PPT staff have barely had time to break down the tables from PPT #4 at Pure Casino Yellowhead and it’s almost time for the penultimate series of the 2024 season. Series #5 is across town at Pure Casino Edmonton and is a shortened schedule from the full series with just one week of poker action and 11 events.
The first PPT branded action for Series #5 kicks off at 1 pm Sunday, Oct 13 with a 1 in 10 satellite game for $T equivalent to entry in all open events for the series. Buy-in for the game is $430 ($390 + $40) and players start with 25k in chips for 30-minute levels.
There is more satellite action on Oct 14 with main series action kicking off on Oct 15 with the Seniors First at noon, an open NLH game starting at 4 pm, and a satellite game at 7 pm. That kicks off seven days of PPT action that includes the ever-popular 6-Max and PLO Big Bounty games as well as the two-flight Main Event and the $2k “Series Saver” High Roller to finish it out.
Check out live updates and reporting from the Pure Poker Tour Series #5 by Lyle Bateman. Chose an event of your choice down below:
It looks like Johnny Dalphond has surged into the lead with 1.3 million thanks to the stacks of recent exits Scott Thompson and Brian Wells. “I got lucky and won a coin flip,” he said as I was counting his chips. Tim Arnold and Kevin Lee still look to be playing 1m+ stacks on the other table.
They are down to 13 players left after Scott Thompson (15th) and Brian Wells (14th) ended their runs recently. Below is a look at the remaining field in the Main Event while they were still 15-handed.
Ed Zurawell raised the cutoff to 20k, then called when button Daniel Lefebvre raised it to 55k. The flop was Q♠J♠8♣ and both players checked to the A♥ turn. Zurawell fired 80k and got a call, but when the river came 3♣ Zurawell bet 90k and Lefebvre folded, showing an ace. Zurawell reveled pocket jacks for the flopped set as he raked in the pot.
Kevin Lee limped in from the cutoff and Daniel Hicks called from the small blind before Day 2 leader Tim Arnold raised his big blind to 25k. Lee called while Hicks mucked his hand.
The flop came 2♠8♣10♦ and Arnold check-called for 30k to the 8♥ turn. Arnold checked again, but then clicked it back to 100k after Lee bet 50k.
Lee called to the J♣ river where Arnold checked again after a bit of a tank. Lee hit the tank for a bit before sliding out two stacks of whites for 400k.
“I was thinking of making that move,” Arnold said as he mucked his hand. That left both players sitting behind stacks of 900k+.
They are down to 16 players left now after Ian Alvarado and Levi Stevens hit the rail for 18th and 17th places respectively. Theer are now about 30 minutes remaining in Level 18 with a break scheduled following this level.
The Series Saver is now underway with 4 players to start the game. This game typically starts pretty small but grows throughout the day so I’m still expecting a field of 30+ for this one at least.
I picked up the action on the flop reading Q♠A♠4♥ and Ian Alvarado bet 35k. Kevin Lee raised it up to 80k, which forced out a couple of other players before Alvarado called. They both checked it down through the K♣8♠ turn and river for Lee to reveal pocket fours for the flopped set.
“I guess that runout saved you some money,” Lee said after Alvarado mucked his hand.
There are just two tables left in the Main Event now after the exits of Willie Santos (20th) and Brendon Williams (19th). Level 18 has just begun and there is another break following this level. I’ll grab the full chip counts when they break in just under an hour.