Sean Winter Wins Poker Masters Finale, Adrian Mateos Takes Purple Jacket

Sean Winter capped off the 2026 Poker Masters in dominant fashion, winning the $51,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em finale at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas for $620,000. The closing event of the series also decided the race for the purple jacket, which went to Spanish pro Adrian Mateos after a tense final stretch.

Winter Tops 31-Entry Field

The finale drew 31 entries, building a prize pool of $1,550,000 with only the top five spots paid. Winter came into the final day sitting third in chips with seven players remaining, then worked his way through the table before defeating Sam Laskowitz heads-up to secure his second PokerGO Tour title of the year.

Laskowitz earned $387,500 for his runner-up finish, a result the PGT described as the best live tournament score of his career.

Winter credited a recent break from the grind for his late-series surge. Speaking to PokerNews, he explained that skipping one event helped him reset his focus: “I wasn’t executing how I wanted to, and so I took an event off, the 15K, to just reset, and I think it worked out.”

The win pushed Winter to 2,223 points on the 2026 PGT leaderboard, making him the first player this season to pass the 2,000-point mark. He now has 17 cashes in PGT-qualifying events worth a combined $4,391,694, positioning him as the clear favorite for PGT Player of the Year.

Mateos Holds Off Ausmus For The Purple Jacket

Mateos entered the finale with a sizable lead in the jacket race, but a cold stretch over the previous three events kept things interesting until the very last hand mattered. Jeremy Ausmus, who had won event no. 7 earlier in the series, arrived at the final table needing at least a second-place finish to leapfrog Mateos in the standings.

That chance ended in fourth place. Ausmus got his chips in with pocket fives against Winter’s ace-king of diamonds. An ace on the turn, followed by another ace on the river, sealed his elimination and a $170,500 payout.

Mateos closed the series with 451 points from three cashes: a win in event no. 5 worth $229,500, a runner-up finish in event no. 2, and a fourth-place result in event no. 7. Those three results combined for $467,700 in earnings. He also bubbled the money five separate times across the ten-event series. Along with the purple jacket, Mateos collects a $25,000 PGT Passport.

“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,” Mateos told PokerNews.

Nicholas Palma finished the series second in the standings with 407 points, while event no. 9 champion Nicholas Seward rounded out the top three on 397 points.

How The Final Table Played Out

Dan Smith was the first casualty among the final seven. He shoved ace-eight over an open-raise from Chris Brewer and ran into the ace-queen of Marius Gierse, failing to catch up. Brewer had earlier doubled through Smith’s ace-king holding pocket aces, but his own run ended on the money bubble when his ace-jack was cracked by Ausmus’s pocket aces.

Gierse became the first player to officially cash, exiting in fifth for $124,000 after his ten-nine could not outrun the pocket queens held by Laskowitz on a ten-seven-six flop. Following Ausmus’s departure in fourth, Igor Yaroshevskyy shoved queen-jack and was called by Winter’s king-ten. The king-ten held, sending the Ukrainian pro out in third for $248,000 and setting up the heads-up clash between Winter and Laskowitz that Winter ultimately won.

FAQ

How much did Sean Winter win for the Poker Masters finale?

Winter collected $620,000 for topping the 31-entry, $51,000 buy-in finale, which built a $1,550,000 prize pool.

Who won the purple jacket in 2026?

Adrian Mateos won the purple jacket, finishing the series with 451 points from three cashes despite going card-dead over the final three events.

What does the Poker Masters purple jacket winner receive?

Along with the jacket itself, the overall series points leader receives a $25,000 PGT Passport.

Players chasing their own big scores can also look for value beyond the high-roller circuit, including Royal Gambit Poker’s $500 monthly poker freeroll for a no-cost shot at real prizes.

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