Sean Winter Wins Poker Masters $25,000 High Roller For $432,000

The penultimate event of the 2022 Poker Masters high roller series saw six of the most accomplished tournament players in the game survive to day 2. Between them, the final six had more than $178 in combined prior tournament earnings, with multiple World Series of Poker bracelets, World Poker Tour championships, and Super High Roller Bowl rings among their noteworthy victories.

In the end, it was Sean Winter who emerged victorious from this stacked final table, earning $432,000 as the champion of the $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event. Winter topped a field of 54 total entries, securing $432,000 for the win. The score saw him increase his career earnings to more than $22.9 million.

This title run came just a couple of days after Winter finished as the runner-up in event no. 7, another $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament. With this latest victory and that second-place finish, Winter has climbed into the outright lead in the race for the Poker Masters Purple Jacket. He has accrued 466 total PokerGO Tour points during the series, and 2,227 throughout the year. The latter figure is enough to place him sixth in the PGT points race.

Winter also scored 420 Card Player Player of the Year points in this event. This was his third title and 16th POY-qualified final-table finish of the year. With 5,198 points and more than $3.4 million in year-to-date POY earnings, he now sits in second place in the 2022 POY race standings. He trails current leader Stephen Chidiwck by 979 points.

The top eight finishers made the money in this event, but Victoria Livschitz (8th - $54,000) and Daniel Colpoys (7th – $67,500) were eliminated late on day 1 to see just six players remain heading into day 2. All-time money leader Justin Bonomo came into the day with the chip lead, putting him in a great position to add to his more than $59.5 million in prior earnings in a major way.

Bracelet winner Jason Koon started the day in the middle of the pack, but was ultimately the first to be eliminated. He had run his stack up in the early going, but lost a big flip against Winter to fall back down the leaderboard. Just minutes later, he got all-in with AQ against the AQ of three-time bracelet winner and WPT champion Nick Schulman. The board brought four diamonds to give Schulman a winning flush, sending Koon to the rail in sixth place ($81,000). He now has more than $40.7 million in career scores to his name, good for seventh on the earnings leaderboard.

Koon also scored enough rankings points to move into third place in the PGT standings and 20th in the POY race. He has made 14 final tables this year, with more than $5.3 million in POY earnings accrued along the way.

Five-time bracelet winner and Super High Roller Bowl winner Brian Rast called all-in from the big blind for his last 14 big blinds with K7 facing a small-blind shove from Winter, who held J9. Winter flopped an open-ended straight draw and turned a flush draw. The river completed his straight to see Rast knocked out in fifth place ($108,000). The cash increased his earnings to nearly $23.1 million.

Another battle of the blinds spelled the end of WPT champion Seth Davies’ run in this event. Davies shoved his last 10 or so big blinds from the small blind with A-5 and Bonomo called from the big blind with K-6. The flop paired the top card of both players, making Davies a big favorite to double up in the hand. The river brought another king for Bonomo, though, giving him trips and the win. Davies earned $135,000 as the fourth-place finisher, growing his lifetime earnings to nearly $17.8 million in the process. He also earned enough POY points to move into 30th on the overall leaderboard, with this being his 12th final-table finish of the year.

Bonomo took a healthy lead into three-handed play, but just a few hands after he sent Davies to the rail he found himself involved in a massive pot that dramatically altered the chip counts. Winter picked up pocket jacks in the small blind and opted to make a large raise of 4.75x the big blind. Bonomo looked down at pocket sevens and moved all in, drawing a snap call from Winter. The larger pair held up and Winter doubled into the lead. The pair clashed again, this time with a classic preflop race of A-Q suited for Bonomo facing the pocket fours of Winter. A four on the flop gave Winter a big lead in the hand, and Bonomo was drawing dead after the board paired on the turn. Bonomo earned $189,000 for his third-place showing, increasing his lifetime earnings to $59,742,821 to add to his lead on the all-time money list.

Winter took more than a 4.5:1 chip lead into heads-up play with Schulman, who was making his fourth cash and third final-table finish of the series. The pair went on to battle for around an hour. In the final hand, Winter limped in from the button with A7 and Schulman moved all-in from the big blind with K4 for just shy of 25 big blinds. The 764 connected with Schulman in a big way, but the A on the turn left him as worse than a 3:1 underdog to win the hand and double up. The 9 on the end secured the pot and the title for Winter, eliminating Schulman in second place ($283,500).

Schulman has now cashed for $473,800 across four in-the-money finishes this series, enough to move him into second place in the race for the purple jacket behind only Winter.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

Here are the current standings in the race for the Poker Masters Purple Jacket:

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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