The opening day of action is complete here at the second edition of the 2025 Pure Poker Tour. The opening day of action saw the first two tournaments play down to a winner, with one game going to a repeat winner here on the PPT and the other going to a first-timer for his biggest-ever score.
Day 1 of the series saw more than 200 entries across both games, with nearly $60k in prizes awarded by the end of the night. More than $17k was awarded to winners on the opening day of play for Series #2.
John Donnelly Takes 4th PPT Trophy and 3rd Seniors Title
| Event 1: | $340 Seniors First 50+ ($300+$40) |
| Date: | May 15, 12 Noon |
| Blinds: | 30 Minutes |
| Starting Stack: | 25k |
| Entries: | 127 |
| Prizes (Winner): | $36,195 (John Donnelly, $9,850) |
It took more than 13 hours to decide a winner in the Seniors event, and in the end, it was a familiar face atop the standings. John Donnelly broke onto the local scene in the summer of 2023 with a big win in the PPT Main Event in Jul of that year. A couple of months later, he bagged the Seniors title at the following PPT in Sept, then bagged another Seniors trophy in the 2024 Tournament of Champions here at Yellowhead.
Now Donnelly has added a 3rd Seniors title and 4th PPT trophy after the win last night. It took him a few tries to get a buy-in to stick, but “3rd time’s the charm” as he finally caught some cards. Shortly after the dinner break, Donnelly was sitting on a big stack with Kim Graham and Bill Thomson also sitting behind a lot of chips.
One particular hand for Donnelly helped propel him to the win and showed he was dialed into his game last night. Sadly, it was the hand that sent yours truly to the rail before the money. With the river out on a king-high board, I shoved my top pair, mid kicker with the intention of trying to push Donnelly off his own king, as I suspected neither of us was kicked by the ace.
Donnelly hit the tank for several minutes, talking over the hand action to himself as he considered the move. My shove was about 1/3rd of his stack, but in the end, he was able to work out that his kicker was likely better than mine and made a great call.
That hand gave him more than 200k heading towards the final three tables, and he never looked back. Second-place Murray Duval ended his run when Donnelly’s flopped flush crushed his flopped two-pair while Francis Fan, who finished in 3rd, also sent his chips to Donnelly when he got it in with a dominated ace.
Honourable mention goes to 4th-place Bill Thomson. Thomson is a regular in games in Calgary, but it’s less common to see him up here in Edmonton. However, this week he, along with fellow player Don McCall, are playing in the YEGPIN Pinball and Arcade Expo series right now, competing in IFPA-sanctioned pinball tournaments during the Expo and getting in some poker on the side as well.
Seniors Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 |  John Donnelly | $9,850 |
| 2 | Murray Duval | $6,790 |
| 3 | Francis Fan | $4,415 |
| 4 | Bill Thomson | $3,395 |
| 5 | Tony Haines | $2,615 |
| 6 | Karin Schulenburg | $2,070 |
| 7 | John Venning | $1,630 |
| 8 | Cliff Green | $1,290 |
| 9 | Larry Quon | $1,050 |
| 10 | Joe Herlein | $850 |
| 11 | Paul Meyer | $780 |
| 12 | Kim Graham | $780 |
| 13 | Ivan Magulak | $680 |
York Scores Biggest Cash Ever with Half/Half Win
| Event 2: | $340 NLH/PLO Mixed ($300+$40) |
| Date: | May 15, 4 PM |
| Blinds: | 30 Minutes |
| Starting Stack: | 25k |
| Entries: | 81 |
| Prizes (Winner): | $23,085 (Zachary York, $7,395) |
The side game on Opening Day was the half & half with levels alternating between NLH and PLO. By the end of the 8 levels of entry, 81 entries were recorded in the game for a prize pool of just over $23k.
Zachary York put on a bit of a clinic in the game, taking it down without even having to move seats. He was in the same seat from start to end, and was the main action driver when they got down to the business end of this one.
York was a wrecking ball near the end of the game. After Leo Zhang sent Glynn Gracias to the rail for 6th place, it was all York as he sent Zhang, former winner and earlier chip leader Stefan Maloney, Curtis Glyngsdal, and Cameron Stew to the rail to take down the win.
The win was York’s first win and just his second-ever result on Hendon Mob. It basically doubles his previous entry for 4th place in this year’s opening Monthly at Pure Casino Edmonton as he pocketed nearly $7,400 for the win compared with just over $3,500 for the Monthly score.
Results for NLH/PLO Mix
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zachary York | $7,395 |
| 2 | Cameron Stew | $4,845 |
| 3 | Curtis Glyngsdal | $3,230 |
| 4 | Stefan Maloney | $2,310 |
| 5 | Leo Zhang | $1,730 |
| 6 | Glynn Gracias | $1,245 |
| 7 | Darren Massey | $970 |
| 8 | Suzsanna S | $760 |
| 9 | Bernard B | $600 |
The action at PPT #2 continues for 10 more days with two big multi-day games, the High Roller, and the 6-Max among the big games still to come. Day 2 features the opening flight to the $670 Multi-Day game as well as an interesting Deepstack Hyper PLO game on the side. Follow the reporting at poker.pro.
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