PPT staff have barely had time to break down the tables from PPT #4 at Pure Casino Yellowhead and it’s almost time for the penultimate series of the 2024 season. Series #5 is across town at Pure Casino Edmonton and is a shortened schedule from the full series with just one week of poker action and 11 events.
The first PPT branded action for Series #5 kicks off at 1 pm Sunday, Oct 13 with a 1 in 10 satellite game for $T equivalent to entry in all open events for the series. Buy-in for the game is $430 ($390 + $40) and players start with 25k in chips for 30-minute levels.
There is more satellite action on Oct 14 with main series action kicking off on Oct 15 with the Seniors First at noon, an open NLH game starting at 4 pm, and a satellite game at 7 pm. That kicks off seven days of PPT action that includes the ever-popular 6-Max and PLO Big Bounty games as well as the two-flight Main Event and the $2k “Series Saver” High Roller to finish it out.
Check out live updates and reporting from the Pure Poker Tour Series #5 by Lyle Bateman. Chose an event of your choice down below:
-
Mo Alemalhuda Out in 4th Place for $2,394
Level: 20 (10,000/15,000/15,000 PLO) Entries: 3/84 Prizes: $23,940 
Mo Alemalhuda They are down to 3 left just as the PLO round ends. Daniel Hicks raised to 30k from the cutoff and Myles Budd called the small blind before Mo Alemalhuda shoved the big blind for 57k. Hicks was the only caller with Alamelhuda on K♥9♠8♦7♦ against K♦6♦3♣3♠. Hicks hit an 8 on the flop and held for the win.
Below is a look at the 3-way chips as they are about to start Level 21 NLH.
Player Chips Benny Sarnelli 320,000 Myles Budd 460,000 Daniel Hicks 1,395,000 -
Flush over Flush goes to Budd
Level: 20 (10,000/15,000/15,000 PLO) Entries: 4/84 Prizes: $23,940 Daniel Hicks opened the button to 35k and got calls from both blinds. It checked around on the A♥Q♠8♠ flop but after a check from Benny Sarnelli on the A♠ turn, Myles Budd bet 40k.
Only Hicks made the call to see 7♦ on the river. Budd fired 75k and after some time in the tank, Hicks made the call. Budd showed Q♥J♠8♣3♠ for the jack-high flush, and Hicks showed 10♠9♠ for the slightly lower flush as he folded.
-
Tony Hoang Out in 5th Place for $1,795
Level: 19 (6,000/12,000/12,000) NLH Entries: 4/84 Prizes: $23,940 
Tony Hoang It was a huge cooler that sent Tony Hoang to the rail. He got it in with queens, ran into aces in the hand of Myles Budd, then flopped a queen. Budd came back with an ace on the river though to reflip back to him and send Hoang to the rail.
-
Five Left in the Mix
Level: 18 (5,000/10,000/10,000) Entries: 5/84 Prizes: $23,940 They are down to five left in the Mix game, and I’m finally finished with the 6-Max so I should be able to catch some of the action here. Kevin Schell, who won an event at Yellowhead last series, was the most recent casualty in 6th place, while Van Le was 7th, Traci Horperstad was 8th, and Kevin Lee took the min-cash spot tonight.
Van Le 
Kevin Schell 
Kevin Lee -
Rhett Stensrud Wins 6-Max for $10,580 (after Deal)
Rhett Stensrud, winner of the 6-Max Rhett Stensrud went the whole distance as the leader at the final table tonight. He had a few challengers throughout the endgame, with 3rd place Michael St. Pierre-Porter coming within 100k at a few points. Runner-up Ron Lauzon managed to get close in heads-up as well, but Stensrud always managed to stay ahead.
In the final hand, he woke up with pocket queens and raised his button, then snapped it off when Lauzon shoved his ace-nine. The queens held, turning a boat with trip sixes on board, to take down the win. The final two players made a deal to take $10k each and play for the rest, so Stensrud’s final win tally tonight was $10,580.
This was Stensrud’s first win in just his second cash, according to Hendon Mob. He picked up $2,330 for a 9th place finish in 2022 here on the PPT, so this was close to 5x his previous best score.
-
Ron Lauzon Out in 2nd Place for $10,000 (after Deal)
Level: 23 (15,000/30,000/30,000) Entries: 1/76 Prizes: $36,110 
Ron Lauzon It didn’t take long to finish it out once they struck the deal, but it still took a couple of big hands to end it. Rhett Stensrud raised the button, then snapped it off when Ron Lauzon shoved. Lauzon was on ace-nine, but Stensrud woke up with pocket queens. The board missed both players but with three sixes it ended up giving Stensrud the boat for the win.
Lauzon was short for pretty much the whole final table, but still managed to ladder up to second place.
-
Let’s Make a Deal
Level: 22 (15,000/25,000/25,000) Entries: 2/76 Prizes: $36,100 Ron Lauzon and Rhett Stensrud have decided to cut a deal where each player takes $10k and they play for the remaining $580 and the trophy. Stensrud still has the lead but there wasn’t much between them when the deal was struck.
-
Lauzon Doubles Again
Level: 21 (10,000/20,000/20,000) Entries: 2/76 Prizes: $36,100 Ron Lauzon was chipped down to 365k when he limp-shoved over a raise from Rhett Stensrud. Stensrud called it off and had the best with A♥7♦ versus K♥J♣ for Lauzon. Lauzon flopped his king and held to double up to around 800k now, but Stensrud still has the big stack with about 1.1 million.
-
Michael St. Pierre-Porter Out in 3rd Place for $5,415
Level: 21 (10,000/20,000/20,000) Entries: 2/76 Prizes: $36,100 
Michael St. Pierre-Porter They are down to heads up now after Michael St. Pierre-Porter hit the rail in third tonight. I missed the action while working on pics for the side event.
Rhett Stensrud is the chip leader with about 1.2 million to Ron Lauzon’s 700k.
-
Final Table in the Money
Level: 16 (3,000/6,000/6,000) Entries: 8/84 Prizes: $23,940 They are in the money in the Mix game, though I am still watching the 6-Max epic 3-handed battle. I did get some FT pics for this event however, posted under the images tag, and Kevin Lee was the first player off the final table in the money, while it looks like Daniel Hicks has the big stack.
Van Le Tony Hoang 
Myles Budd Mo Alemalhuda Kevin Schell Kevin Lee 
Daniel Hicks 
Benny Sarnelli
