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 $25k in Prizes
Level: 6 (300/600/600) Entries: 30/44 Prizes: $25,080 Level 6 has just begun with 44 entries on the board. That puts the 1a prizes at just over $25k with more than 3.5 hours left to enter today’s opening flight. There is another flight tomorrow which I expect to be significantly bigger, but there’s still plenty of time for today’s numbers to grow as well.
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More than $20k in Prizes
Level: 5 (300/500/500) Entries: 27/37 Prizes: $21,090 The prizes are now over $21k with 37 entries on the board and just over 30 minutes to play in Level 5. There are still more than 4 hours left to enter this game so the numbers are bound to increase but the truth is, today’s field is a bit weaker than expected so far.
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Mixed Tag Team Fun for Saturday
Event: Event #6: $440 NLH/PLO Team ($400 + $40) Date: Nov 23, 6 PM Blinds: 20 Minutes Starting Stack: 20k Late Entry: 9 Levels (~9:15 PM) Day 1 Ends: One-Day Event There’s a bit of a switch with the first Team event in the 2024 Tournament of Champions. There will be two Team games this series with the second one running on the final weekend of play. The first Tean game is a Mix between NLH and PLO, following the classic format of the regular Mix games with NLH in the odd levels and PLO in the even levels.
Teams consist of two players and players must switch every blind level increase. Each team gets 5 Switch Tickets to start the game, and they can use the tickets at any time between hands to either swap with their own teammate, or force another team to swap out their players.
Play kicks off at 6 pm with 20k in chips. They’ll play 20-minute levels with 9 levels to enter the game. That should put the final entry at about 9:15 PM.
This will be my second priority on Saturday so I’m not sure how much coverage it will get as I’ll be watching Day 1b of Event #4 for the early part of the day.
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First Break of 1a
Level: 3 (200/300/300) Entries: 26/31 Prizes: $17,670 They are up to 31 entries on the board as players head out for the first break of Day 1a. With three levels of play complete the prizes are sitting at $17,670. Pav Braich, Justin Pennell, and the winner of last night’s Seniors game, John Donnelly.
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More than $15k
Level: 3 (200/300/300) Entries: 24/28 Prizes: $15,960 There are almost $16k in prizes now with the field up to 28 entries and less than 10 minutes to play in Level 3. The first break of the day follows this level.
Among the recent entries I spotted were Colten Yamagishi, Sklyer York, and Kali Shuali.
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Up to 25 Entries
Level: 3 (200/300/300) Entries: 21/25 Prizes: $14,250 The prizes are up to almost $15k with the action now in Level 3. There are just under 35 minutes to play in this level with the first break of the day scheduled to follow.
Among the players I’ve spotted in today’s action are Jayveen Lumahan, Mal Hagan, Rob Lothian (4th in the Seniors game yesterday), Brett Worton (second in the Seniors), Benny Sarnelli, Johnny Dalphond, Sean Taghavi, and Cindy Grabia.
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Four-card Fun for Friday Night
Event: Event #5: $230 PLO Turbo ($200 + $30) Date: Nov 22, 6 PM Blinds: 20 Minutes Starting Stack: 20k Late Entry: 9 Levels (~9:30 PM) Day 1 Ends: One-Day Event Friday’s side dish is served with four-cards in every hand as the first PLO event of the series kicks off. The action goes at 6 PM with entries available for 9 levels, or until about 9:30 PM.
Players buy in for 20k in chips for 20-minute turbo levels throughout the game. As this is the side game, I won’t likely have much attention for this game until after Day 1a of Event #4 bags up at the end of its day.
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$10k in Prizes in Level 1
Level: 1 (100/100/100) Entries: 17/18 Prizes: $10,260 The first multi-day game of the series is underway with a modest start. There are 18 entries on the board with about 10 minutes to play in Level 1 for $10,260 in prizes so far. Entries today are open for 9 levels of poker plus breaks, with players able to buy a stack as late as 8:00 PM.
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John Donnelly Wins Second PPT Title in Seniors
John Donnelly, winner of Seniors event John Donnelly already has a couple of trophies from the PPT, but he was still pretty happy to take down the Seniors event. Donnelly won the Main Event last July then followed that up a few weeks later with a win in the Seniors event in the following series.
Tonight he added a second Seniors title to his resume with a little rungood, some well-timed aggression, and disciplined folds when he needed to get out of the way. The final hand was a bit of rungood as he got there with a dominated ace, but he was in a position to win because of a previous double that saw his best ace hold.
He was a big stack early on tonight but relatively short by the time they got to the final table. He played a cagey game, mostly staying out of the way of the big stacks of Worton and Ghorbani. That let him stay alive until the end and take down the win.
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Brett Worton Out in 2nd Place for $5,301
Brett Worton Brett Worton has won this event a couple of years ago in 2022, and he’s bagged a couple of second places and other cashes in Seniors games around Alberta. He came close to a second win tonight as the table captain for most of the final table, but he’ll have to settle for another second place after John Donnelly had a huge heads-up to take down the title.
Worton was the big stack for the whole final table until they got two ways. He started heads up with a big lead, but Donnelly doubled early. “Now we have a game,” Worton said when it was about 1.2m to 900k.
He might have wished that wasn’t quite so prophetic as the game was indeed on. Donnelly came back a few minutes later with a big double to the lead when his ace-queen held over ace-ten for Worton. That left Worton on about 400k, less than 10 bigs.
He managed to come back a bit and was up to around 800k when the final hand came down. It was all in before the flop with Worton on ace-seven over ace-five with a good shot at a double or at least a chopped pot.
The poker gods had other ideas, however, as Donnelly found his five on the river for the win.
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Donnelly Doubles to Big Lead
Level: 25 (25000/50000/50000) Entries: 2/93 Prizes: $26,505 John Donnelly raised to 100k, then snapped it off when Brett Worton called. It was a heads-up cooler with Donnelly on an unsuited ace-queen versus the suited ace-ten for Worton. Both players missed the board and Donnelly held for a double on 880k, which gives him the lead and leaves Worton on about 400k.
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Richard Housch Out in 3rd Place for $3,445
Level: 24 (20000/40000/40000) Entries: 2/93 Prizes: $26,505 
Richard Housch Richard “Richochet” Housch was down to 15k when there were still 6 players left in the game but he laddered up pretty nicely to third tonight with some rungood and well-timed action. In his final hand, he shoved the small blind with an ace but ran into a bigger one for Brett Worton in the big.
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Rob Lothian Out in 4th Place for $2,650
Level: 23 (15000/30000/30000) Entries: 3/93 Prizes: $26,505 
Rob Lothian They are down to three left and Brett Worton has all the chips after he sent Rob Lothian to the rail. Worton shoved the small blind with the big stack and Lothian called from the big with the small. Lothian was ahead with an ace versus a kind, but Worton his flush cards to take it down.
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Faramarz Ghorbani Out in 5th Place for $2,040
Level: 23 (15000/30000/30000) Entries: 4/93 Prizes: $26,505 
Faramarz Ghorbani They are down to 4 left after Faramarz Ghorbani shoved his small blind with king-queen and Brett Worton called from the big with jacks. Worton hit a jack on the flop and held for the win.
The average stack is now a bit less than 20 bigs.
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Ed Zurawell Out in 6th Place for $1,616
Level: 22 (15000/25000/25000) Entries: 5/93 Prizes: $26,505 
Ed Zurawell Ed Zurawell was forced all in from the big blind, and small blind Brett Worton called. Zurawell had fives against ten-four, but Worton spiked a ten on the flop and held to bring the table down to five.
They are around 15 big blinds deep on average right now, and Worton has most of the chips, so most of the table is pretty short stacked right now.
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Housch Staying Alive
Level: 22 (15000/25000/25000) Entries: 6/93 Prizes: $26,505 Richard Housch is still alive and now over 200k. Rett Worton raised under the gun to 50k, then called when Housch shoved his stack of 75k. Housh had ace-jack against king-jack and he flopped an ace for the win.
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Housch Rebuilding Fumes
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 6/93 Prizes: $26,505 Richard Housch was down to just 15k afrter he lost a big confrontation with John Donnelly. The chips went in with Housch on king-ten against king-jack for Donnelly and the jack played for the win. Housch has since chipped back up to about 100k, in part after getting a double through Donnelly with ace-ten over ace-three.
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All in for Chop
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 6/93 Prizes: $26,505 Richard Housch raised the small blind to 40k and Faramarz Ghorbani called from the big. It all kicked off on the 8♣6♣5♥ flop. Housch shoved and Ghorbani snap-called.
Ghorbani had 9♣5♣ for bottom pair and the straight flush draw against two pair for Housc with 8♥6♥. In an unlikely runout, the 9♠7♠ put a straight on the board for a chop.
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Chips for the Final Six
Level: 21 (10000/20000/20000) Entries: 6/93 Prizes: $26,505 Here is a look at the final six stacks in play with Brett Worton leading the way.
Player Chips Faramarz Ghorbani 520,000 Brett Worton 940,000 Ed Zurawell 245,000 Rob Lothian 270,000 John Donnelly 155,000 Richard Housch 190,000 -
Larry Quon Wins Turbo Game
Larry Quon, Winner of the Turbo 
Michael St. Pierre-Porter, runner-up in the Turbo It was a quick heads up tonight with Larry Quon emerging the winner. I caught the aftermath of the final hand where Michael St. Pierre-Porter flopped a pair and rivered a straight, but it was a smaller straight than Larry Quon. Quon had the chip lead when it all went in and took down the top prize tonight.
