Nick Palma Beats Adrian Mateos to Win First Career PGT Title

Love him or hate him, Nick Palma is now a PokerGO Tour (PGT) champion. The New York native, wearing a Scarface shirt, won the 2026 Poker Masters Event No. 2, a $10,500 buy-in live tournament in Las Vegas, earning $235,200 and his first PGT title.

Online poker fans can follow the action from the Poker Masters and other PGT events on the PokerGO app.

Palma topped the 84-player field and defeated the legendary Adrian Mateos heads-up to win arguably the biggest title of his career.

Speaking to PokerNews after his win, he said that he felt it was finally going to be his moment in the sun. He also feels he will soon become one of the best poker players on the planet.

Palma backs himself to become elite

Speaking to PokerNews after his win, Palma said he felt it was finally his moment in the sun. He also predicted he will soon be one of the best players on the planet.

“They weren’t going to take it from me this time,” he said. 

“In poker, you take bad beats and everything, but this time I wasn’t going to allow them to take it from me. I was going to do whatever I had to do, and there was never a doubt in my mind that I was going to beat him.

“We’re both competitors. He’s obviously a legend, but I’m a great player in my own right. I just have the confidence, and I knew I was going to win.

“I plan on being a top 10 player in this game for the next 10 to 15 years, and I’m not just saying that. I’m going to put the work in to do it.”

“I just play poker, sleep, play poker and sleep. You don’t just wake up and do that. You have to put the work in, and I’m just going to keep working.”

Chips fly at wild final table

Five players returned for the final table, with Palma starting the day in second place. The action was wild, and chips flew all over the table.

Nick Seward doubled through Palma with pocket aces against ace-king, but Palma bounced back with pocket aces in the big blind after Mateos shoved ace-eight offsuit from the small blind.

While David Coleman slowly slipped in the chip counts, Seward lost his chip lead after jamming ace-queen into Mateos’ pocket aces and then bluffing unsuccessfully into Berk’s king-high flush on the river.

With the top three players far ahead, Seward and Coleman raced to avoid finishing fifth, with Seward ultimately lost the battle.

Coleman was knocked out in fourth place a short time later, jamming queen-ten offsuit into Berk’s ace-ten suited in a blind-on-blind confrontation.

Two-hour heads-up duel ends on river

The final three players played about 30 more minutes, with Palma racing out to a huge advantage. Berk then jammed queen-jack offsuit for 17.5 big blinds into Mateos’ ace-king.

Berk flopped a queen, but Mateos turned an ace to eliminate the American and set up a very interesting heads-up battle.

Palma entered heads-up play with a 3-2 chip advantage, but it was far from quick work. The two battled for nearly two hours, and while Palma bent at times, he never gave up the chip lead.

With Mateos down to his last 12.5 big blinds, he jammed ace-nine offsuit, and Palma called with a dominated ace-six suited. The flop came ace-seven-five, but Palma runner-runnered a straight with a four on the turn and a three on the river to win his maiden PGT title.

PGT Poker Masters Event No. 2 final table results