Pure Poker Tour Series #5 – Event #1: $340 Seniors First

Level 22 has just kicked off with Kim Graham in the lead. He has about 1.3 million in front of him to about 200k for Brett Worton.

Both players limped preflop to see 9♦9♥Q♦. They checked it again to the 3♦ turn where Graham check-raised from 30k to 100k. Worton called and the river was 4♦. Graham bet 100k and Worton called it off quickly. Graham showed a black ace-eight against Q♥5♦ for the small flush and the win.

Kim Graham has 831k for the lead right now, while Brett Worton is playing 669k. They are still on the break following Level 20 and will be back in action in about 10 minutes.

I missed the action while writing up the previous bust but Tim Salangsan took third place tonight to get the game heads up between Kim Graham and Brett Worton. Both players are champions here on the PPT as Worton has won this seniors game a few times while Kim Graham took down a Tag Team event earlier in the year playing with his twin brother.

They are down to three left now after Carl Schelpe lost his stack to table captain Kim Graham. Graham raised his button to 45k and Schelpe raised it up to 115k. Graham called and the flop was 8♠K♠2♠.

Schelpe check-called for 70k and the turn was 2♣. Schelpe checked again, then hit the tank when Graham shoved the covering stack. Eventually, Schelpe decided there wasn’t much to hand around for and he got the rest in.

Graham was on trip ducks with J♦2♦ against A♣4♠ for Schelpe. The river 3♦ bricked out for Schelpe and he was out in 3rd place.

In the previous hand, Tim Salangsan doubled up Brett Worton to leave himself with just 107k behind. In the next hand, it folded to Salangsan in the small blind and he raised to 40k, more than a third of his stack.

Kim Graham made the call to see K♥9♠K♠ on the flop. Salangsan shoved his remaining chips to send Graham into the tank. He verbalized that he had a gutshot and made the call after about 30 seconds.

Salangsan had pcoket aces, but Graham picked up some more equity on the Q♣ turn. He bricked the 3♥ river, however, to send the double to Salagsan. That gives Salangsan just under 250k while Graham is still doing fine with about 820k in front of him.

There is a break following this level in just over 20 minutes, and I’ll get exact chip counts for the remaining players then, but Graham has the big lead.

Kim Graham has been raising a lot, but after the last hand, he said “I’m going to try a limp sometime. Probably with a monster.”

That “sometime” came in the very next hand as Graham limped under the gun. Brett Worton has been battling Graham as they are side-by-side and he raised it up to 38k. Graham made the call to the all-club 6♣10♣7♣ flop where they both checked to the Q♣ turn.

Graham checked to Worton who sent out a bet of 15k. “Do you have a club? I don’t think you have the ace. Let’s find out … I’m going to raise,” Graham said as he slid out a bet of $100k. Worton mucked quickly.

“You had the ace,” he said. “That’s why I got the speech.” No cards were shown, however, so who knows where the ace was.

Tim Salansan limped in from the button and both Kim Graham and Brett Worton called from the blinds. They all checked the 7♦3♣A♠ flop but after a check from Graham on the Q♥ turn, Worton fired out 15k. Both players called to the 8♦ river where it checked to Salangsan and he took it down with a bet of 65k.

They are down to 4 remaining now after Mick Enzie busted in 5th. I’ve just finished the FT pictures for Event #2 so I should be able to get back to the Seniors action now.

They are down to five on the Seniors FT after Roy Bjorklund took 6th place tonight. I missed the action while getting pics of the Turbo FT.

They are down to six left on the final table of the Seniors game after the reigning champion Ron Taylor busted out in 7th place.

They are down to seven now. Parker Hrushka woke up with king-queen early and shoved for 129k. It folded to small blind Brett Worton who reshoved a covering stack before the big blind got out of the way.

Worton was in good shape with big slick, but there was a lady on the J♣5♠Q♣ flop but it also left Worton drawing to Broadway. The 4♠ turn was a brick, but 10♥ on the river was the nuts for Worton and sent Hrushka out in 8th place.

They are now officially in the money after Grant Strand hit the rail in 9th place. He collected some bubble cash from the other players, but missed out on the official cash list. He shoved the small blind on a flop of 10♣5♦6♥ and Kim Graham tank called from the big. Strand was on seven-eight for open-ended with a backdoor flush draw while Graham had ace-five and a flopped pair of fives. 6♦ on the turn and river bricked out for Strand and he busted in 9th place tonight.

Below is a look at how the remaining eight players stack up with Level 17 about to get underway.

They are down to the final table now with nine players left. I’ll grab complete chip counts at the break in about 10 minutes, but pictures and names for the final table can be found under the Images tab.

They are on the bubble to the final table now with 10 players left. Wayne Withers was the most recent casualty tonight. They’ll set up the final table after the next elimination but there will still be one player to go before money starts getting handed out.

They are down to 11 left now, three off the money with the recent eliminations of Harvey Johnson, Bob Jeancart, and Daniel MacNaughton. There are about 15 minutes to play in Level 15, so it looks like they’ll be in the money before the next break, or shortly after Level 17 begins.

They are down to 14 remaining now after George Virus, who was leading the counts after the dinner break, hit the rail 7 spots shy of tonight’s money.

The action was complete with Brett Worton and Brian Fujimoto all in and Worton at risk. Worton had pocket sevens against pocket sixes for Fukimoto and the board didn’t change anything. Fujimoto had the slightly bigger stack but was left with less than 10k behind after sending the double across the table, but he lost that shortly after to hit the rail in 16th tonight.