With just three more trophies to award in this Pure Poker Tour series, the action is getting fierce as the Player of the Series race heats up. There are a lot of points up for grabs in the Main Event, but with several people already scoring points, it’s not as simple as the winner of the Main Event winning the PoS.
Based on the current field, there are 684 points for the winner of the Main. That may increase depending on how big Saturday’s Day 1b field gets, but players who already have points in the game can likely take the lead with less than a win, assuming the winner hasn’t bagged any points yet this series.
Sebastian Crema is the current leader after his chop with Ali Khani in the PLO Main. Crema took second place in that chop, but they chopped the PoS points evenly because of the deal. Also, Khani made it clear after the PLO Main that he was unable to play the NLH Main Event, so while he is in second place in the PoS standings, no results from the Main will put him out of the race.
| Player | Points | Cashes |
|---|---|---|
| Sebastian Crema | 336 | 2 |
| Ali Khani | 330 | 1 |
| Deven Lane | 258 | 3 |
| Garry Sandhu | 240 | 1 |
| Brad Bishop | 196 | 2 |
| Weston Pring | 189 | 4 |
| David Kang | 180 | 1 |
| Jeff Forester | 180 | 1 |
| Stefan Maloney | 170 | 2 |
| Cam Stewart | 162 | 2 |
Players near the bottom of that list will likely need at least second place in the NLH Main Event to take the PoS lead, but players like Crema, Lane, and Sandhu could get there with 3rd or better. There are also two more one-day events to consider, so it’s likely the final answer won’t be available until late Sunday.
Most of the PoS race is going to come down to the Main Event results, but players who are already at the top might well make the difference in one of the smaller events. 1b players have a bit of a disadvantage in that, since 1a players are able to enter the 4th Chance tonight, while 1b players who go deep on Day 2 (a requirement for the PoS win) will miss both the 4th Chance and the Last Chance NLH games. There is lots to play for yet here on the PPT, and the next couple of days will be interesting.
Ali Khani Chops PLO Main Event with Sebastian Crema
Event #13: $1,100 PLO Main ($990 + $110)
- Entries: 91
- Prizes: $85,586
- Winner: Ali Khani ($22,394 after Deal with Sebastian Crema ($18,616))
The PLO Main was the second multi-day game of the series, though in this case, there was only a single flight for Day 1 action. The game saw a solid turnout of 91 entries for prizes of almost $86k.
That put more than $34k up top for the winner in the original payouts, but the final two players decided to chop that up a bit. They worked out the ICM numbers for the final two, then took $1,500 off each number. That guaranteed Khani $19,394 and Crema $18,616, with $3k and the trophy left to play for. That final $3k went to Khani to make up his extra juice.
It was a pretty quick Day 2, taking about 4.5 hours to play through the 11 paid spots that returned for Friday’s Day 2 action. Crema was the leader coming in, with Khani a distant second, but Crema had a rough Day 2, getting cut back down to size early in the day to even out the stacks a bit more. Most of the chips were being shared between Khani, Crema, and 3rd-place finisher Garry Sandhu throughout the final day of play.
Khani started heads-up play with a pretty big lead, but an early double for Crema got them closer to even. That’s when they decided to cut the deal and smooth out the prizes. It took another 30 minutes to decide the winner, with Khani’s set of queens holding against a big wrapped flush draw for Crema, who bricked all his outs on the river.
Final Results from the PLO Main Event
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ali Khani | $22,394* |
| 2 | Sebastian Crema | $18,616* |
| 3 | Garry Sandhu | $10,880 |
| 4 | Deven Lane | $8,370 |
| 5 | Kyle Ho | $6,445 |
| 6 | Michael Bingham | $5,105 |
| 7 | Stefan Maloney | $4,015 |
| 8 | John Macarthur | $3,180 |
| 9 | Rhonda Fiveland | $2,595 |
| 10 | Dagan Maxwell | $2,090 |
| 11 | Tyler Noppibul | $1,895 |
Weston Pring Wins Marathon Bounty Game
Event #14: $450 NLH Bounty ($300 + $100 + $50)
- Entries: 117
- Prizes: $44,460 ($32,760 prizes, $11,700 bounties)
- Winner: Weston Pring ($9,120)
This was Weston Pring’s fourth cash this series, and it briefly put him into second place in the Player of the Series standings, just behind Event #3 winner Brad Bishop. That all change the next day when the PLO Main Event results were in, with that game awarding 360 points for first place, but Pring is still sitting in 6th place overall, and a deep run in the NLH Main will be plenty to push him to the top. Depending on the other results, Pring could take over the lead with second place in the NLH Main Event.
It took more than 13 hours to finish out the game, with the heads-up action swinging between both players. Daniel O’Leary started out with the lead, but Pring was able to rebuild to about 5:1. O’Leary wasn’t done, however, and he managed to swing it back to a slight lead, in part after a big hero call before Pring chipped back to a slight lead, then took it all down.
Final Results from $450 NLH Bounty
| Position | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Weston Pring | $9,120 |
| 2 | Daniel O’Leary | $6,285 |
| 3 | Tesh Patel | $4,085 |
| 4 | Wesley Michalycia | $3,140 |
| 5 | David Fong | $2,420 |
| 6 | Mehar Kammili | $1,915 |
| 7 | Glenn Hall | $1,510 |
| 8 | Steve Chung | $1,195 |
| 9 | Ryan Cairns | $975 |
| 10 | Yunlu Wang | $785 |
| 11 | Eric Josselyn | $665 |
| 12 | Matthew Ouellette | $333 |
| 12 | Shabab Khan | $333 |
