2025 Pure Poker Tour Series #5 – Event #13: $280 NLH Bounty

Justin Pennell and Steve Azizi spent most of their heads-up with pretty similar chip stacks, but that all changed when Azizi found a miracle run out when he was all in with queen-jack of hearts against the ace-trey for Pennell. The flop was paired nines with an eight, and when the dealer brought a seven to the turn, Azizi called for a ten.

The dealer obliged with the required ten, and suddenly Azizi had backed into the nut straight. That left Pennell very short, though he did manage to double back once and make a bit of a game of it.

It was a night for Azizi to hit the straights, however. The game ended with a final hand where the money went in preflop with Pennell on queen-ten against king-jack for Azizi. Pennell turned a pair of tens and rivered two pair, but with a jack and a nine on the flop, Azizi was straight to the king for the win.

Both of these guys have PPT trophies already — for Azizi, this is at least #4, but it’s his first from the new batch of PPT Diamonds being awarded for he first time this year.

Steve Azizi just took a big lead in heads-up play. He and Justin Pennell were nearly dead even in chips for most of heads-up, but they just got into a big confrontation. Pennell shoved the button with ace-trey, and Azizi called with Q♥J♥.

It was a not-so-classic race, with a not-so-classic runout that gave Azizi the queen high straight on 9♥9♠8♣7♠10♦. The hand left Pennell under 10 bigs, but he doubled back shortly after, and they are still battling.

Dustin Froelich just hit the rail for 3rd place and his first-ever live cash. I got to the table with the flop already out, reading 5♣Q♣K♦. Froelich check-shoved over a bet of 50k from Steve Azizi, and Azizi snapped it off.

Azizi was best with ace-queen for second pair, but Froelich was drawing to clubs with 6♣3♣. 5♥3♠ bricked his clubs and he was out in 3rd for the agreed-upon $3,500, and he was pretty happy to grab his first cash.

Meanwhile, the final two players, Steve Aziz and Justin Pennell, have rejigged the deal to take $4k each, and leave $700 to play for.

Dale Chalifoux just hit the rail for 4th place, worth $3,500 after their deal. He was in against Steve Azizi, who turned a pair of tens for the win.

The final four players have agreed to a deal where they are all guaranteed $3,500, with $1,700 left on the table for the winner. Additionally, the bounty game is now over, as all players will keep their own bounty for the rest of the night.

Jerry Tria just hit the rail for 5th place tonight, earning $1,679 plus an extra $350 for 7 bounties collected tonight. The foinal four players are now talking about an even chop with a bit of money left to play for, and I’ll update shortly if they agree.

There are five players left in the Bounty side game now, after Jim Giddings and Michael St. Pierre-Porter hit the rail recently. I missed the action while I was sorting out the end-of-day work for the PLO Main Event.

Place	Player	Prize
6	Michael St. Pierre-Porter	$1,330
7	Jim Giddings	$1,046
8	Jeff Forester	$828

Dustin Froelich raised to 50k, from the middle, then called when Michael St. Pierre-Porter reraised to 120k. Froelich shoved the 3♥K♦7♥ flop, and St. Pierre-Porter snap-called with more.

Froelich was good with K♥Q♦ for top pair against A♣6♣. the 9♣Q♣ runout didn’t change anything, and Froelich got the double.

Justin Pennell limped his button, and both Jim Giddings, and Dustin Froelich came along from the blinds to see a flop of J♠Q♥2♥. After a check from Giddings, Froelich fired 40k.

Pennell called, while Giddings mucked. On the 8♦ turn, Froelich check-folded to 40k from Pennell.

Dale Chalifoux has a slight lead right now, but Justin Pennell is only 10k behind him. Full stacks for the final 7 are below. The average stack right now is about 15 bigs.

The flop was out showing A♦8♦J♥, and Jerry Tria check-called from the big blind for 50k after JUstin Pennell, in early position, bet. They both checked the 4♥ turn, and Tria shoved his remaining 145k on the J♠ river.

Pennell hit the tank for almost a minute, while Tria engaged in some speech play. Pennell eventually mucked, claiming he had pocket tens, but Tria didn’t show as he collected the pot.

They are down to 7 left in the Bounty side game after Jeff Forester ended his night in 8th place. I don’t have a good handle on the chips yet, but there is a break coming in about 20 minutes, and I’ll get all the remaining counts then. In the meantime, it looks like Justin Pennell has the big stack, with more than 700k in front of him, but Dale Chalifoux is also playing big, with around 500k by the look of it.

Bill Lubyk was the first player out from the final table, ending his night in 9th place. Pictures for the final 9 are below, with the results so far below the pics.

Place	Player	Prize
9	Bill Lubyk	$545
10	Jason Law	$501
11	Karin Schulenburg	$501
12	Brad Stevens	$436

The NLH Bounty game is in the money now with 12 players remaining. The average stack is just over 21 big blinds right now, with Level 19 just underway.

They are three off the money now in the NLH Bounty game, with 15 players left in the action. The average stack right now is about 25 big blinds, but it’s about to drop to 20 bigs when the level changes shortly.

This looks to be the second biggest field of the series so far, trailing only the seniors game that opened the series. That game got 10 more entries than this one, but this looks to be a firm #2, and the biggest open-entry field of the week.

If the 124 entries are confirmed when the prizes are posted, it will mean 13 players sharing in $23,250 in prizes, with an additional $6,200 in bounties, for a combined pool of $29,450.

The combined prizes are nearing $25k in the side game, with about 45 minutes left to enter. The field just ticked over 100 entries, so it looks like this could rival the Seniors game for the biggest field of the series, assuming the pace continues.

The bounty side game is now closing in on 70 entries, with combined prizes of more than $15k. The prizes for later tonight are at $12,563, with $3,350 set aside for bounties so far, but with more than 2 hours left to enter, those numbers are sure to rise significantly before the end.

The side game for tonight is now underway, with nearly a full level of play in the books already. The field is at 34 entries to start Level 2, for combined prizes of just over $8k.

Event #13: $280 NLH Bounty ($200 + $50 + $30)

Thursday’s side dish is served with $50 bounties on the heads of all players. The other $200 of the buy-in (ignoring the $30 reg fee) goes to the prizes at the end of the night.

The action starts at 5 PM, with blinds lasting 20 minutes. Players get 25k to start, and they can buy in or get another 25k for $280 until the start of Level 10, around 8:30 PM. After that, it should be a relatively swift run to the trophy.

At PPT4 in September, Brian Wells was the winner of this one. It took a little over 9 hours for Wells to play through the 94 entries in the game, taking down his first PPT trophy and first live win over Brendan Harder.

This will be my second focus for the day, but with the PLO Main bagging at 12.5%, I expect I’ll get a chance to watch the end of this one at least.

Justin Pennell and Steve Azizi spent most of their heads-up with pretty similar chip stacks, but that all changed when Azizi found a miracle run out when he was all in with queen-jack of hearts against the ace-trey for Pennell. The flop was paired nines with an eight, and when the dealer brought a seven to the turn, Azizi called for a ten.

The dealer obliged with the required ten, and suddenly Azizi had backed into the nut straight. That left Pennell very short, though he did manage to double back once and make a bit of a game of it.

It was a night for Azizi to hit the straights, however. The game ended with a final hand where the money went in preflop with Pennell on queen-ten against king-jack for Azizi. Pennell turned a pair of tens and rivered two pair, but with a jack and a nine on the flop, Azizi was straight to the king for the win.

Both of these guys have PPT trophies already — for Azizi, this is at least #4, but it’s his first from the new batch of PPT Diamonds being awarded for he first time this year.

Steve Azizi just took a big lead in heads-up play. He and Justin Pennell were nearly dead even in chips for most of heads-up, but they just got into a big confrontation. Pennell shoved the button with ace-trey, and Azizi called with Q♥J♥.

It was a not-so-classic race, with a not-so-classic runout that gave Azizi the queen high straight on 9♥9♠8♣7♠10♦. The hand left Pennell under 10 bigs, but he doubled back shortly after, and they are still battling.

Dustin Froelich just hit the rail for 3rd place and his first-ever live cash. I got to the table with the flop already out, reading 5♣Q♣K♦. Froelich check-shoved over a bet of 50k from Steve Azizi, and Azizi snapped it off.

Azizi was best with ace-queen for second pair, but Froelich was drawing to clubs with 6♣3♣. 5♥3♠ bricked his clubs and he was out in 3rd for the agreed-upon $3,500, and he was pretty happy to grab his first cash.

Meanwhile, the final two players, Steve Aziz and Justin Pennell, have rejigged the deal to take $4k each, and leave $700 to play for.

Dale Chalifoux just hit the rail for 4th place, worth $3,500 after their deal. He was in against Steve Azizi, who turned a pair of tens for the win.

The final four players have agreed to a deal where they are all guaranteed $3,500, with $1,700 left on the table for the winner. Additionally, the bounty game is now over, as all players will keep their own bounty for the rest of the night.

Jerry Tria just hit the rail for 5th place tonight, earning $1,679 plus an extra $350 for 7 bounties collected tonight. The foinal four players are now talking about an even chop with a bit of money left to play for, and I’ll update shortly if they agree.

There are five players left in the Bounty side game now, after Jim Giddings and Michael St. Pierre-Porter hit the rail recently. I missed the action while I was sorting out the end-of-day work for the PLO Main Event.

Place	Player	Prize
6	Michael St. Pierre-Porter	$1,330
7	Jim Giddings	$1,046
8	Jeff Forester	$828

Dustin Froelich raised to 50k, from the middle, then called when Michael St. Pierre-Porter reraised to 120k. Froelich shoved the 3♥K♦7♥ flop, and St. Pierre-Porter snap-called with more.

Froelich was good with K♥Q♦ for top pair against A♣6♣. the 9♣Q♣ runout didn’t change anything, and Froelich got the double.

Justin Pennell limped his button, and both Jim Giddings, and Dustin Froelich came along from the blinds to see a flop of J♠Q♥2♥. After a check from Giddings, Froelich fired 40k.

Pennell called, while Giddings mucked. On the 8♦ turn, Froelich check-folded to 40k from Pennell.

Dale Chalifoux has a slight lead right now, but Justin Pennell is only 10k behind him. Full stacks for the final 7 are below. The average stack right now is about 15 bigs.

The flop was out showing A♦8♦J♥, and Jerry Tria check-called from the big blind for 50k after JUstin Pennell, in early position, bet. They both checked the 4♥ turn, and Tria shoved his remaining 145k on the J♠ river.

Pennell hit the tank for almost a minute, while Tria engaged in some speech play. Pennell eventually mucked, claiming he had pocket tens, but Tria didn’t show as he collected the pot.

They are down to 7 left in the Bounty side game after Jeff Forester ended his night in 8th place. I don’t have a good handle on the chips yet, but there is a break coming in about 20 minutes, and I’ll get all the remaining counts then. In the meantime, it looks like Justin Pennell has the big stack, with more than 700k in front of him, but Dale Chalifoux is also playing big, with around 500k by the look of it.

Bill Lubyk was the first player out from the final table, ending his night in 9th place. Pictures for the final 9 are below, with the results so far below the pics.

Place	Player	Prize
9	Bill Lubyk	$545
10	Jason Law	$501
11	Karin Schulenburg	$501
12	Brad Stevens	$436

The NLH Bounty game is in the money now with 12 players remaining. The average stack is just over 21 big blinds right now, with Level 19 just underway.

They are three off the money now in the NLH Bounty game, with 15 players left in the action. The average stack right now is about 25 big blinds, but it’s about to drop to 20 bigs when the level changes shortly.

This looks to be the second biggest field of the series so far, trailing only the seniors game that opened the series. That game got 10 more entries than this one, but this looks to be a firm #2, and the biggest open-entry field of the week.

If the 124 entries are confirmed when the prizes are posted, it will mean 13 players sharing in $23,250 in prizes, with an additional $6,200 in bounties, for a combined pool of $29,450.

The combined prizes are nearing $25k in the side game, with about 45 minutes left to enter. The field just ticked over 100 entries, so it looks like this could rival the Seniors game for the biggest field of the series, assuming the pace continues.

The bounty side game is now closing in on 70 entries, with combined prizes of more than $15k. The prizes for later tonight are at $12,563, with $3,350 set aside for bounties so far, but with more than 2 hours left to enter, those numbers are sure to rise significantly before the end.

The side game for tonight is now underway, with nearly a full level of play in the books already. The field is at 34 entries to start Level 2, for combined prizes of just over $8k.

Event #13: $280 NLH Bounty ($200 + $50 + $30)

Thursday’s side dish is served with $50 bounties on the heads of all players. The other $200 of the buy-in (ignoring the $30 reg fee) goes to the prizes at the end of the night.

The action starts at 5 PM, with blinds lasting 20 minutes. Players get 25k to start, and they can buy in or get another 25k for $280 until the start of Level 10, around 8:30 PM. After that, it should be a relatively swift run to the trophy.

At PPT4 in September, Brian Wells was the winner of this one. It took a little over 9 hours for Wells to play through the 94 entries in the game, taking down his first PPT trophy and first live win over Brendan Harder.

This will be my second focus for the day, but with the PLO Main bagging at 12.5%, I expect I’ll get a chance to watch the end of this one at least.