Adrian Mateos Wins Poker Masters as Jeremy Ausmus Falls Just Short

Adrian Mateos pipped players like Nick Palma, Nick Seward and the PokerStake seller Jeremy Ausmus to the post in the 2026 Poker Masters series this weekend, claiming the infamous Purple Jacket that come with victory in Las Vegas. Across the 10 high roller events, the Spanish poker legend added another major tournament series to his collection after staying ahead of a resurgent Jeremy Ausmus in the final stretch.

Negreanu Goes Close in Event #9

Event #9 was the penultimate event of the series and cost $26,000 to play. With 50 entries, just eight players made the money, with PokerStake’s 2025 Poker Masters champion David Coleman coming eighth for $50,000 before his fellow American professionals Jesse Lonis (7^th for $50,000) and PokerStake’s Brandon Wilson (6^th for $75,000) cashed too.

After the exits of Sean Perry in fifth for $100,000 and Matthew Wantman in fourth for $125,000, the Las Vegas local Daniyal Gheba left in third place for $175,000, his no good against the of Nick Seward. The heads-up match started even, but Negreanu, who sells a vast WSOP package every summer on PokerStake, lost with a flush to Seward’s full house to drop to only 25% of the chips in play.

Soon, that number was the roundest one of all.

All-in with king-ten, Kid Poker (below) ran into Seward’s dominating king-jack and couldn’t overcome the better hand, finishing as runner-up for a still spectacular score of $262,500. The starstruck Seward, who claimed his first PGT title with the victory over a poker hero, won the top prize of $412,500.

Daniel Negreanu got a runner-up finish in the sole Poker Masters event he played.

“It feels great. The $25k is a big one, so it was definitely a very rewarding feeling, and it was my first win in here, so it feels really good, he told reporters following the win. “It was definitely special playing heads-up against him. I’m just lucky to be surrounded by a lot of good people. They drive me to work really hard and I wouldn’t be here without them.”

PokerGO Tour 2026 Poker Masters $26,000 Event #9 Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Chips
1^st	Nick Seward	United States	$412,500
2^nd	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	$262,500
3^rd	Daniyal Gheba	United States	$175,000
4^th	Matthew Wantman	United States	$125,000
5^th	Sean Perry	United States	$100,000
6^th	Brandon Wilson	United States	$75,000
7^th	Jesse Lonis	United States	$50,000

Jeremy Ausmus Goes Close to Series Title

The final event of the 2026 Poker Masters cost $50,000 and saw 31 entries with five players making the money. Adrian Mateos’ bid to become the Poker Masters winner hung in the balance as the Spanish pro busted in 16^th place, short of any PGT Points and leaving him at threat from both Nick Palma and PokerStake player Jeremy Ausmus (below) for the series title.

Palma was in a strong position but after becoming embroiled in a senseless altercation with the popular Chris Brewer, Palma was ousted in eighth place, only needing to cash to overtake Mateos. Suddenly, only Ausmus could usurp his great high roller rival and making it to the final day in good shape, the American knew what he needed to do – finish in the top two places.

After Brewer bubbled in sixth place, Austrian Marius Gierse cashed for $124,000 in fifth and left Jeremy just two places from leaderboard glory. All-in from the small blind with pocket fives, Ausmus was winning a crucial coinflip until the turn when Sean Winter’s ace-king hit an ace to leave Jeremy chasing a two-outer. Another ace on the river signalled the end of Jeremy’s run at the leaderboard, though he took home $170,500 in Event #10 and with five cashes in the 10 events – more than any player – banked a series score of $553,500.

Winter took on Laskowitz heads-up, winning Event #10 when his two-pair beat Sam Laskowitz’ top pair and confirmed a victory worth $620,000.

PokerGO Tour 2026 Poker Masters $50,000 Event #10 Final Table Chipcounts:
Place	Player	Country	Chips
1^st	Sean Winter	United States	$620,000
2^nd	Sam Laskowitz	United States	$387,500
3^rd	Igor Yaroshevskyy	Ukraine	$248,000
4^th	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	$170,500
5^th	Marius Gierse	Austria	$124,000

Mateos the Matador Once Again

After winning one event and finishing as runner-up in another, Adrian Mateos became the Poker Masters champion of 2026 almost in spite of himself. Bubbling an amazing five tournaments of the 10 he played, the Spanish player took home the Purple Jacket and a PGT Passport worth $25,000 in buy-ins to future PGT events.

Here are all the event winners of the 2026 Poker Masters Championship.

Event #1: $10,500 NL Hold’em – Myles Mullaly ($218,400)
Event #2: $10,500 NL Hold’em – Nick Palma ($235,200)
Event #3: $10,500 NL Hold’em – Joey Weissman ($218,400)
Event #4: $10,500 NL Hold’em – Vitalijs Zavorotnijs ($224,000)
Event #5: $10,500 NL Hold’em – Adrian Mateos ($229,500)
Event #6: $10,500 NL Hold’em – Justin Vaysman ($192,000)
Event #7: $15,700 NL Hold’em – Jeremy Ausmus ($278,400)
Event #8: $15,700 NL Hold’em – Keith Lehr ($277,200)
Event #9: $26,000 NL Hold’em – Nick Seward ($412,500)
Event #10: $51,000 NL Hold’em – Sean Winter ($620,000)

“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,” Adrian Mateos said as his overall win was guaranteed by Jeremy’s exit of Event #10 in fourth place.

With rivals Nick Palma and Nick Seward both going close and Jeremy Ausmus only a short distance back, Mateos had a close win but got over the line and celebrated in style on the rail. After coming second in Event #2 for $151,200, he won Event #5 for $229,500 then came fourth for $87,000 in Event #7, a result that was just as pivotal as the others.

Here’s how the top 10 of the 2026 Poker Masters leaderboard finished.

PokerGO Tour 2026 Poker Masters Final Leaderboard Top 10 :
Rank	Player	Country	Wins	Cashes	Winnings	PGT Points
1^st	Adrian Mateos	Spain	1	3	$467,700	451
2^nd	Nick Palma	United States	1	4	$424,400	407
3^rd	Nick Seward	United States	1	4	$578,500	397
4^th	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	1	5	$553,500	389
5^th	Sean Winter	United States	1	2	$744,800	373
6^th	Vitalijs Zavorotnijs	United States	1	2	$400,400	365
7^th=	Daniyal Gheba	United States	0	5	$424,850	348
7^th=	Sam Laskowitz	United States	0	5	$580,100	348
9^th	Joey Weissman	United States	1	5	$348,850	338
10^th	Justin Vaysman	United States	1	3	$348,600	325