February 12-14
American dollars won at the PokerGO Studio in February 2026 by Brazilian pro Yuri Dzivielevski.
-
1ST
Yuri Dzivielevski
$1,300,000
-
2ND
Chad Eveslage
$835,000
-
3RD
Benny Glaser
$570,000
-
4TH
Robert Wells
$415,000
-
5TH
Tobias Leknes
$300,000
-
6TH
Jared Bleznick
$225,000
-
7TH
Nick Schulman
$155,000
Yuri Dzivielevski knows a lot about variance from 15 years as a professional poker player.
"I think good things and bad things happen to everyone," he told us.
What we just saw from the Brazilian pro at the PokerGO Studio is one of the good things. Since the beginning of February, Dzivielevski has won two tournaments and finished second in two more, adding up more than $2 million in winnings.
The first three were part of his award-winning run in the PGT Mixed Games series, fronted by a win in the $15,000 Big Bet. It was the fifth of seven events in the series and Yuri's first cash of the year. Dzivielevski returned for the next heat and finished second in the $15K Dealer's Choice, ahead of Chad Eveslage and behind Qinghai Pan. He would close out the series as runner-up to Brian Rast in the $25K Mixed Games Championship and lift the overall leaderboard trophy with $312K for the second-place finish.
PGT's Mixed Games series led right into the $100,000 Super High Roller Bowl Championship, and 38 entries lined up to increase last year's field by nine. Yuri would go on to win that, too, and close out the week of weeks with an extra $1.3 million.
The best of runs, the worst of runs
It's a far cry from this summer, where Dzivielevski had what he would admit is a poor showing at the WSOP. He put in the volume and cashed plenty of times, but there were no deep, memorable runs like in year's past.
"Complete opposite of this run right now," as he describes it. "But it's just part of variance. I've played for such a long time, in 15 years I've been through all types of runs. The worst runs in the world, the best runs in the world."
So how does he weather the storm and survive in the game to see times like this?
"I'm a Christian, so all the time I'm always thinking about that this is not what defines me and I'm always thinking how can I be like a copy of Jesus every day."
There's a heavy dose of self awareness, too.
"Of course I also have an ego. I also make a lot of mistakes. But it makes me like more grounded and I would say less delusional. My ego will not explode just because I won these things.
It's just my job and I'm enjoying the ride and I'm super grateful to be living this and for the opportunity. That's the thing. I always focus on the day after day and not being delusional."
Yuri is likely to return for the PGT PLO Series in March, which will make a jump over to Venetian for eight Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments. He also plans on coming to this summer's WSOP for the long haul. For now, it's back to Brazil and probably straight to the online poker grind. After all, consistency is key.
"I'm going to keep doing the same thing, like studying, playing, trying to play every day."
Images courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO.
