October 2026 Poker Recap: Every Major Tournament Winner and the Stories Behind the Wins

October is usually the month the poker calendar shifts into high gear, and 2026 was no exception. In four weeks we saw a seven-figure Super High Roller Bowl, ten different champions at the Poker Masters, record-breaking fields in Taipei, and a Melbourne final that felt like it came out of a movie script.

Some winners were familiar names adding to already huge résumés. Others were first-timers who finally broke through after years of near-misses. And a few pulled off comebacks that will be talked about for a long time.

Here’s a full recap of every major tournament winner from October 2026: how much they won, how they won it, and why it matters.

October 2026 at a Glance

Event	Winner	Prize
Super High Roller Bowl XI ($100K)	Brandon Wilson 🇺🇸	$1,125,000
Super High Roller Bowl PLO ($100K)	Sean Rafael 🇺🇸	$1,150,000
Poker Masters Purple Jacket	Adrian Mateos 🇪🇸	Series title
Poker Masters Event #10 ($51K)	Sean Winter 🇺🇸	$620,000
Poker Masters Event #9 ($26K)	Nick Seward 🇺🇸	$412,500
TMT Championship Main Event	Lester Edoc 🇵🇭	~$146,440
Victorian Poker Championship Main Event	Hun Wei Lee 🇦🇺	AUD 350,000
WSOPC Malta Main Event	Luca Topazio 🇮🇹	€200,000
WSOPC Turning Stone Main Event	Kyle Grupp 🇺🇸	$246,362
PGT Sprint Event #1	Chino Rheem 🇺🇸	$119,600

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Brandon Wilson Finally Gets His Seven-Figure Trophy

Super High Roller Bowl XI · October 8–10 · PokerGO Studio, Las Vegas

Brandon Wilson came into the $100,000 Super High Roller Bowl with three million-dollar scores already on his record, but none of them came with a trophy. That changed on October 10.

Only 28 players bought in, creating a $2.8 million prize pool, but it was arguably the toughest field of the month. Wilson nearly didn’t make it: on Day 2 he was one card away from busting on the money bubble. He survived, built momentum, and reached heads-up against Nick Petrangelo.

The deciding moment came when Petrangelo fired three barrels in a big pot. Wilson made the river call, and the title was his.

Place	Player	Prize
1st	Brandon Wilson	$1,125,000
2nd	Nick Petrangelo	$700,000
3rd	Alex Foxen	$450,000
4th	Jeremy Ausmus	$310,000
5th	Adrian Mateos	$215,000

Why it matters: This was Wilson’s sixth PokerGO Tour title and his biggest yet. His career live earnings are now around $17.8 million. It was later revealed that the two finalists had agreed a heads-up deal, so the actual amounts were $950,440 for Wilson and $874,560 for Petrangelo.

Days earlier, in the $100,000 PLO edition, local pro Sean Rafael beat Joao Simao heads-up for $1,150,000, the single biggest payday of the month.

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Poker Masters 2026: Ten Events, Ten Different Champions

October 12–23 · PokerGO Studio, Las Vegas

It’s rare for a ten-event high roller series to produce ten different winners, but that’s exactly what happened at this year’s Poker Masters. With so much talent and so little repetition, the Purple Jacket race stayed close until the last day.

Event	Buy-in	Winner	Prize
#1	$10,500	Myles Mullaly	$218,400
#2	$10,500	Nick Palma	$235,200
#3	$10,500	Joey Weissman	$218,400
#4	$10,500	Vitalijs Zavorotnijs	$224,000
#5	$10,500	Adrian Mateos	$229,500
#6	$10,500	Justin Vaysman	$192,000
#7	$15,700	Jeremy Ausmus	$278,400
#8	$15,700	Keith Lehr	$277,200
#9	$26,000	Nick Seward	$412,500
#10	$51,000	Sean Winter	$620,000

The Comeback of the Month: Justin Vaysman

If you only read one story from this series, make it this one. With five players left in Event #6, Pennsylvania pro Justin Vaysman had just 20,000 chips with blinds at 40,000/80,000. That’s a quarter of a big blind, and most players would have mentally packed their bags.

Vaysman didn’t. He doubled, doubled again, and climbed all the way to heads-up against Sean Winter, one of the best tournament players in the world. On the final hand, Winter moved all in on the turn with a flush draw and a gutshot. The river ten filled up Vaysman’s full house, and he had his first PGT title and $192,000.

Lesson for every player: A chip and a chair is real. Even when you’re nearly out, the right double-ups at the right time can change everything.

Nick Seward Denies Daniel Negreanu

Event #9 ($26,000) had the feel of a Negreanu victory lap. Poker’s most famous player started the final table as chip leader and won several big pots early in heads-up play.

But 2024 bracelet winner Nick Seward, who grew up watching Negreanu on TV, stayed patient. A rivered full house against Negreanu’s rivered flush swung the match. On the final hand, Negreanu three-bet all in with K-10 and Seward called with K-J. The better kicker held, giving Seward $412,500 and his first PGT title.

Mateos Wins the Purple Jacket Despite Five Bubbles

Adrian Mateos had one of the strangest series imaginable. He bubbled five events, finishing just outside the money each time. But a win in Event #5, a runner-up finish to Palma in Event #2, and fourth place in Event #7 were enough to finish on 451 points and claim the Purple Jacket as series champion.

Final Purple Jacket standings (top three):

1. Adrian Mateos – 451 points
2. Nick Palma – 407 points
3. Nick Seward

Sean Winter Closes It Out

Winter, the Event #6 runner-up, bounced back to win the $51,000 finale for $620,000. It was his second PGT title of the season and pushed him to 2,223 points, making him the first player to pass 2,000 this year and the clear favourite for 2026 PGT Player of the Year.

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Lester Edoc Conquers a Record Field in Taipei

TMT Championship Main Event · Ended October 26 · CTP Asia Poker Arena, Taipei

Asia’s live poker boom continued in Taipei, where the TMT Championship Main Event drew a record 1,418 entries. That’s 32% more than last year, even though Typhoon Champi cancelled nearly 1,000 flights during the opening days.

At the end, it was Filipino veteran Lester Edoc, already the holder of a record 21 Asian Poker Tour titles, who lifted the trophy after a three-way ICM deal.

Place	Player	Prize (TWD)	Prize (USD)
1st	Lester Edoc 🇵🇭	4,757,400	~$146,440
2nd	Aditya Agarwal 🇮🇳	4,162,400	~$128,130
3rd	Kuan Ying Chen 🇹🇼	774,000	~$23,750

A family double: Just one day earlier, Edoc’s wife Ferlyn won the TMT Ladies Event. It’s not often a husband and wife win titles at the same festival in the same week.

A big result for India: Aditya Agarwal‘s runner-up finish, worth about $128,000, is one of the strongest results by an Indian player in Asia this year. It’s a reminder that Indian talent is increasingly competitive on the international circuit.

Hun Wei Lee Beats His Childhood Idol in Melbourne

Victorian Poker Championship Main Event · Ended October 27 · Crown Melbourne

Sometimes poker writes its own scripts. The AUD 2,500 Main Event drew 715 entries and an AUD 1,573,000 prize pool, and it came down to two Australians with a personal connection.

On one side was Hun Wei “Andy” Lee, a PLO specialist and WSOP bracelet winner who came into the final table with nearly a quarter of the chips in play. On the other was Joe Hachem, the 2005 WSOP Main Event champion and the man Lee credits with getting him into poker.

Their heads-up battle lasted more than two hours. Hachem kept surviving, until Lee hit a set on the river with pocket jacks to take the title.

Speaking afterwards, Lee called Hachem the godfather of Australian poker and said beating him heads-up was a dream come true. He added that it felt even better than his $469,922 Aussie Millions $25K Challenge win in May.

Hachem had a strong festival too, winning the A$1,250 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event earlier in the series, only the seventh tournament win of his career.

WSOP Circuit: Three New Ring Winners

Luca Topazio – WSOPC Malta (October 4)

Malta hosted its first-ever WSOP Circuit Main Event, and it was a big success: 879 entries created a €1,115,451 prize pool. Italy’s Luca Topazio took the €200,000 first prize and a $5,000 WSOP Paradise package.

The win came 16 years after Topazio’s career-defining €190,000 Italian Poker Tour victory. That result remained his biggest score until this one.

Spare a thought for runner-up Radoslaw Kopec of Poland (€125,000). He also finished second at WSOPC Middelkerke last year. That’s two straight Circuit Main Event finals, and two heads-up losses.

Kyle Grupp – WSOPC Turning Stone (October 26)

New York’s Kyle Grupp turned his home casino into the site of his biggest win. The $1,700 Main Event drew 996 entries and a $1,508,940 prize pool, comfortably beating the $1 million guarantee.

Grupp was down 2-to-1 in chips heads-up against Joel Cattelane but fought back. On the final hand, his J-9 made a pair of nines on a K-9-7-T-2 board, which was enough to beat Cattelane’s A-3.

Prize: $246,362, his first WSOPC ring and a WSOP Paradise package. Three years earlier, Grupp went into the final table of this same event as chip leader but finished fourth, so this win carried extra meaning.

Salvador Sala Garcia – WSOPC Madrid Mini Main

The WSOP Circuit’s first-ever stop in Spain opened at Casino Gran Vía, and Salvador Sala Garcia won the first ring after a four-flight €300 Mini Main Event. The Madrid Main Event champion will be crowned on November 1.

Chino Rheem Starts the PGT Sprint With a Win

PGT Sprint Event #1 · October 27 · PokerGO Studio

At 46, Chino Rheem shows no signs of slowing down. He beat a 92-entry field in the $5,300 opener for $119,600 and his 10th career PGT title. The key moment was a brave river call with pocket tens against Andrew Lichtenberger’s 9♣5♣ bluff. His career earnings are now past $20.3 million.

Other Notable October Winners

Event	Winner	Prize
WPT Prime Cyprus Championship	Ivelin Kolev 🇧🇬	$171,600
MSPT Spade Poker Championship	Umut Ozturk	$280,290
RGPS Hard Rock Tulsa Main Event	Eric Bunch 🇺🇸	$50,173 (5th RunGood ring)
WSOPC Turning Stone Mini Main	Khaled Aljoma	$102,251
Oktoberfest Namur Main Event	Andy Verhelst 🇧🇪	Deal
Oktoberfest Namur High Roller	Cees van de Griendt 🇳🇱	Deal
TMT TWD 100K High Roller	Nevan Chang 🇹🇼	–

Biggest Paydays of October 2026

Rank	Player	Event	Prize
1	Sean Rafael	SHRB $100K PLO	$1,150,000
2	Brandon Wilson	SHRB XI	$1,125,000
3	Sean Winter	Poker Masters #10	$620,000
4	Nick Seward	Poker Masters #9	$412,500
5	Umut Ozturk	MSPT Championship	$280,290
6	Jeremy Ausmus	Poker Masters #7	$278,400
7	Keith Lehr	Poker Masters #8	$277,200
8	Kyle Grupp	WSOPC Turning Stone	$246,362
9	Luca Topazio	WSOPC Malta	€200,000

What We Learned From October

1. Patience still wins. Vaysman came back from a quarter of a big blind. Grupp came back from a 2-to-1 deficit heads-up. Wilson was one card from busting before winning $1.1 million. The players who didn’t panic were the ones holding trophies.

2. First-time winners are everywhere. Mullaly, Palma, Vaysman and Seward all won their first PGT titles in the same month. The high roller scene is getting deeper, and new names keep breaking through.

3. Asian poker is booming. A record field at the TMT Championship, despite a typhoon, shows how fast the Asian live scene is growing. With the $5 million guaranteed APT Championship starting in Taipei on November 13, that momentum looks set to continue.

4. Consistency beats one big win. Mateos took the Purple Jacket with just one win, because his other deep runs added up. Good bankroll management and steady results matter as much as hitting one big score.

Coming Up in November 2026

Dates	Event	Location
Until November 4	PGT Sprint (Events #2–#7)	Las Vegas
November 1	WSOPC Madrid Main Event final day	Madrid
November 6–15	WSOP Circuit Middelkerke	Belgium
November 7–16	Joker Poker Series (€400K GTD)	Milan
November 13–29	APT Championship ($5M GTD Main Event)	Taipei
November 17–29	Circus Poker Series (€2M GTD)	Namur
November 20–30	WSOP Circuit Sanremo	Italy

We’ll be covering all of them, so check back for results as they happen.

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