Sean Winter Wins Event #9 at 2022 Poker Masters for $432,000

The race for the Purple Jacket at the 2022 Poker Masters has a new frontrunner. With a $432,000 victory in Event #9: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em, Sean Winter now has 466 points and is atop the series leaderboard. There is just one final event left to play out to determine if Winter will be crowned 2022 Poker Masters champion, winning the Purple Jacket and $50,000 championship bonus.

Winter's rise to the top of the leaderboard has come thanks to a late surge, similar to what allowed him to go on to win the 2022 U.S. Poker Open. Winter finished second in Event #7: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $345,000 and 207 points to get himself on the board.

Winter defeated Nick Schulman in heads-up play in Event #9, with Schulman improving to 361 points. Schulman is now second on the 2022 Poker Masters leaderboard with one event to go.

2022 Poker Masters Event #9 Payouts

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Sean Winter	United States	$432,000
2nd	Nick Schulman	United States	$283,500
3rd	Justin Bonomo	United States	$189,000
4th	Seth Davies	United States	$135,000
5th	Brian Rast	United States	$108,000
6th	Jason Koon	United States	$81,000
7th	Dan Colpoys	United States	$67,500
8th	Victoria Livschitz	United States	$54,000

Winter's Road To Victory in Event #9

Sean Winter entered the final day of the tournament third in chips with six players remaining. He was behind only start-of-day chip leader Justin Bonomo and Seth Davies, but he wasn't behind by much.

Winter actually lost a chunk of his stack early on, doubling up Nick Schulman when his queens lost to Schulman's ace-king. Schulman then took a hit of his own when he again picked up ace-king but this time saw it go down in flames to Jason Koon's ace-four of hearts. The loss put Schulman back on the short stack, but he picked up pocket aces on the next hand and picked up a nice pot off Seth Davies.

Winter would then find a double through Koon, hitting with his ace-king against Koon's pocket nines. That put Winter in the chip lead.

Schulman built his stack back up and went to battle with Koon once again. This time, it was ace-queen versus ace-queen. The money went in preflop and Schulman four-flushed Koon out in sixth place.

Later on, Winter shoved the small blind with jack-nine of clubs against Brian Rast. Rast called with king-seven of diamonds. Winter made a straight to win the hand and knock out Rast in fifth place.

After Bonomo took out Davies in fourth, it was three-handed play between Winter, Schulman, and Bonomo. Winter had a big lead, shoved pocket fours preflop, and Bonomo called with ace-queen. Winter flopped a set and turned a full house to eliminate Bonomo.

Heads-up play began with Winter as the big leader. He had a more than 4-1 chip lead.

Schulman found an early double up to pull things closer to even, then Winter fell behind in chips as Schulman moved out in front. Winter would double up and get back into the lead when his ace-jack held against Schulman's king-queen. After that, Winter sealed the deal with ace-seven of diamonds against Schulman's king-four of spades.

Winter Moves To Top of Poker Masters Leaderboard

As mentioned, Sean Winter is now at the top of the 2022 Poker Masters leaderboard. Winter's 466 points is the best total with one event left in the series. Winter banked 207 points for his second-place finish in Event #7 and 259 points for his win in Event #9.

Winter's victory does narrow the field for those who can win the 2022 Poker Masters Purple Jacket.

2022 Poker Masters Leaderboard Top 10

Place	Player	Country	Points
1st	Sean Winter	United States	466
2nd	Nick Schulman	United States	361
3rd	Alex Livingston	Canada	291
4th	Andrew Lichtenberger	United States	279
5th	Cary Katz	United States	271
6th	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	242
7th	Martin Zamani	United States	223
8th	Adam Hendrix	United States	216
9th	Tony Bloom	United Kingdom	216
10th	Ronald Keijzer	Netherlands	203

Winter Now Sixth On PGT Leaderboard

On the season-long PokerGO Tour (PGT) leaderboard, Sean Winter improved to 2,227 points and is now in sixth place overall. On the season, Winter has 17 cashes for $3,458,327, including three victories. The 10 players in the top 10 didn't change, Winter just leaped ahead of Espen Jorstad, Danny Tang, and Daniel Dvoress.

2022 PGT Leaderboard Top 10

Place	Player	Country	Points
1st	Phil Ivey	United States	3,083
2nd	Stephen Chidwick	United Kingdom	2,998
3rd	Jason Koon	United States	2,384
4th	Alex Foxen	United States	2,356
5th	Michael Duek	Argentina	2,294
6th	Sean Winter	United States	2,227
7th	Espen Jorstad	Norway	2,192
8th	Danny Tang	Hong Kong	2,139
9th	Daniel Dvoress	Canada	2,003
10th	Mikita Badziakouski	Belarus	1,936

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