Sean Winter won the final tournament of Poker Masters 2026 — Event #10: $51,000 NLH — and took home $620,000. In heads-up play at PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, the American defeated Sam Laskowitz, while Adrian Mateos won the race for the Purple Jacket.
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Seven players returned for the final day. Winter began third in chips but made his way through a final table that featured several major coolers, a tense bubble, and the crowning of the series champion. In poker, a cooler is a situation in which two strong hands collide and one player can do little to avoid losing.
Dan Smith was the first to bust. In one of the early big hands, he got it in with ace-king against Chris Brewer’s pocket aces and was unable to rebuild his stack afterward. Smith’s tournament came to an end when his ace-eight lost to ace-queen. That left six players on the bubble—the stage at which the next player eliminated receives no prize money.
It was also an unlucky moment for Brewer. First, he lost a big six-bet pot with pocket kings against aces, then committed his remaining chips with ace-jack against Jeremy Ausmus’s pocket aces. Brewer finished in sixth place and left without a payout.
Once the remaining players had locked up prize money, five players continued with stacks close in size. Marius Gierse, who began the day as the chip leader, had earlier lost a significant pot to Winter on the bubble. He briefly recovered, but then busted in fifth place. In the deciding hand, he flopped top pair and picked up a gutshot straight draw—the chance to make a straight with one card—but ran into Laskowitz’s pocket queens. Gierse earned $124,000.
The race for the Purple Jacket remained a separate storyline. Ausmus needed to finish in the top two to overtake Mateos in the overall standings. With four players left, he still had a chance, but lost to Winter in a blind-versus-blind battle—that is, a hand between the small blind and the big blind. Ausmus got it in with pocket fives against Winter’s ace-king. His pair remained ahead on the flop, but an ace on the turn put Winter in front, and another ace on the river confirmed Ausmus’s elimination in fourth place. He received $170,500.
That was exactly the result Mateos was waiting for. The Spaniard built a substantial lead in the first part of the series, including a win in Event #5, but failed to cash in any of the final three tournaments. That left him watching as his closest pursuers tried to catch him in the overall standings. After Ausmus busted, Mateos said he had held a large lead for a long time, but that the pressure was especially intense in the final three events. He won the Purple Jacket race despite bubbling five times in ten tournaments; Mateos himself called that run almost unbelievable.
Igor Yaroshevskyy finished third for $248,000. Before the final, he had failed to cash in any of the series’ previous nine events. His tournament ended after another cooler against Winter: Yaroshevskyy made bottom two pair, but Winter flopped Broadway—the highest possible straight, from ace to ten. The chips went in on the turn, and the river brought no improvement for Yaroshevskyy.
Winter held the advantage over Laskowitz in heads-up play. Laskowitz managed to even things up within four hands, but could not take the lead, and Winter gradually extended his advantage. The final hand was another cooler: Laskowitz made top pair, while Winter had two pair. They got it in on the turn, and a safe river card gave Winter the win. Laskowitz received $387,500.
Winter and Laskowitz know each other and regularly play in the same tournaments, but had never faced off one-on-one before. After the win, Winter said he respected his opponent’s game and knew he had plenty of heads-up experience.
The winner also said that taking a break from the series helped him get back to his best. He skipped the $15,000 buy-in event to reset, after which he felt more focused and began executing his plans better. Winter is known for making precise, intuitive decisions at the table, but admitted that he does not fully understand where this ability comes from and had felt it even as a child. He said such decisions are especially valuable when they help avoid hands in which a player could lose their entire stack.
After the win, Winter had not yet decided whether he would travel to upcoming stops in Cyprus and the Bahamas. He explained that he wanted to spend more time with his family and did not want to be away from home for long. The final brought Winter the tournament’s largest prize of $620,000 and a victorious finish to his Poker Masters 2026 campaign.
Commentary from the Vse-o-Pokere Editorial Team
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