Latvia’s Vitalijs Zavorotnijs has won Poker Masters Event #4 in Las Vegas, outlasting an 80-entry field in the $10,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament to claim a $224,000 top prize. The title is the second Poker Masters victory of Zavorotnijs’s career and came on a night that also saw Spanish star Adrian Mateos bubble the money for the third time in four events of the 2026 series, only to bounce back and win the very next event on the schedule.
Mateos Bubbles Again Before Zavorotnijs Takes Control
Poker Masters Event #4 drew 80 entries at the $10,500 price point, building a prize pool of $800,000 that paid the top 12 finishers. Before the final table even formed, the tournament produced one of the more striking storylines of the week when Adrian Mateos busted on the money bubble, his third min-cash miss in just four Poker Masters events in 2026. It was a rough stretch for a player of Mateos’s caliber, though it proved to be only a temporary setback; he went on to win Event #5 for $229,500 days later, a result Poker Pro Academy has already covered in detail.
With Mateos out of the picture early, Zavorotnijs arrived at the unofficial final table as the chip leader with five players still in contention. Despite holding the advantage on paper, the Latvian still had to navigate a final table stacked with proven high-stakes talent, including Erik Seidel, Andrew Lichtenberger and reigning Event #2 champion Nick Palma, before the title was decided.
A Full House Ends Palma’s Bid for a Second Title
The first elimination of the day came courtesy of Andrew Lichtenberger, who briefly doubled up before ultimately falling in fifth place for $56,000. Jamie Dwan was next to go, losing the bulk of his stack in a confrontation with Nick Palma before busting in fourth for $76,000. Palma himself could not convert his momentum into a run at a second Poker Masters title of the series: holding king-jack, he moved all-in after a raise and a call, and Zavorotnijs made the call and flopped a full house to end Palma’s tournament in third place for $104,000. Even in defeat, Palma’s 104 ranking points were enough, at that point in the week, to push him into the overall lead of the Poker Masters standings, a reminder of just how tightly bunched the leaderboard race had become through the first four events of the series.
A Cooler for the Ages Decides the Title
Heads-up play opened with Clemen Deng holding the chip lead over Zavorotnijs, and the Latvian needed a quick turnaround to get back into contention. Zavorotnijs rallied to seize the lead himself, only for Deng to wrestle it back moments later, setting up a decisive confrontation that would determine the champion. On a flop of queen-jack-four, both players connected hard: Deng held jack-four for two pair, while Zavorotnijs held queen-four for a matching two pair of his own. The turn brought a second four, upgrading both hands to a full house, but Zavorotnijs’s four-of-a-kind, four with a queen kicker, held the better of the two full houses over Deng’s four with a jack kicker. Deng shoved the river and received an instant call, and Zavorotnijs’s hand held to confirm the title, leaving Deng to settle for the runner-up prize of $144,000.
Full Poker Masters Event #4 Final Table Results
1st: Vitalijs Zavorotnijs, $224,000
2nd: Clemen Deng, $144,000
3rd: Nick Palma, $104,000
4th: Jamie Dwan, $76,000
5th: Andrew Lichtenberger, $56,000
6th: Erik Seidel, $40,000
7th: Sam Laskowitz, $32,000
8th: Jeremy Ausmus, $32,000
9th: Joey Weissman, $24,000
What the Title Means for the Poker Masters Standings
For Zavorotnijs, the win delivers his first in-the-money finish of the 2026 Poker Masters series and his second career title at the prestigious PokerGO Tour stop, best known on the circuit for awarding its champions the distinctive purple jacket. The 224 PokerGO Tour ranking points that came with the victory were enough to lift him into fourth place in the overall 2026 Poker Masters standings, putting him firmly in the conversation for the series’ lucrative Champion Trophy and bonus pool that go to the leaderboard winner once every event has been played.
The result also underlines just how competitive the first half of the 2026 Poker Masters schedule has been, with Palma, Mateos and now Zavorotnijs all trading leads and near-misses across the opening events. Rail-watchers studying the standings race can brush up on the underlying math of final table pay jumps and short-stack decisions, concepts covered in Poker Pro Academy’s WSOP guidewhich breaks down how ICM pressure shapes decisions in exactly these high buy-in, top-heavy payout structures.
Poker Masters continues through the rest of its 2026 slate in Las Vegas, with the series’ purple jacket and year-long bragging rights still very much up for grabs. As always, high buy-in tournament poker is a high-variance pursuit even for seasoned professionals, and it should be approached as entertainment rather than a reliable source of income. Play 18+ and responsibly.
