2025 Pure Poker Tour Series #2 – Event #13: $1,100 NLH Main Event

The bags are all in and accounted for, and Gordon Wong will start Day 2 with mountains of chips. He has 865k, more than 300k more than 1a leader Brett Worton, so Wong will start as the clear favourite on Sunday. Van Le and Yulin Wu were 2nd and 3rd in the 400s, with Alemu Makonen and Tom T rounding out the 1b top 5 with stacks in the high 300s.

Day 1b Stacks

On table 1, Mike Malm opened the cutoff to 17k and Cody McKay called from the button. McKay called 12k on the 2♥6♣8♠ flop, but when Malm checked the 10♣ turn, McKay shoved a covering stack. Malm tanked for a bit before folding.

Over on Table 4, Tom T raised early, then called off when Nadav Bitton shoved his bubble for the effective stack. Bitton was in solid shape with ace-king over king-queen, and the ace-king held with a king on the flop and nothing else.

In the next hand, Paul Brar (Edm) ended up bubbling Day 2. Stay tuned for the end-of-day stacks coming shortly.

Resul Dauti opened early to 19k and Aaron Quon called from the big blind. Quon led for 10k on the 10♠7♣5♦ flop, then snap-called with Dauti shoved the bigger stack. Quon hit the ten with jack-ten against pocket eights, and he rivered a jack for good measure.

Day 1b is on the bubble now with the clock paused at 26:41 remaining in Level 16. They need to eliminate one more player before the end of the night. PLO winner Luteng Li was the player who soft bubbled tonight’s flight.

Gordon Wong is the huge leader now with almost 850k while the next biggest stack, in front of Van Le, isn’t even 400k.

They are down to 27 players left now on the final three tables. That leaves them three eliminations away from the end of Day 1b. Yan Coderre was the player who bubbled the final 27.

The field is down to 29 players left now, just five off the end of the night. Benny Sarnelli was one of the short stacks with about ~12k in front of him, but he just hit the rail in 30th. Ryan Smith and both Paul Brars (Calgary & Edmonton) are also at risk with less than 10 bigs right now. Cameron Stewart has just over 10 bigs and just got a shove through with pocket aces.

They are down to 32 left and Gordon Wong is the new chip leader with 605k in front of him. Most of the other stacks look pretty even, and it didn’t look like there was anything else bigger than ~300k, but I’ll grab more exact counts if they make it to the break.

They are now down to 32 remaining, so the bags will come out after 8 more eliminations, and while the average stack is still more than 35 bigs, there are some short ones out there who may need to get it in quickly.

It’s unclear how quickly tonight’s flight will play down. The play from 45-40 was quite slow, and it looked like the night would drag on. Then, as I was writing a post about a potentially long night, the field went from 40 to 35 in just a couple of minutes, putting them just 11 off the bags.

Last night, Michael “Berny” Bernstein coined the phrase “you have what you have.” Tonight, I’m modifying that to “It’s gonna end when it ends.”

There are still 39 players left in the final flight to the Main, so it’s looking increasingly like today will play later than Day 1a. There are just over 10 minutes left in Level 14, and they still need to get rid of 15 more players before the bags come out. The average stack is still well over 35 big blinds as well, so it will likely be late in Level 16 before they finish.

Nadav Bitton opened to 6k from the middle before Andy Truong three-bet the cutoff to 21k. Tyler St. Clair was in the small blind and he shoved for 133k.

Bitton folded quickly, but Truong asked for a count. “I have a real hand,” he said. “I’m just not sure if you you are doing this cause you think I’m light or not.”

“Do you think I’d do this just because I think you are light?” St. Clair responded.

“100%,” replied Truong before mucking his hand a few seconds later.

I had a look around on the break following Level 12, and it looks like Nadav Bitton is the chip leader right now. He has 365k in front of him, but Gordon Wong and Resul Dauti also have more than 300k in front of them, while Yulin Wu is playing 265k.

I did the math wrong on the end of the night — today will play until there are 24 players left, not 25 as previously reported. There are 46 players left, so they are 22 off the bags.

The field is down to 49 left, 24 away from the end of the night. There are just over 5 minutes left in Level 12 and they’ll head out for another break following this level. It’s still unclear how late tonight will go, but at the current pace, it looks like they might play into Level 16 before the bags come out.

The prizes are in and the total field is confirmed at 293 entries for prizes of $275,567. A total of 37 players will make Day 2, with everyone guaranteed to make $1,815 and the winner set to pocket more than $58k. Six players on the final table will earn five-figure scores. See the payouts tab for a look at the full prizes.

Main Event Top Payouts

The 1b field is field is down to 63 players left. and they’ve just broken down to the final 7 tables. They’ll only play down as far as three tables tonight, with the bags coming out at 25 players.

Entries are now closed for the Main Event with a final total of 293 entries and prizes of more than $275k. The numbers are still unofficial, but if it holds at 193 for Day 1b, that will mean 25 players finding a bag at the end of the night.

The opening flight ended with about 15 minutes to play in Level 15, but it remains to be seen if 1b will go longer or not.

The players are now on their dinner break and it looks like Gordon Wong is the chip leader right now. He’s playing a bit more than 250k with the next biggest stack I saw at 155k in front of Van Le. Curtis Singleton also has a decent stack of 123k.

The combined prizes are now over $265k with 182 entries on the board. There are about 5 minutes left to play until the dinner break, and I’ll have a look around during dinner for some big stacks to report on.

Entries for the Main Event will be closed in less than an hour when they return from dinner.

There are about 20 minutes left in Level 9 which puts the end of entries just over an hour away. The 1b field is now at 177 for a combined total of 277 and prizes of more than $260k. While I expect the pace of entry to slow, I’d still expect that the final number for 1b will be 180 or more, though getting as high as 190 seems a bit optimistic at this stage.

The two-day prize pool is now over $250k with 167 entries on the board for 1b. There are still more than 90 minutes left to enter the game as well, so it seems likely today’s field could flirt with 180 or more by the time it closes.

The combined field is now up to 257 entries for total prizes of almost $242k. They only need nine more entries in the next 2 hours to push the prize pool over $250k, so that looks like a decent bet.

There are less than 5 minutes to play in Level 7.

The 1b field is one entry shy of 150, for a combined two-day total of 249. There are a bit more than 2.5 hours left to enter this final flight, with the desk set to shut down at about 7:15 when they sit down for Level 10.

It’s looking like the field could hit 160 or more by the time entries close. If they can make it to 166 for today’s flight, the total prizes will be $250k.

The combined prizes are now over $225k with 240 entries across both starting days. 150 entries looks like a lock for today, with more than 3 hours left to enter, and the final numbers could push towards 160 or more.

The 1b field is now up to 132 with about 10 minutes to play in Level 5. That puts the two-day total at 232 entries for total prizes of more than $218k. There are still about 3 hours and 45 minutes left to get into this final flight to the Main Event.

The prizes are now pushing toward $200k with 109 entries on the board for 1b so far. That puts 209 entries in the pool combined for total prizes of $196k and climbing. Entries are still open for more than 4.5 hours.

Recent players I spotted in the field include George Broumas, Shane Brotherwood, Alex Liu, Ryan Comely, Ryan Smith, Johnny Dalphond, Xinrui Cui, Alexander Richmond, and Tyler St. Clair.

Within seconds of the start of Level 2, the Day 1b field is already more than the final total for 1a. There are now 102 entries for 1b, for combined prizes of almost $190k and just under 5 hours to enter.

Josh Myers, Jay Tran, Tony Comely, Mike Malm, Pav Braich, Jason Heang, and Bash Ramahi are among the more recent entries today.

There are 98 entries on the board as Level 4 begins, which is just 2 entries shy of the final total for Day 1a. That bodes well for a big field here on 1b, with a very reasonable shot at 150 or more for today alone. If it hits 150 today, that would put the prizes at $235k for a likely first-place prize of ~$50k on Sunday.

There are still about 20 minutes to play in Level 3 and the 1b field is already just 17 entries away from the Day 1a total. There are 83 entries on the board now for nearly $80k in prizes today, and a combined total of more than $172k.

A few more recent entries to the game include Joe Herlein, John Donnelly, Paul Brar (Calgary), Eric Wasylenko, and Brian Wells.

The combined prizes are now over $160k with more than 10 minutes to play in Level 2. There are still just over 6 hours left to enter this final flight to the Main.

Among the players I spotted but haven’t mentioned yet are DJ Sharma, who won his first PPT trophy this week, Ron Lauzon, Keith Sarnoski, Doug Lee, Lynne Stephenson, Michael St Pierre-Porter, and Ed Zurawell.

They are up to 66 entries on the board with about 25 minutes to play in Level 2. I’ve just had another look around the room for a few more familiar faces — Sheraz Nasir, Gaetano Buda, Ian ALvarado, Kim Graham, Hassan Issa, Andy Truong, Holly Berry, Shane Chief, Benny Sarnelli, Nick MIlkovich, Julius Roque, Nadav Bitton, Keith Schultz, Johnny Yu, Sean Sztyler, Chris Klementis, and Scott Johnson are all among the players in action for 1b.

Level 2 is just about to begin with 60 entries on the board already. That puts the combined prizes at more than $150k, and among the players I’ve spotted in the field are Ron Giles, Russ Sluchinski, Kim Pham, Darrell Moore, and Jerry Tria.

The 1b field is starting off well with more than 50 entries on the board during Level 1. The prizes are nearing $150k already with nearly 7 hours to enter. Among the people in the game today are David Ko, in for his first event this series, as well as Rob Limpert, Haven Taylor, Curtis Singleton, and Larry Quon.

Day 1a of the Main Event is now complete with exactly 100 entries recorded. That put a bit more than $94k into the prize pool and meant 13 players would move on to Day 2.

With 17 minutes to play in Level 15, it was Sakine Ousmane who was the unfortunate bubble. He shoved a short stack from the button with a suited king, but big blind Andrew Goertz woke up with a pair of sixes and snap-called. The sixes held and the bags were set.

Brett Worton Bagged biggest with more than 500k, while Garry Sandhu is more than 100k behind in 2nd. Worton got a lot of his chips in a brutal cooler against Taran Parmar that initially looked like it would send Worton home before the bubble. After 5-bet action pre that saw all the money in, Worton had aces against kings for Parmar. A king in the window made Worton exclaim, “You’ve got to be kidding.” But the ace of spades hit the river to reflip it back to the aces and give Worton a double up, and leave Parmar bagging about 100k.

Day 1b is the final chance for players to join the 13 from 1a for Sunday’s final day and the big prizes. The 1b action gets going at noon and there are 9 levels of entry. Including the breaks, that should put the last chance to buy in at ~7:15 PM.

There is no hard stop for the Day 1 flights — they play down to 12.5% regardless of how long it takes. Day 1a finished relatively early, with barely half of Level 15 complete, but with a larger field expected on 1b, it may play later. Day 2 blinds will begin at whatever the earliest finish was, so the largest possible blinds for Day 2 right now are 2.5k/5k/5k, but if 1b finishes earlier, Day 2 might start smaller

I should be on the floor pretty close to the start of the day.

Day 1a Stacks

The bags are all in and accounted for, and Gordon Wong will start Day 2 with mountains of chips. He has 865k, more than 300k more than 1a leader Brett Worton, so Wong will start as the clear favourite on Sunday. Van Le and Yulin Wu were 2nd and 3rd in the 400s, with Alemu Makonen and Tom T rounding out the 1b top 5 with stacks in the high 300s.

Day 1b Stacks

On table 1, Mike Malm opened the cutoff to 17k and Cody McKay called from the button. McKay called 12k on the 2♥6♣8♠ flop, but when Malm checked the 10♣ turn, McKay shoved a covering stack. Malm tanked for a bit before folding.

Over on Table 4, Tom T raised early, then called off when Nadav Bitton shoved his bubble for the effective stack. Bitton was in solid shape with ace-king over king-queen, and the ace-king held with a king on the flop and nothing else.

In the next hand, Paul Brar (Edm) ended up bubbling Day 2. Stay tuned for the end-of-day stacks coming shortly.

Resul Dauti opened early to 19k and Aaron Quon called from the big blind. Quon led for 10k on the 10♠7♣5♦ flop, then snap-called with Dauti shoved the bigger stack. Quon hit the ten with jack-ten against pocket eights, and he rivered a jack for good measure.

Day 1b is on the bubble now with the clock paused at 26:41 remaining in Level 16. They need to eliminate one more player before the end of the night. PLO winner Luteng Li was the player who soft bubbled tonight’s flight.

Gordon Wong is the huge leader now with almost 850k while the next biggest stack, in front of Van Le, isn’t even 400k.

They are down to 27 players left now on the final three tables. That leaves them three eliminations away from the end of Day 1b. Yan Coderre was the player who bubbled the final 27.

The field is down to 29 players left now, just five off the end of the night. Benny Sarnelli was one of the short stacks with about ~12k in front of him, but he just hit the rail in 30th. Ryan Smith and both Paul Brars (Calgary & Edmonton) are also at risk with less than 10 bigs right now. Cameron Stewart has just over 10 bigs and just got a shove through with pocket aces.

They are down to 32 left and Gordon Wong is the new chip leader with 605k in front of him. Most of the other stacks look pretty even, and it didn’t look like there was anything else bigger than ~300k, but I’ll grab more exact counts if they make it to the break.

They are now down to 32 remaining, so the bags will come out after 8 more eliminations, and while the average stack is still more than 35 bigs, there are some short ones out there who may need to get it in quickly.

It’s unclear how quickly tonight’s flight will play down. The play from 45-40 was quite slow, and it looked like the night would drag on. Then, as I was writing a post about a potentially long night, the field went from 40 to 35 in just a couple of minutes, putting them just 11 off the bags.

Last night, Michael “Berny” Bernstein coined the phrase “you have what you have.” Tonight, I’m modifying that to “It’s gonna end when it ends.”

There are still 39 players left in the final flight to the Main, so it’s looking increasingly like today will play later than Day 1a. There are just over 10 minutes left in Level 14, and they still need to get rid of 15 more players before the bags come out. The average stack is still well over 35 big blinds as well, so it will likely be late in Level 16 before they finish.

Nadav Bitton opened to 6k from the middle before Andy Truong three-bet the cutoff to 21k. Tyler St. Clair was in the small blind and he shoved for 133k.

Bitton folded quickly, but Truong asked for a count. “I have a real hand,” he said. “I’m just not sure if you you are doing this cause you think I’m light or not.”

“Do you think I’d do this just because I think you are light?” St. Clair responded.

“100%,” replied Truong before mucking his hand a few seconds later.

I had a look around on the break following Level 12, and it looks like Nadav Bitton is the chip leader right now. He has 365k in front of him, but Gordon Wong and Resul Dauti also have more than 300k in front of them, while Yulin Wu is playing 265k.

I did the math wrong on the end of the night — today will play until there are 24 players left, not 25 as previously reported. There are 46 players left, so they are 22 off the bags.

The field is down to 49 left, 24 away from the end of the night. There are just over 5 minutes left in Level 12 and they’ll head out for another break following this level. It’s still unclear how late tonight will go, but at the current pace, it looks like they might play into Level 16 before the bags come out.

The prizes are in and the total field is confirmed at 293 entries for prizes of $275,567. A total of 37 players will make Day 2, with everyone guaranteed to make $1,815 and the winner set to pocket more than $58k. Six players on the final table will earn five-figure scores. See the payouts tab for a look at the full prizes.

Main Event Top Payouts

The 1b field is field is down to 63 players left. and they’ve just broken down to the final 7 tables. They’ll only play down as far as three tables tonight, with the bags coming out at 25 players.

Entries are now closed for the Main Event with a final total of 293 entries and prizes of more than $275k. The numbers are still unofficial, but if it holds at 193 for Day 1b, that will mean 25 players finding a bag at the end of the night.

The opening flight ended with about 15 minutes to play in Level 15, but it remains to be seen if 1b will go longer or not.

The players are now on their dinner break and it looks like Gordon Wong is the chip leader right now. He’s playing a bit more than 250k with the next biggest stack I saw at 155k in front of Van Le. Curtis Singleton also has a decent stack of 123k.

The combined prizes are now over $265k with 182 entries on the board. There are about 5 minutes left to play until the dinner break, and I’ll have a look around during dinner for some big stacks to report on.

Entries for the Main Event will be closed in less than an hour when they return from dinner.

There are about 20 minutes left in Level 9 which puts the end of entries just over an hour away. The 1b field is now at 177 for a combined total of 277 and prizes of more than $260k. While I expect the pace of entry to slow, I’d still expect that the final number for 1b will be 180 or more, though getting as high as 190 seems a bit optimistic at this stage.

The two-day prize pool is now over $250k with 167 entries on the board for 1b. There are still more than 90 minutes left to enter the game as well, so it seems likely today’s field could flirt with 180 or more by the time it closes.

The combined field is now up to 257 entries for total prizes of almost $242k. They only need nine more entries in the next 2 hours to push the prize pool over $250k, so that looks like a decent bet.

There are less than 5 minutes to play in Level 7.

The 1b field is one entry shy of 150, for a combined two-day total of 249. There are a bit more than 2.5 hours left to enter this final flight, with the desk set to shut down at about 7:15 when they sit down for Level 10.

It’s looking like the field could hit 160 or more by the time entries close. If they can make it to 166 for today’s flight, the total prizes will be $250k.

The combined prizes are now over $225k with 240 entries across both starting days. 150 entries looks like a lock for today, with more than 3 hours left to enter, and the final numbers could push towards 160 or more.

The 1b field is now up to 132 with about 10 minutes to play in Level 5. That puts the two-day total at 232 entries for total prizes of more than $218k. There are still about 3 hours and 45 minutes left to get into this final flight to the Main Event.

The prizes are now pushing toward $200k with 109 entries on the board for 1b so far. That puts 209 entries in the pool combined for total prizes of $196k and climbing. Entries are still open for more than 4.5 hours.

Recent players I spotted in the field include George Broumas, Shane Brotherwood, Alex Liu, Ryan Comely, Ryan Smith, Johnny Dalphond, Xinrui Cui, Alexander Richmond, and Tyler St. Clair.

Within seconds of the start of Level 2, the Day 1b field is already more than the final total for 1a. There are now 102 entries for 1b, for combined prizes of almost $190k and just under 5 hours to enter.

Josh Myers, Jay Tran, Tony Comely, Mike Malm, Pav Braich, Jason Heang, and Bash Ramahi are among the more recent entries today.

There are 98 entries on the board as Level 4 begins, which is just 2 entries shy of the final total for Day 1a. That bodes well for a big field here on 1b, with a very reasonable shot at 150 or more for today alone. If it hits 150 today, that would put the prizes at $235k for a likely first-place prize of ~$50k on Sunday.

There are still about 20 minutes to play in Level 3 and the 1b field is already just 17 entries away from the Day 1a total. There are 83 entries on the board now for nearly $80k in prizes today, and a combined total of more than $172k.

A few more recent entries to the game include Joe Herlein, John Donnelly, Paul Brar (Calgary), Eric Wasylenko, and Brian Wells.

The combined prizes are now over $160k with more than 10 minutes to play in Level 2. There are still just over 6 hours left to enter this final flight to the Main.

Among the players I spotted but haven’t mentioned yet are DJ Sharma, who won his first PPT trophy this week, Ron Lauzon, Keith Sarnoski, Doug Lee, Lynne Stephenson, Michael St Pierre-Porter, and Ed Zurawell.

They are up to 66 entries on the board with about 25 minutes to play in Level 2. I’ve just had another look around the room for a few more familiar faces — Sheraz Nasir, Gaetano Buda, Ian ALvarado, Kim Graham, Hassan Issa, Andy Truong, Holly Berry, Shane Chief, Benny Sarnelli, Nick MIlkovich, Julius Roque, Nadav Bitton, Keith Schultz, Johnny Yu, Sean Sztyler, Chris Klementis, and Scott Johnson are all among the players in action for 1b.

Level 2 is just about to begin with 60 entries on the board already. That puts the combined prizes at more than $150k, and among the players I’ve spotted in the field are Ron Giles, Russ Sluchinski, Kim Pham, Darrell Moore, and Jerry Tria.

The 1b field is starting off well with more than 50 entries on the board during Level 1. The prizes are nearing $150k already with nearly 7 hours to enter. Among the people in the game today are David Ko, in for his first event this series, as well as Rob Limpert, Haven Taylor, Curtis Singleton, and Larry Quon.

Day 1a of the Main Event is now complete with exactly 100 entries recorded. That put a bit more than $94k into the prize pool and meant 13 players would move on to Day 2.

With 17 minutes to play in Level 15, it was Sakine Ousmane who was the unfortunate bubble. He shoved a short stack from the button with a suited king, but big blind Andrew Goertz woke up with a pair of sixes and snap-called. The sixes held and the bags were set.

Brett Worton Bagged biggest with more than 500k, while Garry Sandhu is more than 100k behind in 2nd. Worton got a lot of his chips in a brutal cooler against Taran Parmar that initially looked like it would send Worton home before the bubble. After 5-bet action pre that saw all the money in, Worton had aces against kings for Parmar. A king in the window made Worton exclaim, “You’ve got to be kidding.” But the ace of spades hit the river to reflip it back to the aces and give Worton a double up, and leave Parmar bagging about 100k.

Day 1b is the final chance for players to join the 13 from 1a for Sunday’s final day and the big prizes. The 1b action gets going at noon and there are 9 levels of entry. Including the breaks, that should put the last chance to buy in at ~7:15 PM.

There is no hard stop for the Day 1 flights — they play down to 12.5% regardless of how long it takes. Day 1a finished relatively early, with barely half of Level 15 complete, but with a larger field expected on 1b, it may play later. Day 2 blinds will begin at whatever the earliest finish was, so the largest possible blinds for Day 2 right now are 2.5k/5k/5k, but if 1b finishes earlier, Day 2 might start smaller

I should be on the floor pretty close to the start of the day.

Day 1a Stacks