2025 Pure Poker Tour Series #2 – Event #5: $300 NLH

Eric Dunham mentioned during heads-up that this was his first time playing a PPT event. He and some friends from Fort McMurray came down for the weekend, and he decided to take a shot at a trophy. Around 8 hours later, he was packing the trophy into its box to take back up north with him.

Dunham had the chip lead for most of the heads-up, but he mentioned a couple of times that runner-up Shihao Zhao “Wasn’t making it easy” for him. In the end, it took a bit of a heads-up cooler, and the flopped straight, to finally take it down.

The money went in on the final hand with Zhao on queen-jack, dominating the jack-nine for Dunham. Then the flop came ten-queen-king, and while Zhao hit his queen, Dunham was virtually unbeatable with the straight. The board ran out four-six and it was all over for Zhao.

Heads up nearly took longer than the rest of the final table as Shihao Zhao and Eric Dunham battled it out. I had very little time to watch this one until they got heads up — I got over to the table to take the FT pics, and by the time I’d uploaded and posted them, the final table had dropped from 9 to 3.

Zsuzsanna Spence then went out to leave Zhao and Dunham as the final two. Zhao started with the big stack, but Dunham turned it around pretty quickly, and then never looked back, holding the lead for the rest of the game.

But it wasn’t easy to dispatch Zhao — he seemed dialed in, knowing when to fold, and when to shove his short stack. They played a few levels with Zhao chipping down to 200k at one point, but then climbing back to 600k. In the final hand, he was in good preflop with queen-jack against jack-nine for Dunham, but 10♣K♦Q♠ was the flopped nuts for Dunham. The rest of the board bricked, and Zhao was out to a dominated jack.

They limped to a flop if Q♥5♣4♥. Eric Dunham check-called for 35k to the 7♠ turn. He checked again, then snapped when Shihao Zhao shoved about 200k. Both players were on two pair, but the queen-five for Zhao was better than the five-four for Dunham. Dunham still has a solid lead of about 1.2 million to 400k.

The final two players are on a break with Eric Dunham in a big lead. He has 1.4 million to just over 200k for Shihao Zhao.

Eric Dunham now has about 800k in front of him, compared to 540k for Shihao Zhao.

Shihao Zhao is in the lead now with what looks to be about a 2:1 lead. He just picked up a few more chips in a bit of a cooler. They limped to the flop of 10♥2♣J♥ and Eric Dunham check-called a bet of 30k. They both checked the 10♣ turn, and, after another check from Dunham on the 8♥ river, he called a bet of 80k.

“If you have the ten, you’re good,” Dunham said, showing jack-deuce. Zhao had more than the ten, however, showing J♠10♠ for the turned boat.

Zsuzsanna Spence was the 3rd-place player tonight, ending her run with a score of $2,945. The game is now heads up between Eric Dunham and Shihao Xhao.

They are down to 3 remaining already, but here is a look at the final 9 players tonight, with the payouts to date below.

Place	Player	Prize
1		$6,733
2		$4,415
3		$2,945
4	Lehat Musa	$2,105
5	Victor Chouliaras	$1,575
6	Jeffery Clarke	$1,135
7	Joe Herlein	$885
8	Tyler Roll	$695
9	Brett Higgins	$545

Here is a look how the FT players are seated. I don’t have a good idea of the stacks right now, however I’m about to go get pictures of the FT, so I should at least be able to estimate who the leader is.

They are in the money now in the side game, though I’m still not watching it very closely. Benny Sarnelli was the bubble tonight, and as he was leaving he came over and said “well, I guess tonight isn’t the night I go back to back.” Still it was a good run for Sarnelli for the second day in a row.

The side game field is down to 13 now, with 9 players getting paid. That’s puts them 4 off the money spots. I’m still following the end of Event #3 1b, so I’m still not watching this one very closely but among the players still alive in this one is the winner of last night’s side game, Benny Sarnelli.

The numbers are confirmed at 82, but they’ve decided to round up the payouts for 9 paid spots tonight. The winner is set to get $6,733.

The final number on the board for the side game tonight was 2 entries. That number is still unconfirmed but if it holds, 8 players will share in just over $21k in prizes. I’ll confirm the numbers as soon as the prizes are out.

The side game is on the final break of entries and there are about 10 minutes remaining in that break. The field is currently at 79, so it looks like 8 players will be getting a piece of the prizes, which are now over $20k. I’ll update the final numbers and get the prize pool up shortly after they return from the break.

There is just under an hour to enter the side game tonight, with Level 7 nearly complete. There are 42 players still alive from a field of 69 entries, and the prizes are now sitting at nearly $18k.

The side game is now up to 59 entries with just over 90 minutes left to enter the game. There are 44 players still in the action, and, at the moment, they are playing for just over $15k.

There are still about 35 minutes to play until the first break with four levels of entry to follow the break. The current field is at 51 entries now for prizes just over $13k.

The side game for tonight is about to get underway with 15 players to start the game. There are a few players at the entry desk as well, so the numbers should be up to 20 shortly.

This game likely won’t get much coverage today until after Day 1b of Event #3 bags up for the night.

The side game on Saturday night, playing out alongside the final flight to Event #3, is the $300 NLH. Players get 20k in chips for their buy-in and will play 20-minute levels throughout the game (15 minutes heads up).

The action kicks off at 6 PM with 9 levels of open entry. That should put the final chance to enter or rebuy at about 7:45 PM. After that, they’ll run till the winner in this one-day event.

As the side game on Saturday, this likely won’t get much attention at the start. I’ll cover the endgame of this one once Day 1b of Event #3 bags and I get Day 2 set, but this likely won’t get covered until the business end of the game.

Eric Dunham mentioned during heads-up that this was his first time playing a PPT event. He and some friends from Fort McMurray came down for the weekend, and he decided to take a shot at a trophy. Around 8 hours later, he was packing the trophy into its box to take back up north with him.

Dunham had the chip lead for most of the heads-up, but he mentioned a couple of times that runner-up Shihao Zhao “Wasn’t making it easy” for him. In the end, it took a bit of a heads-up cooler, and the flopped straight, to finally take it down.

The money went in on the final hand with Zhao on queen-jack, dominating the jack-nine for Dunham. Then the flop came ten-queen-king, and while Zhao hit his queen, Dunham was virtually unbeatable with the straight. The board ran out four-six and it was all over for Zhao.

Heads up nearly took longer than the rest of the final table as Shihao Zhao and Eric Dunham battled it out. I had very little time to watch this one until they got heads up — I got over to the table to take the FT pics, and by the time I’d uploaded and posted them, the final table had dropped from 9 to 3.

Zsuzsanna Spence then went out to leave Zhao and Dunham as the final two. Zhao started with the big stack, but Dunham turned it around pretty quickly, and then never looked back, holding the lead for the rest of the game.

But it wasn’t easy to dispatch Zhao — he seemed dialed in, knowing when to fold, and when to shove his short stack. They played a few levels with Zhao chipping down to 200k at one point, but then climbing back to 600k. In the final hand, he was in good preflop with queen-jack against jack-nine for Dunham, but 10♣K♦Q♠ was the flopped nuts for Dunham. The rest of the board bricked, and Zhao was out to a dominated jack.

They limped to a flop if Q♥5♣4♥. Eric Dunham check-called for 35k to the 7♠ turn. He checked again, then snapped when Shihao Zhao shoved about 200k. Both players were on two pair, but the queen-five for Zhao was better than the five-four for Dunham. Dunham still has a solid lead of about 1.2 million to 400k.

The final two players are on a break with Eric Dunham in a big lead. He has 1.4 million to just over 200k for Shihao Zhao.

Eric Dunham now has about 800k in front of him, compared to 540k for Shihao Zhao.

Shihao Zhao is in the lead now with what looks to be about a 2:1 lead. He just picked up a few more chips in a bit of a cooler. They limped to the flop of 10♥2♣J♥ and Eric Dunham check-called a bet of 30k. They both checked the 10♣ turn, and, after another check from Dunham on the 8♥ river, he called a bet of 80k.

“If you have the ten, you’re good,” Dunham said, showing jack-deuce. Zhao had more than the ten, however, showing J♠10♠ for the turned boat.

Zsuzsanna Spence was the 3rd-place player tonight, ending her run with a score of $2,945. The game is now heads up between Eric Dunham and Shihao Xhao.

They are down to 3 remaining already, but here is a look at the final 9 players tonight, with the payouts to date below.

Place	Player	Prize
1		$6,733
2		$4,415
3		$2,945
4	Lehat Musa	$2,105
5	Victor Chouliaras	$1,575
6	Jeffery Clarke	$1,135
7	Joe Herlein	$885
8	Tyler Roll	$695
9	Brett Higgins	$545

Here is a look how the FT players are seated. I don’t have a good idea of the stacks right now, however I’m about to go get pictures of the FT, so I should at least be able to estimate who the leader is.

They are in the money now in the side game, though I’m still not watching it very closely. Benny Sarnelli was the bubble tonight, and as he was leaving he came over and said “well, I guess tonight isn’t the night I go back to back.” Still it was a good run for Sarnelli for the second day in a row.

The side game field is down to 13 now, with 9 players getting paid. That’s puts them 4 off the money spots. I’m still following the end of Event #3 1b, so I’m still not watching this one very closely but among the players still alive in this one is the winner of last night’s side game, Benny Sarnelli.

The numbers are confirmed at 82, but they’ve decided to round up the payouts for 9 paid spots tonight. The winner is set to get $6,733.

The final number on the board for the side game tonight was 2 entries. That number is still unconfirmed but if it holds, 8 players will share in just over $21k in prizes. I’ll confirm the numbers as soon as the prizes are out.

The side game is on the final break of entries and there are about 10 minutes remaining in that break. The field is currently at 79, so it looks like 8 players will be getting a piece of the prizes, which are now over $20k. I’ll update the final numbers and get the prize pool up shortly after they return from the break.

There is just under an hour to enter the side game tonight, with Level 7 nearly complete. There are 42 players still alive from a field of 69 entries, and the prizes are now sitting at nearly $18k.

The side game is now up to 59 entries with just over 90 minutes left to enter the game. There are 44 players still in the action, and, at the moment, they are playing for just over $15k.

There are still about 35 minutes to play until the first break with four levels of entry to follow the break. The current field is at 51 entries now for prizes just over $13k.

The side game for tonight is about to get underway with 15 players to start the game. There are a few players at the entry desk as well, so the numbers should be up to 20 shortly.

This game likely won’t get much coverage today until after Day 1b of Event #3 bags up for the night.

The side game on Saturday night, playing out alongside the final flight to Event #3, is the $300 NLH. Players get 20k in chips for their buy-in and will play 20-minute levels throughout the game (15 minutes heads up).

The action kicks off at 6 PM with 9 levels of open entry. That should put the final chance to enter or rebuy at about 7:45 PM. After that, they’ll run till the winner in this one-day event.

As the side game on Saturday, this likely won’t get much attention at the start. I’ll cover the endgame of this one once Day 1b of Event #3 bags and I get Day 2 set, but this likely won’t get covered until the business end of the game.