Nick Palma beats Adrian Mateos to win first PGT title at Poker Masters

And neither player disappointed as they battled hard for the better part of two hours. When the dust finally cleared, it was the New York native who topped the podium – taking home $235,200 and his first PGT title. 

If you want to watch the entire replay of the final table, scroll down and click the play button – or, read on for a recap of the action. 

Seward out first, Coleman and Berk follow

Despite the short-handed nature of the final table, it was a lengthy affair – with the first elimination arriving over one and a half hours into proceedings. 

After slipping down in the counts to become the table short stack, it was Seward who went out first. In a clash with Mateos, he lost all but 5K of his chips as his was no good against the Spaniard's on a runout. Mateos left him with the lone chip to increase the pressure on the rest of the table, but it went in on the next hand anyways and Seward was unable to initiate the spin up process. 

Coleman followed suit soon after, taking a stand with in a blind versus blind confrontation with Berk. Unfortunately for Coleman, Berk found in the small blind and had an easy call as the covering stack. 

In 2025, David Coleman secured the Poker Masters purple jacket with $657,000 in earnings across the series.

The flop brought a gutshot straight draw for Coleman, but the turn and river were bricks. 

When three-handed play began, Mateos was the short stack out of the trio while Berk and Palma were essentially neck-and-neck. 

In a key hand between the two top dogs, Palma rivered the nut straight with on an board. Berk took a creative line on the river in the face of Palma's river bet, turning his into a bluff with a chunky raise. The ensuing jam from Palma left Berk on a short stack and his demise came soon after in a blind versus blind clash with Mateos. 

From the small blind, Berk shoved his last 17 big blinds with and Mateos had an easy call with . The flop was all Berk, but the turn flipped the script to restore Mateos' lead. Berk retained several outs headed into the river, but the wasn't one of them and his run came to an end in third place. 

SPECIAL OFFERS

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Mateos vs. Palma: The bout of the year

When play reached the heads-up stage, it was a battle between two players with drastically different table presences. Palma, loud and unyielding, held the chip lead. Mateos, quiet and calculating, trailed – but he was far from out of it. 

With just over 100 big blinds in play to start the battle, it was never going to be a short-lived affair. In the early goings, Mateos clawed his way back to level the stacks and even held the chip lead for a brief time – until Palma picked off a bluff to give himself some distance. With the board reading , Mateos fired in an overbet with just queen-high, trying to buy the pot. Palma, with , weighed his options and settled on a call. 

It was a hard-fought battle, but Adrian Mateos couldn't overcome Nick Palma in Event #2 of the PGT Poker Masters.

It wasn't over there, however. Mateos had a lot more fight in him and hung around to test his opponent's patience. Still, Palma was the one dragging in the majority of pots – until a key clash saw Mateos score a full double. 

With plenty of chips to spare, Palma moved all-in with from the button. Mateos found and, despite Palma's pleas for a two-outer, his hand held up across the runout. 

The two were roughly even on chips following that hand and Mateos built on the momentum to take the chip lead – but his advantage didn't last long. In the face of a limp from Palma, he moved all-in with and ran smack dab into the New Yorker's . The runout was as clean as it gets and Palma took control of the largest chip lead of the battle. 

Despite a little more fight from Mateos, the end came soon after. Both players picked up an ace-high holding and it was off to the races. Palma had the inferior kicker, but it was that card that delivered him the win as he made a straight on the river to close it out. 

^{Images courtesy of Antonio Abrego/PokerGO Tour}