As 2024 winds down, the Alberta poker scene is heating up with the final series of the Pure Poker Tour (PPT) season. The trophy events kick off at Pure Casino Yellowhead on November 21 with the Seniors First event, followed by 11 days of action-packed poker, and highlighted by the $1,100 Main Event starting on November 29.
Check out live updates and reporting from the 2024 Pure Poker Tour Series #6 by Lyle Bateman. Chose an event of your choice down below:
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More than $20k in Prizes
Level: 3 (200/300/300) Entries: 22/27 Prizes: $20,520 The prize pool is over $20k now with 27 entries on the board. Among the new faces I’ve seen since my last update are Ali Khani, Preston Stevenson, Talal Shoush, Weston Pring, Ron Lauzon, Andy Truong, Alex Liu, Malcolm Bolger, and Michael “Berny” Bernstein.
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Up to 22
Level: 2 (100/200/200) Entries: 19/22 Prizes: $16,720 Level 2 has just under 15 minutes remaining with the field up to 22 entries and 19 still in play. The pushes the current prizes to almost $17k with just under 6 hours left to enter this game. Entries for the 6-Max are et to close around 8pm according to the structure, but it looks like it might be a few minutes later than that based on the time remaining on the clock. I was late to the game today so I was here for the start of play, but it looks like they got the cards in the air a bit later than 1 pm, so that means entries will still be open a bit later than 8 pm.
Right now, it looks like entries will close about 8:10, but don’t push that too far as I don’t have a firm handle on the exact moment they’ll close the desk.
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16 Entries in Level 1
Level: 1 (100/100/100) Entries: 16/16 Prizes: $12,100 It’s a bit of a slow start for the 6-Max today with 16 players in the field as Level 1 draws to a close. There is still plenty of time to enter this one with more than 6 hours of entry remaining.
There are quite a few familiar faces in the small crowd, however. Thomas Taylor is here for his first event, as is his wife and PPT ambassador Haven Taylor. Stephen Dauphinais, Steve Chung, Tyler Panas, Mal Hagan, Michael St. Pierre-Porter, Ali Razzaq, Skyler York, Brett Worton, and Mike Kim are also among the players in this one early.
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6-Max Set for Monday
Event: Event #8: $880 NLH 6-Max Day 1 ($400 + $40) Date: Nov 25, 1 pm Blinds: 40 Min Starting Stack: 30k Late Entry: 9 Levels (~8:00 PM) Day 1 Ends: 12.5% of the Field It’s time for the 6-Max game which is typically one of the more poplar games on the schedules here in Alberta. This is a two-day event that gets going at 1 pm on Monday and plays until 12.5% of the field remains. At that point, they’ll bag up all the chips and return in the money for Day 2 on Tuesday.
For their $880, players get 30k in chips to play 40-minute levels throughout the event. They’ll have 9 levels to enter the game, which should put the last buy-in at about 8 PM. There is no hard stop for Day 1 as they’ll play for as long as it takes to get down to 12.5%.
This should be my main focus for the early part of Monday at least, and I’ll be following it until the bag up at the end of the night.
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Chop it Up
Level: 22 (15000/25000/25000) Entries: 1/79 Prizes: $30,020 
Francis Fan (L) & Colten Yamagishi (R), chopped E7 Event #7 is in the books after Francis Fan and Colten Yamagishi decided on a heads-up chop of the money. They were essentially even in chips after Fan sent Bash Ramahi to the cage in 3rd place but Fan took the official win while Yamagish was second.
Fan was among the leaders for most of the final table, but Yamagishi’s trip to the podium had a more circuitous path. He was the short stack at the table until he went on a tear, catching a double through 5th place finisher Alexander Richmond when Richmond’s overcards turned a bigger pair to Yamagishi’s pocket sevens but Yamagishi hit a straight on the river.
That started a run up the counts for Yamagishi that saw him in a big lead when they were three-handed. Fan then sent Ramahi out to even things up, and the players agreed to the deal. It’s worth adding that Yamagishi jumped into this one after a brutal beat in Event #4 sent him out in ninth place with kings into aces.
Final Results from Event #7
Place Player Prize 1 
Francis Fan$8,557 2 Colten Yamagishi$8,557 3 Bash Ramahi$4,503 4 Nadav Bitton$3,002 5 Alexander Richmond$1,981 6 Vinayak Makkar$1,440 7 Kirk Nilson$1,110 8 Jerry Tria$870 -
Bash Ramahi Out in 3rd Place for $4,503
Level: 22 (15000/25000/25000) Entries: 2/79 Prizes: $30,020 
Bash Ramahi Francis Fan limped in from the button, and Colten Yamagish called from the small blind before Bash Ramahi shoved the big blind. Fan snapped it off before Yamagishi folded, and Fan’s trap was sprung. He had aces against Ramahi’s queen-jack. Ramahi hit a jack on the flop but that was all the help he got.
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Yamagishi Nearing 1 Million
Level: 22 (15000/25000/25000) Entries: 3/79 Prizes: $30,020 Colten Yamagishi is the chip leader with about 970k in front of him while Bash Ramahi and Francis Fan are both at around 500k.
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Nadav Bitton Out in 4th Place for
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 3/79 Prizes: $30,020 
Nadav Bittom There are three left now after Nadav Bitton ended his day in 4th place. I missed the action writing the previous hand up.
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Alexander Richmond Out in 5th Place for $1,981
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 4/79 Prizes: $30,020 
Alexander Richmond Colten Yamagishi is on a run. He just sent Alexander Richmond to the rail in 5th place with pocket sizes into pocket aces. Yamagishi spiked a 6 on the river for a big chip lead now.
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Vinayak Makkar Out in 6th Place for $1,440
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 5/79 Prizes: $30,020 
Vinayak Makkar I missed the action, but Colten Yamagishi just sent Vinayak Makkar to the rail in 6th place and in the process he’s chipped up to the lead with about 700k in front of him.
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Yamagishi Straightens Out for Double
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 6/79 Prizes: $30,020 Colten Yamagishi raised the cutoff to 185k, leaving just 5k behind. Alexander Richmond shoved a bigger stack from the button and it folded back to Yamagishi who put in the extra 5k.
Yamagishi was on pocket sevens with Richmond playing the king-queen overs. When the 6♦9♣8♥K♣5♣ board was complete, Yamagishi had the nine-high straight for the double to over 400k while Richmond is down to about 200k.
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Break Chips
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 6/79 Prizes: $30,020 Francis Fan is leading the way at the break following Level 20.
Seat Player Chips 2 Bash Ramahi 310,000 3 Francis Fan 575,000 4 Vinayak Makkar 260,000 5 Nadav Bitton 305,000 7 Colten Yamagishi 70,000 8 Alexander Richmond 335,000 -
Richmond Calls it Down
Level: 20 (10000/15000/15000) Entries: 6/79 Prizes: $30,020 Nadav Bitton opened the button to 35k and Alexander Richmond called from the big blind. Richmond check-called on the 4♣A♠J♦ flop and they both checked the Q♥ turn. Richmond checked again on the 8♣ river, then hit the tank for a minute or two when Bitton fired 55k. Richmond finally called and Bitton immediately mucked while Richmond showed pocket kings.
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Bitton Makes the Call
Level: 20 (10000/15000/15000) Entries: 6/79 Prizes: $30,020 Bash Ramahi raised the cutoff to 30k and Nadav Bitton defended his big blind. He checked in the dark before the J♥Q♥Q♦ flopped, and Ramahi checked behind him. Bitton fired 15k on the 7♦ turn and Ramahi called.
The river 6♣ brought a check from Bitton but Ramahi fired 70k. “Why so much?” Bitton asked when he was in the tank. He finally called and his seven-eight was good against king-nine bluff from Ramahi.
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Makkar Gets a Double
Level: 20 (10000/15000/15000) Entries: 6/79 Prizes: $30,020 Vinayak Makkar shoved all in for 99k early and it folded around to Bash Ramahi in the big blind. He called for a race between his A♥9♠ against the pocket fives for Makkar. The 4♦2♦3♦J♥8♦ board missed Ramahi’s overcards to send the double to Makkar.
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Kirk Nilson Out in 7th Place for $1,110
Level: 19 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 6/79 Prizes: $30,020 
Kirk Nilson They are down to 6 left now after Kirk Nilson headed to the cage for 7th place money tonight.
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Money Shots
Level: 19 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 7/79 Prizes: $30,020 Vinayak Makkar Nadav Bittom Kirk Nilson 
Jerry Tria 
Francis Fan 
Colten Yamagishi Bash Ramahi Alexander Richmond -
Jerry Tria Out in 8th Place for $870
Level: 19 (6000/12000/12000) Entries: 7/160 Prizes: $30,020 Jerry Tria They are down to 8 remaining after Jerry Tria was the first player out in the money tonight.
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Brian Wells Bubbles Final Table
Level: 18 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 9/79 Prizes: $30,020 They are breaking down to the final table now after Biran Wells ended his run in 10th. He lost a big hand to Michael St. Pierre-Porter with ace-six into ace-seven when St. Pierre-Porter found a seven on the flop. That left him short and he was out the next hand.
They are still one away from the money.
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10 Players Left
Level: 18 (5000/10000/10000) Entries: 10/79 Prizes: $30,020 They are down to 10 players left in the side game tonight with the action in Level 18. There are 8 paid spots tonight, but they went hand-for-hand at 10 players, just before the final table. I don’t have a good handle on the chips at the moment but below is a look at the remaining players.
Table 7 Table 10 Colten Yamagishi Brian Wells Nadav Bitton Jerry Tria Alexander Richmond Bash Ramahi Vinayak Makkar Michael St. Pierre-Porter Francis Fan Kirk Nilson
