Keith Lehr Pulls Off a River Miracle to Win Poker Masters Event #8

Sometimes, the title of a poker tournament is earned by patience, and sometimes it happens due to only one miraculous card on the river.

The 62-year-old player from Bossier City, Louisiana, took home the victory at Event #8 of the 2026 Poker Masters that took place at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. The tournament saw him take home the second PokerGO Tour title worth $277,200, and the lucky turn of events had to happen to him.

Keith Lehr is not new to big tournaments: two WSOP bracelets, over 117 cash games, and over $6.3 million of earnings in live poker tournaments belong to him. However, his last PGT victory goes back as far as 2018, and this is a pot-limit Omaha event at this same festival. Obviously, he could hardly contain himself seeing how long it took him to return to the winner’s side.

Tough competition from the beginning

The buy-in fee cost $15,000 and there were 56 participants who included 17 re-entries for $840,000 prize pool. Only eight players got paid, and among those sitting at the final table there were quite

Favorites fall quickly

The favorite in this tournament was clearly Sam Soverel. He is the current record holder in terms of PGT titles – he has 17 wins. But this time, Soverel did not manage to win again. He started out with king-queen, his opponent Lehr was sleeping at this moment and woke up with ace-king, and the ten-high board made Soverel exit the tournament in fifth place with $67,200 in hand.

The next elimination was Nicholas Seward. He got king-ten on a blind versus blind situation, and went all in against Justin Vaysman’s pocket aces. Seward had a top pair with a gutshot on the flop, but no cards hit the turn and river, and Seward was out in fourth place with $84,000.

This is a great story for the week for Justin Vaysman. Just two days ago, he won Event #6 having been down to a quarter of a big blind. He continued his run here, but his ace-six shoved failed against Zavorotnijs’s pocket tens. He made a straight draw on the turn, missed on the river, and finished third for $117,600.

The hand everybody would remember

Heads-Up started off with Zavorotnijs being a chip leader, with almost double of what Lehr had in his stack. But Lehr managed to balance the stacks when he held pocket kings versus pocket fours, and it all came down to one hand.

Zavorotnijs opened the action on the button with ace-jack. Lehr raised from the big blind with king-queen, while Zavorotnijs called. The flop brought queen, ten, five with two spades. Thus, Lehr had top pair, while Zavorotnijs had a gutshot draw and nut flush draw. Lehr bet, and Zavorotnijs called.

Next card turned out to be king of spades. Now Lehr had two top pairs. Zavorotnijs got a nut straight with royal flush draw. Lehr bet again. Zavorotnijs made an all-in bet of 2.2 million, and Lehr called.

Zavorotnijs was a huge favorite going into the river. Lehr needed only two outs. The dealer burned the card and flipped over the queen of hearts. So Lehr had a full house, and the title.

Unfortunately for Zavorotnijs, it was not the most pleasant way to become runner-up. But he did manage to earn $176,400 and became third in Purple Jacket competition.

Final results

1st: Keith Lehr, $277,200

 2nd: Vitalijs Zavorotnijs, $176,400

 3rd: Justin Vaysman, $117,600

 4th: Nicholas Seward, $84,000

 5th: Sam Soverel, $67,200

 6th: Nick Palma, $50,400

 7th: Daniyal Gheba, $33,600

 8th: Jeremy Ausmus, $33,600

Purple Jacket chase

Adrian Mateos leads the Player of the Series contest with 451 points after just two more stops in the series. Palma trails him in second with 407 while Zavorotnijs is third with 365. Thanks to his victory, Lehr is now in eighth with 265 points. The winner will receive the legendary Purple Jacket along with a $25,000 PGT Passport.

So far there have been as many winners as there have been tournaments in the series. Myles Mullaly, Palma, Joey Weissman, Zavorotnijs, Mateos, Vaysman, Ausmus and now Lehr have all won an event.

What’s coming next

The tournament worth $26,000, Event #9, will take place today, while the $51,000 final will take place till October 23. The latter is the highest value tournaments of the series, and therefore there is still much that can happen to the leaderboard. After the end of Poker Masters, PGT Sprint will start on October 27 and consist of seven single-day events.

But right now the winner is Keith Lehr. He waited eight years for this victory, and in the end it took only one queen.

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