2025 Pure Poker Tour Series #1 – Event #5: $340 NLH

Daniel Hicks picked up his second PPT Trophy tonight after a pretty Pure run through the game. He was on the big stack pretty much everytime I checked the chips and held the lead for all of the final table. He was getting hands when he needed to, finding several spots on the final table with the biggest pair against a smaller stack, but he also got there when he had to.

In the final hand, he called off runner-up Gerald Chung with a suited king against pocket eights and then turned the king for the big win. Hicks picked up his first trophy last fall here at Argyle in the NLH/PLO Mix game last October, and he now has one of the newly designed trophies for 2025.

The final three players made an ICM deal that smoothed out the money a bit. Hicks guaranteed himself $6,032 in the deal with the big stack, and they left $1,500 on the table to play for. Hicks also took that with the win for a final tally of $7,532.

Read more in our front page recap

Pure Poker Tour

Event #6 Sets its Day 2 and Another Trophy is Awarded on Day 3 of PPT

February 16, 2025

Event #5 is complete now with Gerald Chung taking second place for the deal-adjusted payout of $4,746. He shoved with pocket eights and Daniel Hicks called off with a suited king. Hicks turned the king for the big lead and Chung bricked the river to end in 2nd place.

Chung had a pretty decent run all things considered. He was down to just one big blind earlier in the night but managed to spin it back up to second place, narrowly missing out on his 4th PPT trophy.

They are heads up now after Gursehaj Singh got his money in with pocket nines but ran into the pocket jacks for Daniel Hicks. The jacks held and Singh was out in 3rd place for the deal-adjusted payout of $4,137. Singh requested his picture not be used tonight for personal reasons.

The final three players decided to make an ICM deal here tonight. Daniel Hicks has the lead and secured $6,032. Gerald Chung guaranteed himself $4,746 while Gursehaj Singh is guaranteed $4,137. That leaves $1,500 in the pot to play for along with the trophy.

The final three players are on a break with the end of Level 21 and Daniel Hicks still has a big lead. He has more than a million chips now with Gursehaj Singh on 520k and Gerald Chung on 450k.

They are down to three left after Allison Buffalo hit the rail in 4th place tonight. I missed the action as I was out of the room using the washroom.

They are down to 4 left after Vinh Vu hit the rail in 5th place. I missed the action as things have been moving very quickly and I was typing while it happened.

Gerald Anderson hit the rail for 6th place in a bit of a gross spot. He was in with the best holding pocket jacks against a suited ten-nine for Vinh Vu and a suited six-three for Daniel Hicks. Hicks flopped two pair but Vu flopped a straight flush draw. The plain straight turned up and the river bricked to send the main pot to Vu, the side pot to Hicks, and Anderson to the rail in 6th place.

Mike Malm ran into the juggernaut of Daniel Hicks when his nines couldn’t win a race against the ace-king of Hicks.

Hongwei Liu was the first player out in the money now after a bit of a bad beat. Gerald Chung raised under the gun to 27k and Liu called from the button. Ching fired 33k on the 7♣Q♣A♦ flop, then called with more when Liu shoved.

It looked like a chop with ace-three for Chung and ace-four for Liu, but Chung found a trey on the turn and held for the win with two pair.

Hamish Tong was the bubble player tonight after his pocket sevens ran into the red-hot Daniel Hicks with aces. The aces held and Tong was out in 9th place with the remaining field now in the money.

Below is a look at the final table players with one exception — Gursehaj Singh has requested I not post his picture tonight.

They are setting the final table now with 9 players left after Kris Steinbach hit the rail in 10th to bubble the final table. They are still one off the money. Daniel Hicks is still the big leader at the moment.

They are down to 10 left now after a huge hand saw two players exit from Table 23. Tony Comely was all in with tens, Jatinder Brar was all in with sixes and Daniel Hicks woke up with aces. Comely looked like he might come through when the ten hit on the turn, but it was the 10♦ for the 3rd diamond on board. The river was also sparkly with Hicks holding the A♦ for the nut flush and the big win.

That hand left Hicks with 660k for a huge lead while on the other table, Dale Chalifoux also hit the rail to bring the field to 10.

Merlin Grabia just took a bit of a bad beat to hit the rail in 145h. He shoved from early position and Tony Comely reshoved a bit more from the cutoff. Kris Steinbach called them both with the biggest stack to put the both at risk.

Steinbach was on sixes against ace-ten for Comely and ace-jack for Grabia but Comely spiked two pair to grab a near triple up and send Grabia to the rail.

Meanwhile, on the other table, Michael St. Pierre-Porter hit the rail in 14th after he couldn’t find any help with a dominated ace.

They are down to 15 left now after Matthew Ouellette sent his short stack over to Daniel Hicks. Ouellette was all in with ace-jack but ran into ace-queen for Hicks and the queen played for the win.

Meanwhile, on the other table, Gerald Chung got a double through Dale Chalifoux when they both flopped a queen but Chung’s jack kicker pipped Chalifoux’s ten.

The final 16 players are on a break following the end of Level 16. Below is a look at the remaining players and stacks at the break. Kris Steinbach is the leader now at 236k with Daniel Hicks in 2nd with the only other stack over 200k.

The prizes are in and 8 players will be sharing in nearly $23k later tonight. The top prize will be $7,750 with $660 on the board for 8th place. Full prizes are listed under the Payouts tab.

While I don’t have a good handle on the stacks at the moment, here is a look at the final 17 players in action.

The prizes are over $17k now with 61 on the board, and they are about 10 entries away from hitting 20k in prizes. There is just under an hour left to enter the game, so it seems likely they’ll have $20k or more to play for tonight.

They are 1 entry away from $15k in prizes now with Level 6 just underway. There are now about 90 minutes left to enter this game so the numbers will increase still with $20k+ in prizes likely before it all closes.

The field for the side game is up to 44 players now for $12,540 in prizes. Entries for this game will close in about 2 hours at 9:30 PM.

The field is growing in the side game with 38 entries on the board now for prizes of almost $11k. There are still more than 2 hours left for new entries or rebuys in this one.

They are just shy of $10k in prizes with about 5 minutes to play in Level 3. The field is now at 33 entries and it looks like there have been no busts so far today as the board is still showing 33 players as well. Entries for this one are still open for about 2.5 hours.

The side game for Saturday night is now underway with 18 players in action as Level 2 begins. Entries are still open for about 3 hours so those numbers are sure to increase before the desk shuts down at around 9:30 PM.

Benny Sarnelli has moved over from Day 1b to this one, and among the others joining him are Cindy Grabia, Maru Somers, Trevor Simpson (who bagged E03 Day 1a yesterday), Preston Stevenson, and Matthew Ouellette.

The side game for Saturday night is the $340 NLH. Players sit down with 25k in chips for 20-minute levels throughout the night, though levels will drop to 15 minutes for heads-up play.

There are 9 levels of late entry in this one, which should mean the final chance to get a seat will be at about 9:30 PM tonight. After that, it will be a race to the trophy in this one-day event.

I’ll be over to catch the endgame of this one, though I won’t be watching it too closely at the start. I’ll be watching E3 until the second flight bags tonight, but I’ll move over to cover the end of this one once 1b is complete.

Daniel Hicks picked up his second PPT Trophy tonight after a pretty Pure run through the game. He was on the big stack pretty much everytime I checked the chips and held the lead for all of the final table. He was getting hands when he needed to, finding several spots on the final table with the biggest pair against a smaller stack, but he also got there when he had to.

In the final hand, he called off runner-up Gerald Chung with a suited king against pocket eights and then turned the king for the big win. Hicks picked up his first trophy last fall here at Argyle in the NLH/PLO Mix game last October, and he now has one of the newly designed trophies for 2025.

The final three players made an ICM deal that smoothed out the money a bit. Hicks guaranteed himself $6,032 in the deal with the big stack, and they left $1,500 on the table to play for. Hicks also took that with the win for a final tally of $7,532.

Read more in our front page recap

Pure Poker Tour

Event #6 Sets its Day 2 and Another Trophy is Awarded on Day 3 of PPT

February 16, 2025

Event #5 is complete now with Gerald Chung taking second place for the deal-adjusted payout of $4,746. He shoved with pocket eights and Daniel Hicks called off with a suited king. Hicks turned the king for the big lead and Chung bricked the river to end in 2nd place.

Chung had a pretty decent run all things considered. He was down to just one big blind earlier in the night but managed to spin it back up to second place, narrowly missing out on his 4th PPT trophy.

They are heads up now after Gursehaj Singh got his money in with pocket nines but ran into the pocket jacks for Daniel Hicks. The jacks held and Singh was out in 3rd place for the deal-adjusted payout of $4,137. Singh requested his picture not be used tonight for personal reasons.

The final three players decided to make an ICM deal here tonight. Daniel Hicks has the lead and secured $6,032. Gerald Chung guaranteed himself $4,746 while Gursehaj Singh is guaranteed $4,137. That leaves $1,500 in the pot to play for along with the trophy.

The final three players are on a break with the end of Level 21 and Daniel Hicks still has a big lead. He has more than a million chips now with Gursehaj Singh on 520k and Gerald Chung on 450k.

They are down to three left after Allison Buffalo hit the rail in 4th place tonight. I missed the action as I was out of the room using the washroom.

They are down to 4 left after Vinh Vu hit the rail in 5th place. I missed the action as things have been moving very quickly and I was typing while it happened.

Gerald Anderson hit the rail for 6th place in a bit of a gross spot. He was in with the best holding pocket jacks against a suited ten-nine for Vinh Vu and a suited six-three for Daniel Hicks. Hicks flopped two pair but Vu flopped a straight flush draw. The plain straight turned up and the river bricked to send the main pot to Vu, the side pot to Hicks, and Anderson to the rail in 6th place.

Mike Malm ran into the juggernaut of Daniel Hicks when his nines couldn’t win a race against the ace-king of Hicks.

Hongwei Liu was the first player out in the money now after a bit of a bad beat. Gerald Chung raised under the gun to 27k and Liu called from the button. Ching fired 33k on the 7♣Q♣A♦ flop, then called with more when Liu shoved.

It looked like a chop with ace-three for Chung and ace-four for Liu, but Chung found a trey on the turn and held for the win with two pair.

Hamish Tong was the bubble player tonight after his pocket sevens ran into the red-hot Daniel Hicks with aces. The aces held and Tong was out in 9th place with the remaining field now in the money.

Below is a look at the final table players with one exception — Gursehaj Singh has requested I not post his picture tonight.

They are setting the final table now with 9 players left after Kris Steinbach hit the rail in 10th to bubble the final table. They are still one off the money. Daniel Hicks is still the big leader at the moment.

They are down to 10 left now after a huge hand saw two players exit from Table 23. Tony Comely was all in with tens, Jatinder Brar was all in with sixes and Daniel Hicks woke up with aces. Comely looked like he might come through when the ten hit on the turn, but it was the 10♦ for the 3rd diamond on board. The river was also sparkly with Hicks holding the A♦ for the nut flush and the big win.

That hand left Hicks with 660k for a huge lead while on the other table, Dale Chalifoux also hit the rail to bring the field to 10.

Merlin Grabia just took a bit of a bad beat to hit the rail in 145h. He shoved from early position and Tony Comely reshoved a bit more from the cutoff. Kris Steinbach called them both with the biggest stack to put the both at risk.

Steinbach was on sixes against ace-ten for Comely and ace-jack for Grabia but Comely spiked two pair to grab a near triple up and send Grabia to the rail.

Meanwhile, on the other table, Michael St. Pierre-Porter hit the rail in 14th after he couldn’t find any help with a dominated ace.

They are down to 15 left now after Matthew Ouellette sent his short stack over to Daniel Hicks. Ouellette was all in with ace-jack but ran into ace-queen for Hicks and the queen played for the win.

Meanwhile, on the other table, Gerald Chung got a double through Dale Chalifoux when they both flopped a queen but Chung’s jack kicker pipped Chalifoux’s ten.

The final 16 players are on a break following the end of Level 16. Below is a look at the remaining players and stacks at the break. Kris Steinbach is the leader now at 236k with Daniel Hicks in 2nd with the only other stack over 200k.

The prizes are in and 8 players will be sharing in nearly $23k later tonight. The top prize will be $7,750 with $660 on the board for 8th place. Full prizes are listed under the Payouts tab.

While I don’t have a good handle on the stacks at the moment, here is a look at the final 17 players in action.

The prizes are over $17k now with 61 on the board, and they are about 10 entries away from hitting 20k in prizes. There is just under an hour left to enter the game, so it seems likely they’ll have $20k or more to play for tonight.

They are 1 entry away from $15k in prizes now with Level 6 just underway. There are now about 90 minutes left to enter this game so the numbers will increase still with $20k+ in prizes likely before it all closes.

The field for the side game is up to 44 players now for $12,540 in prizes. Entries for this game will close in about 2 hours at 9:30 PM.

The field is growing in the side game with 38 entries on the board now for prizes of almost $11k. There are still more than 2 hours left for new entries or rebuys in this one.

They are just shy of $10k in prizes with about 5 minutes to play in Level 3. The field is now at 33 entries and it looks like there have been no busts so far today as the board is still showing 33 players as well. Entries for this one are still open for about 2.5 hours.

The side game for Saturday night is now underway with 18 players in action as Level 2 begins. Entries are still open for about 3 hours so those numbers are sure to increase before the desk shuts down at around 9:30 PM.

Benny Sarnelli has moved over from Day 1b to this one, and among the others joining him are Cindy Grabia, Maru Somers, Trevor Simpson (who bagged E03 Day 1a yesterday), Preston Stevenson, and Matthew Ouellette.

The side game for Saturday night is the $340 NLH. Players sit down with 25k in chips for 20-minute levels throughout the night, though levels will drop to 15 minutes for heads-up play.

There are 9 levels of late entry in this one, which should mean the final chance to get a seat will be at about 9:30 PM tonight. After that, it will be a race to the trophy in this one-day event.

I’ll be over to catch the endgame of this one, though I won’t be watching it too closely at the start. I’ll be watching E3 until the second flight bags tonight, but I’ll move over to cover the end of this one once 1b is complete.