Saturday at the PPT featured Day 1b of the opening multi-flight event, as well as a late-night NLH game. The final flight to Event #3 saw 124 entries for a grand total of 209 entries across both days, compared to 221 in July’s event. Last year in September, Event #3 was a Mystery Bounty multi-day game, and they saw 222 entries across both days for that one, so the numbers are fairly consistent so far.
The side game on Saturday was the $300 NLH. That game drew 81 entries for prizes of $20,777, which was quite a bit lower than the 116 they got in July over at Argyle.
Boyer Bags Big 1b Stack
- Event #3: $670 NLH Day 1B
- Entries: 124
- Prizes: $70,680 ($119,130 Combined)
- Big Stack: David Boyer (433k)
The final flight to Event #3 played out on Saturday with 124 entries for 1b, putting the final tally at 209 entries across both days. David Boyer was the big stack at the end of the night, the only 1b player with more than 400k. Shawn Taghavi, Cameron Stewart, Alex Liu, and Michael Bernstein rounded out the top 5 from 1b.
It was still the 1a leader and defending champ, Jimmy Lee, in the lead for Sunday’s Day 2, however, with his fellow 1a player, Garry Sandhu, in second for Day 2. A total of 16 players found bags at the end of 1b, which meant 27 players returning for Day 2.
Day 1b Stacks from Event #3
| Player | Chips |
|---|---|
| David Boyer | 433,000 |
| Shawn Taghavi | 368,000 |
| Cameron Stewart | 347,500 |
| Alex Liu | 331,500 |
| Michael Bernstein | 286,500 |
| Brian McNevin | 269,000 |
| Phillip Louie | 199,500 |
| Ryan Cairns | 171,000 |
| Yeping Shan | 114,000 |
| Rob Limpert | 103,000 |
| Ryan Comely | 99,500 |
| Ali Razzaq | 87,000 |
| Mike Aloneissi | 86,500 |
| Johnny Dalphond | 78,500 |
| Wu Yaobin | 67,500 |
| Alan Zhu | 52,000 |
Sidhu Gets Through on Second Attempt
- Event #5: $300 NLH
- Entries: 81
- Prizes: $20,777
- Winner: Varan Sidhu ($6,652
It was Varan Sidhu’s second final table in as many nights in the Saturday night side game. On Friday night, he was the chip leader with five remaining in the PLO Deepstack Hyper until he ran into a huge cooler against Nate Habte and couldn’t find his draws. That left him short, and he ended up 4th in that one.
The next night, he was back at it, finding the final table once again, with the big stack. This time, he managed to navigate the coolers to find the win.
In fact, Sidhu did most of the damage at the final table, sending most of the others home. His nine-seven of hearts got there against Leo Bouwer’s queen-three of diamonds to get him heads up with Stacey Diederich. Sidhu had the lead, but Diederich wasn’t that far behind.
They traded small pots for a few hands before the heads-up cooler came. Sidhu had the nine-seven again, this time suited in spades, but he was behind the king-jack off for Diederich. That changed in a hurry when he flopped a nine and turned trips to take it down.
This was Sidhu’s second live win, with his first coming earlier this year here at Yellowhead in the May series, when he took down the Main Event for $54k.
Final Results from Event #5
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Varan Sidhu | $6,652 |
| 2 | Stacey Diederich | $4,365 |
| 3 | Leo Brouwer | $2,910 |
| 4 | Avery Aloneissi | $2,075 |
| 5 | Gerald Chung | $1,560 |
| 6 | Michael Powley | $1,120 |
| 7 | Resul Dauti | $870 |
| 8 | Ken Kaneda | $685 |
| 9 | Benny Sarnelli | $540 |
