2025 Pure Poker Tour Series #4 – Event #14: $1,100 NLH Main Event

Kris Steinbach jumped into a big lead on the final hand of the night, after a big cooler over Deven Lane. Lane had about 170k going into the hand, with four other players short, and it turned into a nightmare cooler for Lane with his tens capped by queens.

That gave Steiner 802k, with Pav Braich bagging stack #2 worth 654k. Colten Yamagishi, Aman Dhaliwal, and Hugh Armstrong round out the top five counts from 1a.

Day 1a Chip Counts

After short stacks doubled for a couple of hours, Deven Lane raised to 22k with pocket tens from the small blind, then faced a shove from Kris Steinbach in the big with queens. Steinbach had him covered, and it looked for all the world like Steiner might be making an ICM play to force Lane off the hand, given that there were several short stacks still in the mix.

Lane called it off, but couldn’t find the cards he needed to stay alive, ending the night and leaving a few short stacks breathing a sigh of relief.

Stay tuned for the final 13 stacks from 1a.

Nick Milkovish was forced all in from the big blind, and Kris Steinbach and Matthew Ouellette both called to put him at risk. There was no side pot as the two active players checked through the 9♦6♦5♠8♥3♥.

Steiner showed four-three for a pair of threes, but Milkovich, who hadn’t looked at his hand yet, turned over a nine-four for the bigger pair and got a triple plus.

Nick Milkovich is now the short stack on Table 3 after Matthew Ouellette shoved with aces, and he called with eights and a bit more. Ouellete smashed a set on the flop, and Milkovich was dead on the turn. Kyle Bonazzo is still on fumes on Table 1 as well

Murray Hicks just gave himself a bit of breathing room after he got his short stack in with pocket tens. He got calls from Hugh Armstrong and Colten Yamagishi, but he flopped a set of tens to survive with a triple.

There are three players most at risk of being the bubble tonight. Kyle Bonazzo is the shortest with around 30k, while Murray Hicks and defending champion Matthew Ouellette have in the 60k range now.

Kris Steinbach opened the middle to 16k, and Aman Dhaliwal, Fran Fisher, and Nick Milkovich all called to see K♠10♥7♠. Milkovich checked his big blind before Steiner put out 15k.

Everyone called to the 8♣ turn. It checked to Fisher on the button, and she bet 20k. Milkovich folded, but both Steiner and Dhaliwal contributed to see 6♦ on the river. The action checked around, and Steinbach showed queen-nine for the ten-high straight.

“Double gutty,” he said of the turn call. “I think I was getting the right price.”

Ryan Comely was the soft bubble tonight, ending his day in 15th place. That leaves 14 players left with 13 bags available, so the clock is paused for hand-for-hand play until the next elimination ends the night.

Aaron Syrenne limped in under the gun before Colten Yamagishi made it 34k to go from his left, for the second hand in a row. Pav Braich pumped that up to 60k next to act, and after a long tank-fold from short stack Kyle Bonazzo, the rest of the table also folded to send the pot to Braich.

Eric Dunham opened to 12k early, and Nick Milkovich called from the cutoff. Kris Steinbach was in the big blind, and he three-bet to 37k.

Dunham shoved, Milkovich folded, and Steiner called it off with a similarly sized stack. Steiner had A♠A♥ against Q♦Q♣ for Dunham. Dunham turned a club draw, but bricked the rest of the board. When the stacks were counted, he had about 10k less than Steiner, so he was out in 16th tonight.

Kyle Bonazzo shoved his 46k, and Murray Hicks called off with more from his left. Bonazzo had king-jack, but was in bad shape against pocket jacks for Hicks. Bonazzo found his three-outer on the flop, however, and held to double to more than 100k while Hicks is down to about 140k.

Aman Dhaliwal is the chip leader right now with 384k, while Deven Lane is the only other player with more than 300k.

They are down to 16 players left in Day 1a after Michael Bernstein and Eric Wasylenko recently hit the rail. The remaining players will be in a break in about a minute, and I’ll update the chips while they are away.

They are down to 18 players left on the final two tables now, with Francis Fan and Zeyu Huang as the recent busts. That puts them 5 players away from the bags tonight, with about 10 minutes to play in Level 15.

With this pace, it looks like Day 1a will end late in Level 16, or early Level 17, but there’s still a fair bit of poker to play before the end of the night.

Colten Yamagishi raised to 10k under the gun, and it folded around to Hugh Armstrong in the big blind, who called. “Thanks,” said Yamagishi with a smile.

Armstrong checked the K♣8♥Q♦ flop, then said “What the fuck is that?” when Yamagishi toseed out a 5k chip. Armstrong put a 5k chip beside it.

“I dunno, what’s that?” asked Yamagishi. They both checked it through the 2♣A♦ runout.

“Nuts!” said Armstrong, showing queen-jack for flopped second pair.

“You had exactly what I thought you had,” said Yamagishi.

They are six off the bags now, with 19 players left in the game. Aaron Syrenne just picked up a small-ish pot with jacks, but he had to do it in an unconventional fashion.

Eric Wasylenko opened the action early to 8k, and Syrenne called from his left, as did Zeyu Huang from the big blind. They all checked the A♦Q♦10♠ flop, and Huang led for [invalid notations] turn.

Both players called to the K♦ river, where they went back to checks. Syrenne was the last to act, but showed pocket jacks for the rivered Broadway straight as he checked, and the other two players mucked their hands.

Murray Hicks raised to 8k under the gun, and Dennis Cleaver called from his left. They saw the J♥3♣9♠ flop heads-up, and Hicks check-called for 12k, but when the turn came J♦ Hicks fired his cards to the middle before Cleaver even had a chance to act.

Defending champion Matthew Ouellette was down to 41.5k, which he shoved from the big blind after an under-the-gun raise to 8k from Michael “Berny” Bernstein and a button call from Aman Dhaliwal. Berny reshoved with more, and Dhaliwal got out of the way.

Michael “Berny” Bernstein: A♣Q♦
Matthew Ouellette: A♠K♣

Ouellette had the best ace with big slick into ace-queen, and the king played on a board of 4♣10♣2♦5♥10♣. The hand put Ouellette up over 100k, but left Berny short.

Murray Hicks limped in early, and Alemu Makonen completed from the small blind before Colten Yamagishi checked his big. It checked to Hicks on the K♦A♠6♠ flop, and he fired 6.5k. Makonen called, while Yamagishi mucked.

The turn was 2♥, and Makonen check-called for 17k to see 10♥ on the river. Makonen checked again, but then tank-folded to a bet of 50k, which was most of his remaining stack at that point.

“Top Pair no good, eh?” he said as he mucked his hand. “That’s what you’re saying …”

They are down to 26 players remaining, 13 off the bags now, with about 15 minutes to play until the next break following this level.

They are down to 28 players remaining in Day 1a, with about 20 minutes to play in Level 12. That puts them 15 off the bags for tonight, with the night scheduled to finish with 13 players remaining.

They are down to 35 players left in Day 1a now, with Level 11 just beginning. They’ll play until they hit 12.5% of the field, which should be 13 players. That puts them 22 off the bags.

Entries are now closed for Day 1a of the Main Event, with 103 entries on the board at the end of dinner. That number is still unofficial, but if it holds, it will mean 13 bags later tonight, with $96,872 going into the Day 2 prizes.

The 1a prizes are now over $95k with 102 entries on the board, and about 10 minutes to go until entries are closed for today’s flight. I had a look around the room over the dinner break, and it looks like Aman Dhaliwal is the chip leader right now with almost 200k in front of him, but there are a few other players in the 100k range with him.

Level 9 is just underway, and the field is now at 98 entries for prizes of more than $92k. It seems likely they’ll get at least two more entries before the desk shuts down in about 75 minutes, so a field of 100+ seems like a lock at this point.

The players are into the final three levels of entry for the opening flight to the Main Event, and the prize pool is now over $80k with 86 entries on the board. There are just under 30 minutes left in Level 7, which puts the end of entries about 2.5 hours away.

The prizes are nearly at $75k now with 79 entries on the board. Level 6 has about 15 minutes to play before the second break of Day 1a. When they return for Level 7, there will be 3 levels of entry, plus the dinner break, before the reg-desk closes for the opening flight.

The current pace is still looking like a decent bet for 100+ entries today. If they make it to 100 entries, that would be prizes of just shy of $95k, and a field of 107 entries today would put the 1a prizes over $100k. In July, Day 1a got 137 entries for prizes of $128,849, but that number looks a little out of reach today.

With about 20 minutes to play in Level 4, the field is now at 59 entries for prizes of $55,490. There are still more than 4.5 hours left to enter today’s flight, so a final field number that flirts with 100 entries is still looking reasonable.

About 10 minutes remain in Level 3, and the field is at 50 entries for prizes of more than $47k. There are just under 5.5 hours left to get into today’s flight, so a 1a final field of 100+ is looking pretty doable.

Level 3 is about to start, and the field is over 40 entries to start the level. The prizes are nearing $40k with 41 entries on the board. At the current pace, it looks like today’s field should easily surpass 70 entries, and could push towards 100.

There have been some coolers here at Yellowhead this week. A couple of days ago I watched Bernice McLennan hit a straight flush against quads for Hugh Armstrong to send him out of Event #8 in 3rd place.

Defending Champ Matthew Ouellette just busted his first Main bullet in almost as brutal a fashion. He got his 30k in the middle during Level 1 of the opening day with a boat, but ran into quads. He quickly rebought to take another shot at repeating his title.

About 5 minutes remain in Level 1 and the field is at 28 players. That pushes the prizes over $26k and climbing.

The Main Event is underway with Level 1 just getting started. The field started at 15 players in their seats to begin the day, and I expect to see ~70 or more before the end of entries today.

Entries on Day 1 are open until the start of Level 10, which should be around 7:15 PM this evening.

Kris Steinbach jumped into a big lead on the final hand of the night, after a big cooler over Deven Lane. Lane had about 170k going into the hand, with four other players short, and it turned into a nightmare cooler for Lane with his tens capped by queens.

That gave Steiner 802k, with Pav Braich bagging stack #2 worth 654k. Colten Yamagishi, Aman Dhaliwal, and Hugh Armstrong round out the top five counts from 1a.

Day 1a Chip Counts

After short stacks doubled for a couple of hours, Deven Lane raised to 22k with pocket tens from the small blind, then faced a shove from Kris Steinbach in the big with queens. Steinbach had him covered, and it looked for all the world like Steiner might be making an ICM play to force Lane off the hand, given that there were several short stacks still in the mix.

Lane called it off, but couldn’t find the cards he needed to stay alive, ending the night and leaving a few short stacks breathing a sigh of relief.

Stay tuned for the final 13 stacks from 1a.

Nick Milkovish was forced all in from the big blind, and Kris Steinbach and Matthew Ouellette both called to put him at risk. There was no side pot as the two active players checked through the 9♦6♦5♠8♥3♥.

Steiner showed four-three for a pair of threes, but Milkovich, who hadn’t looked at his hand yet, turned over a nine-four for the bigger pair and got a triple plus.

Nick Milkovich is now the short stack on Table 3 after Matthew Ouellette shoved with aces, and he called with eights and a bit more. Ouellete smashed a set on the flop, and Milkovich was dead on the turn. Kyle Bonazzo is still on fumes on Table 1 as well

Murray Hicks just gave himself a bit of breathing room after he got his short stack in with pocket tens. He got calls from Hugh Armstrong and Colten Yamagishi, but he flopped a set of tens to survive with a triple.

There are three players most at risk of being the bubble tonight. Kyle Bonazzo is the shortest with around 30k, while Murray Hicks and defending champion Matthew Ouellette have in the 60k range now.

Kris Steinbach opened the middle to 16k, and Aman Dhaliwal, Fran Fisher, and Nick Milkovich all called to see K♠10♥7♠. Milkovich checked his big blind before Steiner put out 15k.

Everyone called to the 8♣ turn. It checked to Fisher on the button, and she bet 20k. Milkovich folded, but both Steiner and Dhaliwal contributed to see 6♦ on the river. The action checked around, and Steinbach showed queen-nine for the ten-high straight.

“Double gutty,” he said of the turn call. “I think I was getting the right price.”

Ryan Comely was the soft bubble tonight, ending his day in 15th place. That leaves 14 players left with 13 bags available, so the clock is paused for hand-for-hand play until the next elimination ends the night.

Aaron Syrenne limped in under the gun before Colten Yamagishi made it 34k to go from his left, for the second hand in a row. Pav Braich pumped that up to 60k next to act, and after a long tank-fold from short stack Kyle Bonazzo, the rest of the table also folded to send the pot to Braich.

Eric Dunham opened to 12k early, and Nick Milkovich called from the cutoff. Kris Steinbach was in the big blind, and he three-bet to 37k.

Dunham shoved, Milkovich folded, and Steiner called it off with a similarly sized stack. Steiner had A♠A♥ against Q♦Q♣ for Dunham. Dunham turned a club draw, but bricked the rest of the board. When the stacks were counted, he had about 10k less than Steiner, so he was out in 16th tonight.

Kyle Bonazzo shoved his 46k, and Murray Hicks called off with more from his left. Bonazzo had king-jack, but was in bad shape against pocket jacks for Hicks. Bonazzo found his three-outer on the flop, however, and held to double to more than 100k while Hicks is down to about 140k.

Aman Dhaliwal is the chip leader right now with 384k, while Deven Lane is the only other player with more than 300k.

They are down to 16 players left in Day 1a after Michael Bernstein and Eric Wasylenko recently hit the rail. The remaining players will be in a break in about a minute, and I’ll update the chips while they are away.

They are down to 18 players left on the final two tables now, with Francis Fan and Zeyu Huang as the recent busts. That puts them 5 players away from the bags tonight, with about 10 minutes to play in Level 15.

With this pace, it looks like Day 1a will end late in Level 16, or early Level 17, but there’s still a fair bit of poker to play before the end of the night.

Colten Yamagishi raised to 10k under the gun, and it folded around to Hugh Armstrong in the big blind, who called. “Thanks,” said Yamagishi with a smile.

Armstrong checked the K♣8♥Q♦ flop, then said “What the fuck is that?” when Yamagishi toseed out a 5k chip. Armstrong put a 5k chip beside it.

“I dunno, what’s that?” asked Yamagishi. They both checked it through the 2♣A♦ runout.

“Nuts!” said Armstrong, showing queen-jack for flopped second pair.

“You had exactly what I thought you had,” said Yamagishi.

They are six off the bags now, with 19 players left in the game. Aaron Syrenne just picked up a small-ish pot with jacks, but he had to do it in an unconventional fashion.

Eric Wasylenko opened the action early to 8k, and Syrenne called from his left, as did Zeyu Huang from the big blind. They all checked the A♦Q♦10♠ flop, and Huang led for [invalid notations] turn.

Both players called to the K♦ river, where they went back to checks. Syrenne was the last to act, but showed pocket jacks for the rivered Broadway straight as he checked, and the other two players mucked their hands.

Murray Hicks raised to 8k under the gun, and Dennis Cleaver called from his left. They saw the J♥3♣9♠ flop heads-up, and Hicks check-called for 12k, but when the turn came J♦ Hicks fired his cards to the middle before Cleaver even had a chance to act.

Defending champion Matthew Ouellette was down to 41.5k, which he shoved from the big blind after an under-the-gun raise to 8k from Michael “Berny” Bernstein and a button call from Aman Dhaliwal. Berny reshoved with more, and Dhaliwal got out of the way.

Michael “Berny” Bernstein: A♣Q♦
Matthew Ouellette: A♠K♣

Ouellette had the best ace with big slick into ace-queen, and the king played on a board of 4♣10♣2♦5♥10♣. The hand put Ouellette up over 100k, but left Berny short.

Murray Hicks limped in early, and Alemu Makonen completed from the small blind before Colten Yamagishi checked his big. It checked to Hicks on the K♦A♠6♠ flop, and he fired 6.5k. Makonen called, while Yamagishi mucked.

The turn was 2♥, and Makonen check-called for 17k to see 10♥ on the river. Makonen checked again, but then tank-folded to a bet of 50k, which was most of his remaining stack at that point.

“Top Pair no good, eh?” he said as he mucked his hand. “That’s what you’re saying …”

They are down to 26 players remaining, 13 off the bags now, with about 15 minutes to play until the next break following this level.

They are down to 28 players remaining in Day 1a, with about 20 minutes to play in Level 12. That puts them 15 off the bags for tonight, with the night scheduled to finish with 13 players remaining.

They are down to 35 players left in Day 1a now, with Level 11 just beginning. They’ll play until they hit 12.5% of the field, which should be 13 players. That puts them 22 off the bags.

Entries are now closed for Day 1a of the Main Event, with 103 entries on the board at the end of dinner. That number is still unofficial, but if it holds, it will mean 13 bags later tonight, with $96,872 going into the Day 2 prizes.

The 1a prizes are now over $95k with 102 entries on the board, and about 10 minutes to go until entries are closed for today’s flight. I had a look around the room over the dinner break, and it looks like Aman Dhaliwal is the chip leader right now with almost 200k in front of him, but there are a few other players in the 100k range with him.

Level 9 is just underway, and the field is now at 98 entries for prizes of more than $92k. It seems likely they’ll get at least two more entries before the desk shuts down in about 75 minutes, so a field of 100+ seems like a lock at this point.

The players are into the final three levels of entry for the opening flight to the Main Event, and the prize pool is now over $80k with 86 entries on the board. There are just under 30 minutes left in Level 7, which puts the end of entries about 2.5 hours away.

The prizes are nearly at $75k now with 79 entries on the board. Level 6 has about 15 minutes to play before the second break of Day 1a. When they return for Level 7, there will be 3 levels of entry, plus the dinner break, before the reg-desk closes for the opening flight.

The current pace is still looking like a decent bet for 100+ entries today. If they make it to 100 entries, that would be prizes of just shy of $95k, and a field of 107 entries today would put the 1a prizes over $100k. In July, Day 1a got 137 entries for prizes of $128,849, but that number looks a little out of reach today.

With about 20 minutes to play in Level 4, the field is now at 59 entries for prizes of $55,490. There are still more than 4.5 hours left to enter today’s flight, so a final field number that flirts with 100 entries is still looking reasonable.

About 10 minutes remain in Level 3, and the field is at 50 entries for prizes of more than $47k. There are just under 5.5 hours left to get into today’s flight, so a 1a final field of 100+ is looking pretty doable.

Level 3 is about to start, and the field is over 40 entries to start the level. The prizes are nearing $40k with 41 entries on the board. At the current pace, it looks like today’s field should easily surpass 70 entries, and could push towards 100.

There have been some coolers here at Yellowhead this week. A couple of days ago I watched Bernice McLennan hit a straight flush against quads for Hugh Armstrong to send him out of Event #8 in 3rd place.

Defending Champ Matthew Ouellette just busted his first Main bullet in almost as brutal a fashion. He got his 30k in the middle during Level 1 of the opening day with a boat, but ran into quads. He quickly rebought to take another shot at repeating his title.

About 5 minutes remain in Level 1 and the field is at 28 players. That pushes the prizes over $26k and climbing.

The Main Event is underway with Level 1 just getting started. The field started at 15 players in their seats to begin the day, and I expect to see ~70 or more before the end of entries today.

Entries on Day 1 are open until the start of Level 10, which should be around 7:15 PM this evening.

Event #14: $1,100 NLH Main Event ($990 + $110)

It’s Main Event time! The first flight to the Big Show gets going at noon on Friday. Players get 30k in chips, with levels on Day 1 lasting 40 minutes.

Late entry is open for 9 levels, with the registration desk closing at around 7:15 PM when they return from the dinner break following Level 9. After that, the game plays down to 12.5% of the starting field before they finish, with the remaining players bagging their stacks for Sunday’s Day 2.

In July’s Main, Matthew Ouellette came through for his biggest lifetime score and second win with the Main title. After an 8-hour final table grind, Ouellette defeated Colten Yamagishi for the title. The game drew 378 entries for prizes of $355,509, and Ouellette and Yamagishi cut a deal at the end to both take $55,577 and play for $10k, which Ouellette was able to add to his total.

The side game on Friday is the Last Chance satellite to the Main Event. I’ll be focusing my attention on Day 1a of the Main, but there will surely be some interest in cheap seats to the Main. The satty starts at 7:30 PM for $170, and 1 in 7.5 players will bag a ticket to Saturday’s Day 2. Players can either get their ticket in survival mode or by hitting the Landmark stack size of 115k.