After 11 days of poker action at Pure Casino Yellowhead, the fourth edition of the 2025 Pure Poker Tour culminated in a big Sunday that saw more than $300k awarded across two events. The Main Event played out its final day with 36 players returning and a prize pool of nearly $275k, while the Last Chance single-day event had the best one-day turnout for the whole series with 127 entries.
In the end, $310,821 was handed out between the two events on the final day of the series, with the two winners pocketing nearly $50k between them. When they got down to the business end of the biggest game of the week, the Main Event, the final four players cut a deal (with another deal heads up), or the winners on Sunday would have earned more than $60k between them.
In addition to the big final games on Sunday, Saturday night saw the Team Event play out. While this tends to be a smaller event (34 team entries this time around), the players tend to be a core group who come to the game to have fun as much as play poker, and we often see similar names at the end of the night. This series was no exception to that trend.
Pav Braich Wins His First Main Event for $38,626 after Deals
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After the biggest turnout of the series, with 292 entries for prizes of $274,626, the Main Event played down to the winner on Sunday. In a surprisingly fast day, the last of the 36 returning players were heading home with their money less than 13 hours after they sat down.
In part, it went quicker because the final four players made a deal. When they got down to the final five, it was interesting to see most of the start-of-day chip leaders still sitting around the table. Jan Rufoli was the odd man out in that regard, as he came into Day 2 with a middling stack, but Kris Steinbach (5th, chip lead), Cam Stewart (2nd, 2nd), Pav Braich (winner, 3rd), and Aaron Quon (3rd, 4th) were the top four stacks coming into the day.
The rest of the final table was just as tough, with Nathan Tang, Colten Yamagishi, Talal Shoush, and Resul Dauti rounding out the final table players. Once Tang was eliminated in 6th place, the final five players started to chat about a deal. Things were a little contentious at first, and they weren’t able to come to an agreement before the start-of-day leader, Steinbach, was coolered to the rail in 5th when his tens were capped by Braich’s aces.
It still took some time for the final four to see eye-to-eye on the deal, but they finally got there. With the stacks at the time, Rufoli, Quon, and Braich all guaranteed themselves $35k, while Cam Stewart (who said a few times he worked for minimum wage, so was pretty happy with $30k in a day) locked in at $30k. That left $10,626 to play for, with the eventual winner agreeing to take $10k, and leave $626 at the cage for a dealer tip.
That sped the game up even more, and Rufoli quickly hit the rail for his $35k. The final three battled a little longer until Aaron Quon lost a race against Braich for 3rd place.
Stewart and Braich didn’t take long to rework the deal. In the end, Stewart locked in $37k, with Braich getting $38,626 & the trophy.
A few extra notes on this game. For Cam Stewart, it was final table #4 in this series. He didn’t manage to bag a trophy this time around, but his finish in the Main was his second runner-up of the week, after he came second to Tony Ma in Event #10.
Jared Kempf, who finished 12th, also had an interesting story. He bagged big on Day 1b, holding a big stack through most of the end of that day, as well as through much of Day 2, which he started in 5th place. He ultimately fell in 12th place just before the final table, but he confirmed to me at the table that this was his very first live poker tournament. Earning $4,135 for 12th in a Main Event is a pretty decent result for your first time out.
This was Braich’s 3rd PPT trophy, but his first Main Event win. The $38k Canadian score should bump his lifetime earnings close to $400k, though he’ll probably end up somewhere between $380k-$390k once the exchange is applied. Overall, it was his 13th lifetime win. So much for the #13 being unlucky — for Braich, it’s the number that got him a Main Event trophy.
Final Table Results from the Main Event
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Pav Braich | $38,626* |
| 2 | Cameron Stewart | $37,000* |
| 3 | Aaron Quon | $35,000* |
| 4 | Jan Rufoli | $35,000* |
| 5 | Kris Steinbach | $15,570 |
| 6 | Nathan Tang | $12,335 |
| 7 | Colten Yamagishi | $9,705 |
| 8 | Talal Shoush | $7,685 |
| 9 | Resul Dauti | $6,270 |
Hoyt Takes his First Live Cash with a Side of Trophy
While the final day of the Main Event was playing out in the Pearl Room, the biggest single-day event of the series played out in the Poker Room. The Last Chance game cost $340, and got 127 entries for prizes of $36,190.
They took just under 11 hours to finish the game, but I had very little time to watch it, as I was focused on the Main Event. I did make it over for the endgame, to watch Roger Hoyt put on a display of aggression to take down Alan Zhu heads up.
Hoyt had the lead through it all after sending Mishel Nguyen home in 3rd place. He started about 2:1 up, and quickly chipped Zhu down, both through aggression that forced folds and getting there when he had to. Zhu lost one pot to Hoyt’s two pair and was quite surprised to see the hand.
Once Hoyt had gotten to more than 3:1 up, he started shoving nearly every hand, knowing Zhu needed at least two doubles at that point to get back into it. That was enough to chip Zhu down to fumes, and though he did manage to find one double with an ace, he then quickly lost a race with sevens against king-nine for all the chips.
That left Hoyt with the win, and he confirmed after the game that it was his first live cash. That means he’ll be opening his Hendon Mob profile with a win.
Final Results from the Last Chance
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roger Hoyt | $9,850 |
| 2 | Alan Zhu | $6,790 |
| 3 | Mishel Nguyen | $4,415 |
| 4 | Shane Hall | $3,395 |
| 5 | Nadav Bitton | $2,615 |
| 6 | Jason Law | $2,070 |
| 7 | Amr Samy | $1,630 |
| 8 | Josh Wallace | $1,290 |
| 9 | Dino R | $1,050 |
| 10 | Michelle Valencia | $850 |
| 11 | Shihao Zhao | $780 |
| 12 | Ed Zurawell | $780 |
| 13 | Somsanouk Sitthamma | $680 |
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Harder/Samer Take the Team
The Team game on Saturday night saw 34 entries for prizes of $6,460. The team of Brendan Harder and Derek Samer took it down for $2,780 over the York brothers, Skyler & Zach.
Final Results from the Team Game
| Place | Team | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brendan Harder/Derek Samer | $2,780 |
| 2 | Skyler York/Zachary York | $1,875 |
| 3 | Tony Bislimi/Su Misimi | $1,160 |
| 4 | Maksym Baluchynskyy/Shabab Khan | $645 |
