him to 389, short of Mateos's 451.

Mateos had gone out of the finale on Day 1 and could only watch. "I had a big lead all the way, but in the last three events I wasn't able to cash, so the sweat was real," he told PokerNews. He cashed three times in the series: first in Event #5 for $229,500, second in Event #2 for $151,200 and fourth in Event #7 for $87,000, per PGT.com. He also went out on the money bubble five times, which he called "completely unbelievable," PokerNews reported. Along with the jacket, he gets a $25,000 PGT Passport. Poker.org notes it caps a year in which he has won a sixth WSOP bracelet, in the $250,000 Super High Roller for $4.3 million.

Three-handed and heads-up

• Igor Yaroshevskyy, who hadn't cashed in any of the first nine events, per PokerNews, went out in third. He flopped two pair with queen-jack on an ace-queen-jack flop of diamonds, but Winter had king-ten for the ace-high straight. Yaroshevskyy check-raised all in on the turn and Winter called right away, per PGT.com.
• Winter started heads-up with nearly three times Laskowitz's chips. Laskowitz drew level within four hands, PokerNews said, but never got in front, and Winter pulled away again.
• On the final hand, at blinds of 50,000/100,000, Laskowitz limped on the button and Winter checked with the six of clubs and five of spades. On a queen of hearts, six of spades, five of hearts flop, Winter check-raised to 475,000 and Laskowitz called with the queen and two of spades. The turn was the three of hearts. Winter moved all in for 1,425,000 into a pot of 1,250,000, Laskowitz called, and the eight of clubs on the river ended it.

"I've never played heads-up against him," Winter told PokerNews of Laskowitz, a friend. "I respect his game and I know he has heads-up experience, so I was expecting a battle." He also said he took "the 15K" off to reset after not playing his best. There were two $15,700 events, and PokerNews's reporting has him busting Event #7 on Day 1 and not in the Event #8 field, so the one he skipped was Event #8. "I felt pretty locked in this tournament," he said.

Who is Sean Winter?

Winter is an American high-stakes pro. This was his second PGT title of 2026, per PGT.com, and Poker.org counts it as the ninth PGT title of his career. Poker.org also says it was his first live tournament win in 224 days, since a $210,000 win at the PokerGO Cup, and lists his career earnings at more than $42 million. Asked what's next, he told PokerNews he hadn't decided on the upcoming trips to Cyprus and the Bahamas. "I like being around my family, so I hate to be so far away," he said.

Final Poker Masters leaderboard

Nick Seward, who won Event #9 the night before the finale, finished third.

What's next on the PGT

The win put Winter on 2,223 points on the season-long PGT leaderboard, the first player above 2,000 this year, and he leads the Player of the Year race, per PGT.com. Eelis Parssinen is second with 1,843 and Ausmus third with 1,812. Next up is the PGT Sprint, seven one-day tournaments at the PokerGO Studio from Oct 27 to Nov 4, with buy-ins from $5,300 to $10,500. The season ends with the PGT Championship, a $500,000 freeroll for the top 40 eligible players, on Jan 11 and 12, 2027.

A note on the buy-in

The Event #10 buy-in is listed as $51,000. Of that, $50,000 from each entry goes into the prize pool, which is why 31 entries made a $1,550,000 pool. The rest is the house fee, and it depends on when you register: the official structure sheet lists a $200 fee for players in line by the start time and $1,000 for late registrations and re-entries.