Saturday at the 2025 Pure Poker Tour #3 saw Day 1b of the opening multi-day event play out, as well as an NLH side game in the evening. The second flight to Event #3 was a much bigger affair than Day 1a, but ironically, it was also a lot quicker.
Later in the evening, the side game kicked off, and it also saw a solid turnout. More than 100 entries swelled that game to nearly $30k in total prizes, putting the winner’s share at more than $8k.
O’Leary Headlines Day 1b Stacks; Leads into Day 2
Daniel O’Leary has a pretty decent record on the PPT, and at Pure Casinos in general. He has three PPT trophies already, all won last year, but he also has a couple of wins from Monthly Deepstacks games at Pure properties.
It looks like he could add trophy #4 after bagging the Day 1b lead, and the overall lead for Day 2, pipping Curtis Singleton’s Day 1a leading stack by about 30k. Both players bagged more than 400k, and were the only two players to put more than 400k into a bag.
When the dust settled, the game saw 221 total entries for prizes of more than $125k. Day 1a got 76 entries, with 145 for Day 1b, leaving 28 players to compete for prizes on Sunday’s Day 2.
Day 2 action runs on Sunday and coverage will be exclusively here on poker.pro.
Jacobs & Sharma Have Spirited Heads Up
It was a pretty spirited final table in Event #5 on Saturday night. Anytime DJ Sharma makes a final table, it’s a safe bet the game will be loud and boisterous, and Saturday night was no exception.
Sharma was running hot and largely dominated both the play on the felt and the table talk for most of the FT. On the other end of the spectrum, Devon Jacobs was quietly sitting back, working his way through the ladders until he got heads-up against Sharma.
Jacobs had to come from behind to take down the victory. Sharma was running very hot through the endgame, and he had about a 2:1 lead to start the two-way play. Jacobs took the lead in a hand where he turned a straight and got paid by Sharma on the river.
Sharma was able to chip back to a slight lead, however, but it all came crashing down for him in a huge cooler when he got his money in with ace-ten looking to end it all, but Jacobs woke up with ace-queen and held for a huge double.
That left Sharma on fumes, but he was far from done. He switched it up and started shoving nearly every hand — a great strategy short-stacked heads up, right up until it’s not. Shama managed to pick up several pots with dead calls or raises in them by shoving, and nearly chipped back up to even before one of his shoves ran into the top of Jacobs’ range.
He was called with king-queen, but Sharma was still live with a sex-four. Jacobs hit his king, however, and Sharma couldn’t improve enough to stay alive. That left the McDonald’s magnate one short of his second PPT trophy and awarded Jacobs his first.
Sunday Action
The PPT #3 continues on Sunday with Day 2 of Event #3, as well as a Big Bounty side event, and a satellite later Sunday night.
