2025 Pure Poker Tour Series #5 – Event #9: $340 PLO Bounty

For a PLO game, it was a pretty quick affair today, with the action finishing up about 11 hours after it started. That was despite this being the second-biggest open-entry field so far this series, falling behind the 109 entries for the $230 NLH by just one entry with 108.

That put the combined prizes at $30,780 ($19,980 prizes, $10,800 bounties), and of the nearly $20k to be won by the top 11 players, Lynn Norris powered her way through to the win worth $5,671. This looks to be her first live win in just her third recorded live cash, and the 1st-place money is almost double her previous lifetime earnings.

She came into the FT with the big stack, but also had defending champ Anthony Madden and Ryane Sanders nipping at her heels.

Early in the FT she lost some chips to Tom T, then found herself chipped down, and all in at risk against Ryane Sanders. She found a straight to get a huge double up back to the top of the counts, while leaving Sanders the shortest of the three remaining players. He managed to spin a bit back with a double through runner-up Kenneth Budd, but he wasn’t able to make it last, ending in 3rd place.

That left what looked to be a potentially long heads-up battle, with Norris in a slight lead over Budd. Instead, a poker cooler showed up that was pretty much always going to be a pot, repot, shove situation heads up in a PLO game.

Norris was double-suited with a nut suit and a pair of eights, against the kings with trey-deuce for Budd. The money went in, and Norris ran out to the nut hearts for the win.

Heads up lasted just a single hand, as they ended it with a cooler. Lynn Norris woke up with ace-queen-eight-eight double-suited in diamonds & hearts against king-king-three-deuce for Kenneth Budd. Norris flopped her queen, but then ran out to a heart flush to crack the kings of Budd and force him into second place after he led most of the endgame tonight.

Ryane Sanders managed to come back after he was nearly felted by Lynn Norris a few hands ago, but his run still came to an end in 3rd place tonight. Kenneth Budd ended up getting a jack-high diamond flush to crack the flopped queens for Sanders. That leaves the game heads up between Budd and Norris, with Norris in the lead.

Lynn Norris was all in, and Ryane Sanders called her with a bit more. He had A♠Q♥5♦3♦ against J♦8♦6♣5♥ for Norris.

Norris found a straight on the runout of A♥6♠7♦4♦10♠ to leave Sanders with about 100k, which he doubled against Budd shortly after, hitting his own straight to crack a pair of sevens for Budd.

Kenneth Budd just sent Tom T to the rail with another boat. The money went in preflop with Tom T on A♦Q♦10♦8♣ against J♣7♥6♦4♠ for Budd. Tom found his queen on the flop, but Budd flopped trip fours and rivered fours full when the board ran out Q♠4♥4♦9♦J♥.

It started as a family pot when Lynn Norris limped, and everyone called behind her. It checked to the button, Tom T, on the 3♥J♦Q♦ flop, and he bet 20k.

Ryane Sanders called from the small blind, as did Kenneth Budd from the big, while initial limper Lynn Norris mucked her hand. After a check from Sanders on the K♥ turn, Budd fired 100k, enough to push the other tow players out of the hand.

I arrived for the hand with action on the flop and the board reading A♦A♣J♦. Kenneth Budd checked from the small blind before Ryane Sanders bet 50k.

Budd called to the 8♥ turn, and checked again. Sanders bet another 50k, but Budd check-raised to 100k. Sanders called to see 5♦ on the river.

Budd changed it up to lead out for 150k on the river, and after some time in the tank, Sanders called. “Nuts,” said Budd, showing A♥J♥7♥4♠ for the nut boat, while Sanders showed jacks and eights for two boats, but both were smaller than Budd’s aces full.

They are down to 5 remaining after defending champion Anthony Madden ended his day in 5th place tonight. He pocketed $1,504 for the finish after two final tables in the last two editions of this game here at Pure Casino Yellowhead.

Kyle Levicki just took the first four-digit payout from tonight’s event, finishing his run in 6th place for $1,191.

Kenneth Budd limped in from the cutoff, Lynn Norris called from the button, and both Anthony Madden and Tom T came along from the blinds as well. They all checked the action through the flop and turn on 5♣9♦2♥A♣6♦, but when the river hit, Madden splashed 35k into the pot.

Tom T folded his big blind before Budd bumped it up to 100k. Norris got out of the way, and Madden hit the tank for a bit. “Two pair no good, eh?” he asked rhetorically. He eventually mucked his hand after about a minute in the tank, and the rest of the table assured him it was a good fold.

Lynn Norris got it started with a limp from the cutoff. Defending champ Anthony Madden called from the button, Tom T called from the small blind, and Ryane Sanders checked his option from the big.

They all checked through the Q♥8♥10♠J♥ flop and turn, but when it checked to Norris on the 7♠ river, she fired 30k. Tom T was the only caller, and he showed a flush with king-jack-five-four with the four-five of hearts after she announced a rivered set of sevens.

The field is down to 6 players left now after three quick exits to start the final table. The average stack is 30 bigs for the next 10 minutes, when it will drop to 22.5 bigs if nothing changes first.

PLO Bounty Payouts So Far

Place	Player	Prize
7	Ryan Comely	$937
8	Paul Shakir	$742
9	Johnny Dalphond	$605
10	Kenny Ta	$488
11	Eric Taylor	$443

Note that Tom T is on the final table, and he prefers not to have his picture or full name shared.

The final table is now being set with the final nine players. Kenny Ta was the bubble to the final table tonight, ending his run in 10th place. There is a break coming in just under 20 minutes, and I’ll get another full round of chip counts then. The average stack at the final table will be 25 big blinds. Stay tuned for pictures and seating assignments, with chip counts to come in about 20 minutes.

There are less than 5 minutes left in Level 18, with the average stack now at about 25 bug blinds. Eric Taylor was the first player out in the money tonight, earning $443 for 11th place. The average stack will drop to just over 20 bigs when the level changes, assuming no one else busts before then.

Tom T is leading the way with 11 remaining, and everyone in the money. No one has taken a pay spot yet, and while the defending champ Anthony Madden isn’t on top right now, he’s still well in the mix with the fourth-best stack in the game right now. Kenneth Budd and Kyle Levicki are between Madden and Tom.

Andrii Kachurovskyi was the bubble tonight, ending his run in 12th place and putting the rest of the field in the money. It looks like Tom T has taken over the lead from the defending champ, but Anthony Madden is very close behind in second place still. It looks like Kyle Levicki is the third stack at the moment as they enter the money play with 11 remaining.

The average stack at the moment is about 41 big blinds, though that will drop to 31 bigs when blinds go up shortly.

Germany’s Michael Baumann was the soft bubble tonight, bringing the game down to 12 remaining, and putting the game hand-for-hand. Baumann just arrived in Canada yesterday, and is here for a few months of a poker holiday. Though he fell a bit short of the money in this one, it was a pretty solid effort for his first Canadian tournament.

They are now two off the money, with 13 players remaining now. Zobayur Raman & Tony Comely were the recent exits to bring it down to 13.

Level 15 has just begun with 15 players left. That puts them four off the money, and it looks like there’s a solid shot for Anthony Madden to go back-to-back in this event. He leads the field as they head toward the money spots, with more than 40 big blinds more than his closest competitor, Tom T. Full stacks and seats for the final 15 are below.

Theya re now 11 off the money spots with the field down to 22 players left. There are about 5 minutes to play in Level 12, and the next break will come following Level 14 in just under an hour.

I’ll have a look around at that point for a full round of chip counts, but below is a look at how the final 22 players are seated. Four players from September’s final table are still in the mix, including the defending champion, Anthony Madden.

The prizes are in and the field is confirmed at 108 entries. That put the combined prizes at $30,780, with $10,800 in bounties and $19,980 in prizes.

11 players will share in the almost $20k in prizes at the end of the night, with the winner set to pocket $5,671. See below, or under the Payouts tab, for the complete prize list.

Entries are now closed on the PLO Bounty, nd the final number on the board is 108 entries. That is still unofficial as I’m waiting for the prizes to be posted to verify, but if it holds, then that should mean 11 players sharing in $19,980 in prizes, with an extra $10,800 in the bounty pool. Once the prizes are posted, I’ll verify the numbers and post a final, confirmed number.

There are about 10 minutes to play in Level 7, with the field now at 75 entries for combined prizes of $21,375. $7,500 of that is reserved for bounties, with the rest in the prize pool for the top 10% of the field.

Entries are still open for a bit more than an hour.

The side game field is up to 43 entries with the action in Level 4. There are still 30 players alive at the felt, including Bobby Rutledge, Brady O’Hara, Ryan Comely, Johnny Dalphond, and Francis Fan, who was the most recent buy-in for the game. Entries on the side are still open for a bit more than 3 hours, with the desk set to close at the start of Level 10.

The side game is in Level 2 now with the field up to 27 entries, and 24 players at the felt. There are about 15 minutes to play in Level 2, and about 4 hours left in the late entry period for this game.

The side game is now underway with 16 players in their seats. PLO specialist Stefan Maloney is among the players in action, as is the runner-up from last time, Frank Urbanovich. Tony Comely, who was 4th last time out, Larry Quon, and Pete Fylyma are among the other players in early four-card bounty action today.

I likely won’t be watching this one very closely until later in the evening when the 6-Max game ends.

Event #9: $340 PLO Bounty ($200 + $100 + $40)

The side game on Tuesday is the PLO Bounty game. $340 buys a player 25k in chips to start the game, and players can buy into the game for the first nine levels of play. Including breaks, that should put the last chance to enter at about 7:40 PM.

Levels will increase every 25 minutes throughout the game, ad they’ll be playing down to a winner before they shut it down for the night.

In September’s event, it was Anthony Madden who took down the big prize. He prevailed over a field of 93 entries in a heads-up battle with Frank Urbanovich, making his way through a final table that included the Comely brothers, Zeyu “Skytrain” Huang, Leo Zhang, Justin Pennell, and Tony Ma, among others.

For a PLO game, it was a pretty quick affair today, with the action finishing up about 11 hours after it started. That was despite this being the second-biggest open-entry field so far this series, falling behind the 109 entries for the $230 NLH by just one entry with 108.

That put the combined prizes at $30,780 ($19,980 prizes, $10,800 bounties), and of the nearly $20k to be won by the top 11 players, Lynn Norris powered her way through to the win worth $5,671. This looks to be her first live win in just her third recorded live cash, and the 1st-place money is almost double her previous lifetime earnings.

She came into the FT with the big stack, but also had defending champ Anthony Madden and Ryane Sanders nipping at her heels.

Early in the FT she lost some chips to Tom T, then found herself chipped down, and all in at risk against Ryane Sanders. She found a straight to get a huge double up back to the top of the counts, while leaving Sanders the shortest of the three remaining players. He managed to spin a bit back with a double through runner-up Kenneth Budd, but he wasn’t able to make it last, ending in 3rd place.

That left what looked to be a potentially long heads-up battle, with Norris in a slight lead over Budd. Instead, a poker cooler showed up that was pretty much always going to be a pot, repot, shove situation heads up in a PLO game.

Norris was double-suited with a nut suit and a pair of eights, against the kings with trey-deuce for Budd. The money went in, and Norris ran out to the nut hearts for the win.

Heads up lasted just a single hand, as they ended it with a cooler. Lynn Norris woke up with ace-queen-eight-eight double-suited in diamonds & hearts against king-king-three-deuce for Kenneth Budd. Norris flopped her queen, but then ran out to a heart flush to crack the kings of Budd and force him into second place after he led most of the endgame tonight.

Ryane Sanders managed to come back after he was nearly felted by Lynn Norris a few hands ago, but his run still came to an end in 3rd place tonight. Kenneth Budd ended up getting a jack-high diamond flush to crack the flopped queens for Sanders. That leaves the game heads up between Budd and Norris, with Norris in the lead.

Lynn Norris was all in, and Ryane Sanders called her with a bit more. He had A♠Q♥5♦3♦ against J♦8♦6♣5♥ for Norris.

Norris found a straight on the runout of A♥6♠7♦4♦10♠ to leave Sanders with about 100k, which he doubled against Budd shortly after, hitting his own straight to crack a pair of sevens for Budd.

Kenneth Budd just sent Tom T to the rail with another boat. The money went in preflop with Tom T on A♦Q♦10♦8♣ against J♣7♥6♦4♠ for Budd. Tom found his queen on the flop, but Budd flopped trip fours and rivered fours full when the board ran out Q♠4♥4♦9♦J♥.

It started as a family pot when Lynn Norris limped, and everyone called behind her. It checked to the button, Tom T, on the 3♥J♦Q♦ flop, and he bet 20k.

Ryane Sanders called from the small blind, as did Kenneth Budd from the big, while initial limper Lynn Norris mucked her hand. After a check from Sanders on the K♥ turn, Budd fired 100k, enough to push the other tow players out of the hand.

I arrived for the hand with action on the flop and the board reading A♦A♣J♦. Kenneth Budd checked from the small blind before Ryane Sanders bet 50k.

Budd called to the 8♥ turn, and checked again. Sanders bet another 50k, but Budd check-raised to 100k. Sanders called to see 5♦ on the river.

Budd changed it up to lead out for 150k on the river, and after some time in the tank, Sanders called. “Nuts,” said Budd, showing A♥J♥7♥4♠ for the nut boat, while Sanders showed jacks and eights for two boats, but both were smaller than Budd’s aces full.

They are down to 5 remaining after defending champion Anthony Madden ended his day in 5th place tonight. He pocketed $1,504 for the finish after two final tables in the last two editions of this game here at Pure Casino Yellowhead.

Kyle Levicki just took the first four-digit payout from tonight’s event, finishing his run in 6th place for $1,191.

Kenneth Budd limped in from the cutoff, Lynn Norris called from the button, and both Anthony Madden and Tom T came along from the blinds as well. They all checked the action through the flop and turn on 5♣9♦2♥A♣6♦, but when the river hit, Madden splashed 35k into the pot.

Tom T folded his big blind before Budd bumped it up to 100k. Norris got out of the way, and Madden hit the tank for a bit. “Two pair no good, eh?” he asked rhetorically. He eventually mucked his hand after about a minute in the tank, and the rest of the table assured him it was a good fold.

Lynn Norris got it started with a limp from the cutoff. Defending champ Anthony Madden called from the button, Tom T called from the small blind, and Ryane Sanders checked his option from the big.

They all checked through the Q♥8♥10♠J♥ flop and turn, but when it checked to Norris on the 7♠ river, she fired 30k. Tom T was the only caller, and he showed a flush with king-jack-five-four with the four-five of hearts after she announced a rivered set of sevens.

The field is down to 6 players left now after three quick exits to start the final table. The average stack is 30 bigs for the next 10 minutes, when it will drop to 22.5 bigs if nothing changes first.

PLO Bounty Payouts So Far

Place	Player	Prize
7	Ryan Comely	$937
8	Paul Shakir	$742
9	Johnny Dalphond	$605
10	Kenny Ta	$488
11	Eric Taylor	$443

Note that Tom T is on the final table, and he prefers not to have his picture or full name shared.

The final table is now being set with the final nine players. Kenny Ta was the bubble to the final table tonight, ending his run in 10th place. There is a break coming in just under 20 minutes, and I’ll get another full round of chip counts then. The average stack at the final table will be 25 big blinds. Stay tuned for pictures and seating assignments, with chip counts to come in about 20 minutes.

There are less than 5 minutes left in Level 18, with the average stack now at about 25 bug blinds. Eric Taylor was the first player out in the money tonight, earning $443 for 11th place. The average stack will drop to just over 20 bigs when the level changes, assuming no one else busts before then.

Tom T is leading the way with 11 remaining, and everyone in the money. No one has taken a pay spot yet, and while the defending champ Anthony Madden isn’t on top right now, he’s still well in the mix with the fourth-best stack in the game right now. Kenneth Budd and Kyle Levicki are between Madden and Tom.

Andrii Kachurovskyi was the bubble tonight, ending his run in 12th place and putting the rest of the field in the money. It looks like Tom T has taken over the lead from the defending champ, but Anthony Madden is very close behind in second place still. It looks like Kyle Levicki is the third stack at the moment as they enter the money play with 11 remaining.

The average stack at the moment is about 41 big blinds, though that will drop to 31 bigs when blinds go up shortly.

Germany’s Michael Baumann was the soft bubble tonight, bringing the game down to 12 remaining, and putting the game hand-for-hand. Baumann just arrived in Canada yesterday, and is here for a few months of a poker holiday. Though he fell a bit short of the money in this one, it was a pretty solid effort for his first Canadian tournament.

They are now two off the money, with 13 players remaining now. Zobayur Raman & Tony Comely were the recent exits to bring it down to 13.

Level 15 has just begun with 15 players left. That puts them four off the money, and it looks like there’s a solid shot for Anthony Madden to go back-to-back in this event. He leads the field as they head toward the money spots, with more than 40 big blinds more than his closest competitor, Tom T. Full stacks and seats for the final 15 are below.

Theya re now 11 off the money spots with the field down to 22 players left. There are about 5 minutes to play in Level 12, and the next break will come following Level 14 in just under an hour.

I’ll have a look around at that point for a full round of chip counts, but below is a look at how the final 22 players are seated. Four players from September’s final table are still in the mix, including the defending champion, Anthony Madden.

The prizes are in and the field is confirmed at 108 entries. That put the combined prizes at $30,780, with $10,800 in bounties and $19,980 in prizes.

11 players will share in the almost $20k in prizes at the end of the night, with the winner set to pocket $5,671. See below, or under the Payouts tab, for the complete prize list.

Entries are now closed on the PLO Bounty, nd the final number on the board is 108 entries. That is still unofficial as I’m waiting for the prizes to be posted to verify, but if it holds, then that should mean 11 players sharing in $19,980 in prizes, with an extra $10,800 in the bounty pool. Once the prizes are posted, I’ll verify the numbers and post a final, confirmed number.

There are about 10 minutes to play in Level 7, with the field now at 75 entries for combined prizes of $21,375. $7,500 of that is reserved for bounties, with the rest in the prize pool for the top 10% of the field.

Entries are still open for a bit more than an hour.

The side game field is up to 43 entries with the action in Level 4. There are still 30 players alive at the felt, including Bobby Rutledge, Brady O’Hara, Ryan Comely, Johnny Dalphond, and Francis Fan, who was the most recent buy-in for the game. Entries on the side are still open for a bit more than 3 hours, with the desk set to close at the start of Level 10.

The side game is in Level 2 now with the field up to 27 entries, and 24 players at the felt. There are about 15 minutes to play in Level 2, and about 4 hours left in the late entry period for this game.

The side game is now underway with 16 players in their seats. PLO specialist Stefan Maloney is among the players in action, as is the runner-up from last time, Frank Urbanovich. Tony Comely, who was 4th last time out, Larry Quon, and Pete Fylyma are among the other players in early four-card bounty action today.

I likely won’t be watching this one very closely until later in the evening when the 6-Max game ends.

Event #9: $340 PLO Bounty ($200 + $100 + $40)

The side game on Tuesday is the PLO Bounty game. $340 buys a player 25k in chips to start the game, and players can buy into the game for the first nine levels of play. Including breaks, that should put the last chance to enter at about 7:40 PM.

Levels will increase every 25 minutes throughout the game, ad they’ll be playing down to a winner before they shut it down for the night.

In September’s event, it was Anthony Madden who took down the big prize. He prevailed over a field of 93 entries in a heads-up battle with Frank Urbanovich, making his way through a final table that included the Comely brothers, Zeyu “Skytrain” Huang, Leo Zhang, Justin Pennell, and Tony Ma, among others.