The 2025 season on the Pure Poker Tour (PPT) from Pure Canadian Gaming has now come to a close, and it was a big year. There were a couple of big double-winners, and a local, well-known server made her name known on the felt, while three other players rose to the top with solid performances throughout the year.
There was more than $4 million awarded on the PPT this year in 5 different series that saw nearly 9,000 entries across the year. The action moved between Pure Casino Edmonton (two series, Feb & Jul), and Pure Casino Yellowhead (three series, May, Sep, & Nov).
PPT 2025 Summary Details
| Series: | 5 |
| Events: | 78 |
| Total Prizes: | $4,279,765 |
| Total 1st Place: | $961,149 |
| Total Entries: | 8,872 |
Top 5 Stories from the 2025 PPT
- 1. Pav Braich Goes Back-to-Back Mains
- 2. Shawn Taghavi Wins Two at One Stop
- 3. Nu Teliani Crushes End-of-Year Events
- 4. Jenna Murray Bursts onto the Scene with Big Performances
- 5. Ma & Stewart are the Final Table Faces for 2025
5. Ma & Stewart are the Final Table Faces for 2025
Among the players who put in standout performances in 2025 were Tony Ma & Cam Stewart. Especially as the end-of-year approached, the two players seemed to find the same final tables over and over again, facing each other down multiple times in the endgame over the final two series of 2025.
Stewart found himself at 9 final tables on the PPT throughout 2025, and was heads up on four different occasions. Ma found his way to 10 PPT final tables in 2025, booking two wins along the way.
Many of those FTs were shared experiences for the two, not least in Sept when they faced off heads up against each other for the $560 NLH Crown in Event #10 at PPT #4. Ma took that one down, denying Stewart any wins for his nine trips to the final nine, but given that Stewart is a relative newcomer, with his Hendon Mob profile exclusively full of 2025 results, and 9 of his first 13 recorded cashes were final tables, Stewart looks to be one to watch for 2026.
Ma remains as deadly as ever, though he executes his ruthless poker with a smile and some friendly banter at all times. Don’t let the friendly smile fool you, though – Ma looks to be among the biggest threats at the PPT felt going into 2026.
4. Jenna Murray Serves Up Some Poker
Prior to 2025, Jenna Murray was a familiar face on the PPT, but she was more recognizable behind a server’s tray, bringing players their food and drinks with a smile at Pure Casino Edmonton. In 2025, a new image of Murray appeared. This time, however, she was behind a stack of poker chips.
Early in the year, Murray broke out into the scene with a final table performance in the Main Event. She bagged a nice tip of $20k for fourth in the May Main at Yellowhead, but anyone who thought that was just a fluke had another think coming.
A couple of months later, when the PPT returned to Yellowhead in Sept, Murray was back at the tables, this time alternating between two and four cards every level in the NLH/PLO Mix game. Among the most skill-heavy games in a PPT series mix, demanding an understanding of two very different kinds of poker, Murray powered her way through to her first live win.
3. Nu Teliani Turns it Up to End the Year
Early in the season, Nu Teliani booked three final tables in the first three series, including a win with her boss in the Team event at PPT #1 at Pure Casino Edmonton in Feb. It was at the end of the season that she really turned up the heat, showing herself as one of the best players in the local MTT scene from Sep onward.
In September, she booked a win in the 6-Max game for almost $16k, then turned it up to 11 for the final series at Yellowhead in November. She started PPT #5 off by barely missing the final table in the first open event, the NLH/PLO Mix, then went on to book two more final table cashes for the series, including 5th place in the 6-Max, the event she won in September. Teliani will definitely be one to watch going into 2026 on the PPT after she finished 2025 on fire.
2. Shawn Taghavi Bags Two in July
Shawn Taghavi had a pretty good July. He started PPT #3 off with a win in the Seniors event, taking down the game over 143 entries for a prize of $10,820. Then, later in the same series, he bagged up his second PPT trophy (he had one Edmonton DSPT trophy from 2019 previously) in the 6-Max game (77 entries, $51,205 in total prizes) for $14,855.
Taghavi is no stranger to the deep end of PPT games. He’s been in the final three of the Seniors game a few times in the past few seasons, but he turned it up in 2025 with five final tables and two wins, as well as multiple other cashes on the Tour this season, so look for Taghavi to continue to be a big name in the deep end of PPT games in 2026.
1. Pav Braich is the Main Event King of 2025
The big story from 2026 comes from local air traffic controller Pav Braich. Braich is a familiar face on the PPT, but 2025 was the year he broke through to the top spots in the biggest game on the tour. He had two PPT trophies coming into the September Main (one from 2022, and one from Feb 2025), both were in one of the smaller side games on the tour.
September marked his first trip to the top of the pile in the Main Event, chopping for first place against Cam Stewart (See #5 above). He came back to Yellowhead in November of 2025 for the final series of the season, and once again, he found his way to the top of the Main Event results with a chop, this time over Johnny Dalphond & Luteng Li, for his second straight Main Event trophy of 2025.
With the double Main win, Braich joins a pretty exclusive club. Previously, Winnipeg’s Eric Wasylenko was the lone member of the Main two-timers club, but he can now share a drink in the exclusive lounge with Braich, who will almost certainly be buying white wine.
A Look Back at 2025 & Forward to 2026
2025 PPT Results by Series
| Series | Prizes | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 Pure Poker Tour #1 – Pure Casino Edmonton | $808,167 | 1,618 |
| 2025 Pure Poker Tour #2 – Pure Casino Yellowhead | $782,782 | 1,573 |
| 2025 Pure Poker Tour #3 – Pure Casino Edmonton | $1,040,686 | 2,354 |
| 2025 Pure Poker Tour #4 – Pure Casino Yellowhead | $733,620 | 1,531 |
| 2025 Pure Poker Tour #5 – Pure Casino Yellowhead | $914,510 | 1,796 |
One series in 2025 cracked the $1 million mark for prizes, but for 2026 I’m predicting at least 3 of the series will cap that number. Additionally, expect Teliani, Stewart, Ma, and Braich to continue their strong play into the new year. The 2025 surprises, Jenna Murray and Cam Stewart, also threaten to become regular fixtures at the business end of the 2026 tour stops.
The first stop of the 2026 season comes at Pure Casino Edmonton in February, and it looks to be an exciting year on the Pure Poker Tour!
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