Pure Poker Tour Series #5 – Event #10: $2,000 High Roller

Deven Lane leads the way into Day 2 with more than double the next biggest stack. Entries are still open until the start of play tomorrow (noon) so the numbers are likely to increase before the end. Also, that means we don’t have any payouts until tomorrow. However, the 12 bagging players with chips and new seats for tomorrow are below — if they don’t fill the 3rd table tomorrow, they’ll break it immediately.

There are about 25 minutes remaining in Day 1 of the Series Saver tonight with 22 entries and 12 players still in action. Entries are still open until the start of the day tomorrow, so there will be no prizes posted tonight, but hopefully I can get the qualifying players and chip counts up.

The Series Saver is up to 19 entries now with Level 6 about to start. There are 14 players still active at the felt including Damiel Lefebvre and Colten Yamagishi over from the Main Event.

The Series Saver game is up to 15 entries as players are on the break following Level 3. There are still 12 players left alive for prizes of more than $25k.

The Series Saver is now underway with 4 players to start the game. This game typically starts pretty small but grows throughout the day so I’m still expecting a field of 30+ for this one at least.

The second-to-last event in this PPT is set to run starting at 4 p.m. on Sunday, and it is for players looking for a big score at the end of the series. Formerly called the High Roller, the $2k Series Saver starts with 50k in chips for 40-minute levels. They’ll play 9 levels on Day 1 before the bags come out, and players can enter the game until the start of Day 2 at noon on Monday.

I won’t have too much time to cover this on Day 1 as I’ll be focused on Day 2 of the Main Event playing out across the room, but I should be on the floor for Day 2 tomorrow as my main focus.

He took a bit of a hiatus from the winner’s circle, but with his fourth win in the last two seasons, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the PPT High Roller needs to be renamed to the Daniel Lefebvre Classic. After winning the final three High Rollers of the 2023 season, Lefebvre added a 4th High Roller trophy to his growing collection today after taking down Alex Liu heads up.

Lefebvre won the SIGA Poker Championship in 2018, so with the three High Roller wins from last year, this makes for his 5th live win and the prize money should push his lifetime earnings to around $325k USD.

Daniel Lefebvre raised to 80k, then called when Alex Liu shoved the short stack. Liu was on jack-ten against ace-nine for Lefebvre. Liu hit a jack on the flop, but Lefebvre hit his ace as well, then rivered a third ace for the big win.

Liu is fresh off his big Main Event win in Calgary a couple of months ago and this makes for another decent score this year.

Daniel Lefebvre raised to 80k, then called when Alex Liu shoved the big stack. Lefebvre was on ace-five against queen-jack for Liu, and he hit his ace on the flop and held for the double.

Daniel Lefebvre limped and Alex Liu checked his option to the 10♥K♠6♠ flop. They both checked the flop and the 6♥ turn. On the 2♠ river, Liu led for 40k and Lefebvre called, but mucked when Liu showed [invalid notations]6c4h[/]cn] for turned trips.

Alex Liu has a slight lead with 720k to 625k for Daniel Lefebvre. The two players agreed to bump the blinds up an extra level to 10k/20k to speed things up.

They are heads up now after Deven Lane lost his short stack. He shoved the button with a suited ace-eight and Alex Liu called the big blind with king-queen off.

Liu spiked a king on the flop, but Lane flopped a backdoor straight draw and turned to the front door, but then paired his eight on the river, not enough to best the flopped king for Liu.

Daniel Levebvre raised the small blind to 25k and Alex Liu called from the big. Lefebvre fired 15k on the 6♠6♥J♠ flop and lIu called to the Q♠ turn. Both players checked to the A♣ river where Lefebvre fired 65k. Liu called and his eight-six was good for the pot.

Daniel Lefebvre raised the button to 20k and Deven Lane called from the big blind. Both players checked the 3♠J♠6♦ flop and Lane led out for 35k on the J♥ turn.

Lefebvre called to the [invalid notations] river and Lane slid out 55k for a bet. “I have a full house,” Lefebvre said as he was thinking about the bet, “But I think you might have a bigger one.” He eventually put in the call, and Lane mucked his hand for Lefebvre to reveal king-three of hearts for jacks full of threes.

They are down to three now after Colten Yamagishi’s queens were cracked to send him home in 4th place. Yamagishi raised the small blind to 22k and Deven Lane called from the big.

Yamagishi fired 12k on the 4♠J♣6♣ flop and Lane called to the J♠ turn. Yaagishi fired 40k, leaving just 1k behind, and Lane flatted. The 10♠ river completed the board and Yamagishi put his last 1k into the middle and Lane called.

Yamagishi showed pocket queens, but the jack-ten for Lane hit the riverboat for a huge win, sending Yamagishi to the rail for 4th place.

Alex Liu flopped the world after he raised under the gun to 21k and Jo Teliani called from the big blind. Teliani check-shoved the [invalid notations] flop after Liu made it 13k to go. Liu snapped it off with the bigger stack and ace-king for two pair against ten-nine for Teliani. It just got worse for Teliani as the runout was A♣K♥ for aces full to Liu.

It was blind on blind when Deven Lane raised the small to 28k and Daniel Lefebvre called the big. The flop was 3♣5♦3♠ and Lane check-called for 17k.

Lane checked again on the K♠ turn and Lefebvre sized up to 90k, forcing a fold from Lane. Lefebvre showed 3♦ as he collected the pot.

There are five players left in the Series Saver battling for 4 paid spots. Below is a look at 4 of the 5 remaining players with Jo Teliani not included as she prefers not to have her picture used. Deven Lane is the current leader, with Daniel Lefebvre not too far behind. Full chip counts are below the photos.

There was a bit of a miscalculation in the prizes as there was a double entry that wasn’t caught until after the original prizes were calculated. First place hasn’t changed, but 2nd is down to $13,290 with $8k for 3rd and $4k for 4th. The actual number of entries was 27 instead of 28 for $46,170 in prizes.

Meanwhile they are now at the final table but I’m still watching the 4-way battle to end the Main Event.

The prizes are in and posted under the Payouts tab. The winner later today will pocket almost $21k with $14k for second, $8,500 for third, and $4,500 for the 4th-place min-cash.

They are down to 14 players left in the High Roller now, and while the prizes aren’t out yet, there will be 4 players sharing in a prize pool of $47,880 later today. I’ll post the actual prizes shortly.

The High Roller / Series Saver is underway now for Day 2 action with 28 total entries when the clock started. There are still 16 live players at the tables and it looks like 3 of them will take home some cash later today, pending confirmation of the numbers and completion of the prize pool info.

They are a few minutes from getting the High Roller / Series Saver underway for Day 2 and so far there have been 3 new entries on Day 2. There are still about 5 minutes left for new entries, so the field isn’t quite set yet.