Adrian Mateos is only 27, but he’s already put together one of the best live tournament poker resumes in the game. His last major win saw him defeat a field of 33 total entries in the 2021. World Series of Poker $ 250,000 buy-in in no-limit hold’em high roller, which earned him his fourth career gold bracelet and the highest career salary of $ 3,265,362.

With that score, Mateos increased his lifetime earnings in live tournament play to $ 25,945,482. Not only is he the current leader of the all-time winners list in Spain, but Mateos has more than twice the winnings from the closest competition to Sergio Aido ($ 12,751,563). His previous biggest score came when he won the 2013 WSOP Europe main event for $ 1,379,300 at just 18 years old.

Mateos has already reached two final tables in events with buy-ins of a quarter of a million or more, but has finished fifth each time.

“It means a lot,” said Mateos when asked to win the prestigious event. “I played around $ 100,000 [buy-in] tournaments and even the $ 1,000,000 buy-in, and I’ve never won a big buy-in like this. So that was something I had in mind, winning one of them.

“The most important thing for me is to feel that I am among the best in players and tournaments,” said Mateos after winning. “The feeling of being able to compete with the best of the best is what motivated me to stay here and I will continue to do my best to continue to perform well in high buy-in tournaments.”

The final day started with Mateos in the lead, with his 25.5 million representing over 100 big blinds when the action from Day 3 resumed with five players remaining. The money bubble burst late on day 2, with 2017 Super High Roller Bowl champion Christoph Vogelsang being the last player to finish out of the money.

Bracelet winner Keith Tilston was the first to fall, with his A3 run in the Aten by John Kincaid. Kincaid opened and then called Tilston’s three-bet shove. Kincaid drew a queens’ straight on the river to win the pot and send Tilston home with $ 632,124 for fifth place.

Poker world tour Seth Davies fell to the bottom of the chip count in a four-way action. He got the last of his stack preflop, jumping from the small blind with A7 for just under nine big blinds. Ben Heath called from the big blind with JJ. The pocket pair held up and Davies was knocked out in fourth place ($ 930,791).

Although he didn’t score either of the first two knockouts, Mateos remained the chip leader before the three-way game. He briefly gave up the lead after losing a pre-flop run with AJ suited to Heath’s threes. His move to second chip position was short lived, as less than 15 minutes later he landed AA against 99 by John Kincaid. The chips went preflop and Mateos made full aces of queens to send Kincaid to rail in third place ($ 1,370,575).

Mateos took a roughly 3-2 chip lead in the heads-up with Heath looking for his second WSOP bracelet after winning the 2019 $ 50,000 buy-in high roller no limit hold’em. He quickly extended his advantage to almost 4-1 in time for the final hand of the event.

Mateos was limping from the Q buttonten for 400,000 and Heath raised to 1,400,000 from the big blind holding 53. Mateos called and the flop fell 765. Heath checked-called a 1,000,000 bet with his lower pair, gutshot and backdoor flush possibilities. The Q on the turn gave the top pair to Mateos.

Heath checked a second time and Mateos shot 2,800,000. Heath called and the 2 complete the table. Heath checked a third time and Mateos moved all in. Heath thought about it before paying for his last 5,050,000 pairs with a fourth pair, only to be shown the queens of Mateos. Heath took home $ 2,018,148 as a finalist, the highest score of his career. The money increased his real income to just under $ 10.8 million.

Mateos won 480 Card player Player of the Year points for victory. It was his second title and his fourth POY-qualified final table of the year. He now sits in 127th place in 2021 POY race, which is sponsored by Global Poker. He also got 600 PokerGO Tour points. With 994 points in total, he now occupies 33rd place in this ranking.

Here’s a look at the wins and ranking points awarded at the final table: