Vitalijs Zavorotnijs wins Poker Masters Event #4 for $224,000 as Nick Palma takes the Purple Jacket lead

Vitalijs Zavorotnijs won Event #4: $10,500 No-Limit Hold'em at the 2026 Poker Masters on Friday, Oct 16, at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. He earned $224,000, 224 PGT points and the second PokerGO Tour (PGT) title of his career, according to PGT.com's official results. The last hand of heads-up against Clemen Deng was a full house against a full house.

The numbers

• Entries: 80, making a prize pool of $800,000. The top 12 were paid.
• First prize: $224,000 and 224 PGT points.
• Runner-up: Clemen Deng, $144,000 and 144 PGT points.
• The event ran over two days, Oct 15 and 16, per Poker.org. Five players came back for the final day, with Zavorotnijs leading.

Final results

How the final day went

Andrew Lichtenberger came back as the short stack with 12 big blinds, PokerNews reported. He doubled through Deng early, then on the next hand three-bet all-in for 27 big blinds with queen-jack and ran into Deng's pocket aces. He finished fifth for $56,000.

About 20 minutes later, Jamie Dwan was left with very little after doubling up Palma in a blind-versus-blind hand. Dwan put in his last chips with ace-six against Deng's seven-three, and a seven on the river gave Deng the pot, per PokerNews. Dwan, a WSOP bracelet winner cashing for the first time at the PokerGO Studio, took fourth for $76,000.

Deng built a big chip lead three-handed, but Palma's exit let Zavorotnijs catch up. Palma moved all-in with king-jack over a raise from Deng and a call from Zavorotnijs in the small blind, Poker.org reported. Zavorotnijs called with pocket sevens and flopped a full house, and Palma was out in third for $104,000.

Full house against full house

Deng took a narrow lead into heads-up, and the lead changed hands more than once, per Poker.org and PGT.com. Then both players flopped two pair on a queen-jack-four board: Zavorotnijs had queen-four and Deng had jack-four. The turn was the last four in the deck, which gave both of them a full house, with Zavorotnijs' fours full of queens ahead of Deng's fours full of jacks. The chips went in on the river, and Zavorotnijs had just enough to cover, PokerNews reported. PGT.com called it "the mother of all coolers".

"The cards went my way. I think I played pretty good, got lucky at some point and won it. It's usually what happens when you win the tournament," Zavorotnijs told PokerNews.

Palma leads the Purple Jacket race

Third place was Palma's second podium of the series, after his win in Event #2. With 339 points and $339,200 from two cashes, he moved to the top of the Poker Masters leaderboard, ahead of Myles Mullaly with 274 and Event #3 winner Joey Weissman with 265, according to PGT.com. Zavorotnijs is fourth with 224 from his first cash of the series, and Daniyal Gheba is fifth with 195. Poker.org reported that Palma entered Event #5 as soon as he was knocked out of Event #4.

The overall winner gets the Purple Jacket and a $25,000 PGT Passport. Six of the 10 events are still to play, and the series runs through Oct 23 at the PokerGO Studio, with buy-ins from $10,500 to $51,000.

Event #4 also gave Adrian Mateos his third bubble in four events. He went out in 13th, one place short of the money, as PGT.com and PokerNews reported.

Who is Vitalijs Zavorotnijs?

Zavorotnijs is from Latvia. PokerNews reports that this was his second PGT title and the ninth tournament win of his career, which includes the 2019 WPT Barcelona Main Event. Poker.org lists his career earnings at $3,569,503 after this win, and his record when heads-up for a title at nine wins and four losses. Before poker, he told PokerNews, he played professional volleyball for two or three years until an injury ended that career. He credited a group of Latvian and Lithuanian players who study together, especially during the summer in Las Vegas: "I think our group made us much better than we could have been without it."

Deng came into the day with five PGT titles, per PokerNews, and Poker.org lists his career earnings at $6,768,822.

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 80 entries made an $800,000 pool. The other $500 is the fee the house keeps. Some outlets, including Poker.org and PokerNews, call it a $10K event, after the prize-pool share.