10 of 16 events are now complete in the opening series of the 2026 Pure Poker Tour (PPT), with Tuesday seeing the completion of two events to trophies. The main game on Tuesday was the PLO Big Bounty, which had 87 entries for combined prizes of $41,325, while later in the evening, the 3rd Chance NLH got 69 entries for prizes of just under $20k.
There wasn’t much change to the Player of the Series standings from Tuesday’s action, but Cam Stewart managed to push his way into the top five on the back of his second-place finish in the PLO Big Bounty game. That result pushed him up to 4th, dropping the rest of the field down one. Brad Bishop, David Kang, and Jeff Forester are still the top three, thanks to their deep runs in the only multi-day game of the series so far.
Player of the Series Standings After 10 Events
| Player | Points | Cashes |
|---|---|---|
| Brad Bishop | 196 | 2 |
| David Kang | 180 | 1 |
| Jeff Forester | 180 | 1 |
| Cam Stewart | 162 | 2 |
| Mehmet Siginc | 148 | 2 |
| Benny Sarnelli | 124.6 | 2 |
| Shawn Taghavi | 124 | 2 |
| Francis Fan | 122.4 | 2 |
| Jordan Panas | 121 | 1 |
| Steve Azizi | 106.8 | 2 |
Paul Shakir Wins PLO Big Bounty for First Live Win
Event #9: $560 PLO Big Bounty ($300 + $200 + $60)
- Entries: 87
- Prizes: $41,325 ($23,925 prizes, $17,400 bounties)
- Winner: Paul Shakir ($7,660)
The main game on Tuesday was the PLO Big Bounty. For $560, players got 30k in chips to start, with $300 of the buy-in going to the prize pool, and a $200 bounty on every head in the game.
The final field ended at 87 entries for combined prizes of more than $41k, with almost $24k of that in the prize pool to be divided between the top nine players, as well as $17,400 in bounties to be won. It took about 13 hours to play down to the winner, with local player Paul Shakir getting his first live win in the game.
It took about 9 hours to get to the final table and the money, with Dagan Maxwell taking the first paid spot shortly after they hit the final table. Kenny Gooding was the chip leader 8 ways, and they played for about 45 minutes before Michael Flanagan ended his day in 8th place.
Seven-handed play was a bit of a marathon, with action running for more than an hour before AJ James hit the rail for 7th place. Cam Stewart, who has been coming on strong in the last year, with no less than 4 heads-up finishes in 2025 here on the PPT, was stacking chips during 6-handed play, with Gooding being his main target.
After the Broadway hand above, Stewart took another big one off Gooding with trips to chip him up, and send Gooding tumbling. Mike Samchuk then hit the rail for 6th place, and Paul Shakir was leading the way, with Gooding in second and Stewart in 3rd.
Short stack James Hopkins busted for 5th place shortly before 1 AM, and Gooding followed in 4th about 15 minutes later. Matej Bosnjak quickly went out in 3rd to set up the heads-up battle between Shakir & Stewart. That battle went on for close to an hour, and both players were looking to chase away some monkeys.
For his part, runner-up Cam Stewart was looking to finally take that final step up to the top of the podium in his 5th heads-up spot in less than a year. Shakir was also looking for his first-ever live win, so both players had something to prove.
Neither player was dominant through the two-way game, with both players holding the lead at various times, but with the stack sizes never really getting worse than 1.5:1 either way. In the end, it was Shakir who found the final hand he needed. Both players found a straight, but Shakir had Stewart pipped with the king-high versus queen-high, and took down the game.
Final Results for PLO Big Bounty
| Place | Player | Prize | PoS Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Paul Shakir | $7,660 | 108 |
| 2 | Cam Stewart | $5,025 | 90 |
| 3 | Matej Bosnjak | $3,350 | 72 |
| 4 | Kenny Gooding | $2,390 | 54 |
| 5 | James Hopkins | $1,795 | 45 |
| 6 | Mike Samchuk | $1,290 | 36 |
| 7 | Aj James | $1,005 | 27 |
| 8 | Michael Flanagan | $790 | 18 |
| 9 | Dagan Maxwell | $620 | 9 |
Michael St. Pierre-Porter Takes Down 3rd Chance NLH
Event #10: $340 NLH 3rd Chance ($300 + $40)
- Entries: 69
- Prizes: $19,665
- Winner: Michael St. Pierre-Porter ($7,085)
The 3rd Chance NLH game played out alongside the PLO Big Bounty game on Tuesday, with both games finishing at 2 AM. As a result, I didn’t have much of a chance to cover this game, with my attention focused on 4-card action across the room.
It was a relatively small field for this one, with 69 entries for prizes just shy of $20k. They played for about 9 hours from start to finish in this game, with Michael St. Pierre-Porter scoring a rare double knockout at the end.
That meant he avoided heads-up play, taking the game from 3 to 1 in a single hand. Even rarer, he won the game on the final hand with just ace-high as all players whiffed the board.
Final Results from the 3rd Chance NLH
| Place | Player | Prize | PoS Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael St. Pierre-Porter | $7,085 | 67.2 |
| 2 | Anna Morin | $4,915 | 56 |
| 3 | Weston Pring | $3,145 | 44.8 |
| 4 | Glenn Cymbaluk | $1,965 | 33.6 |
| 5 | Greg “Greg Goes All In” Liow | $1,180 | 28 |
| 6 | Ben Grenier | $785 | 22.4 |
| 7 | Rob Lothian | $590 | 16.8 |
