Pure Poker Tour Series #6 – Event #5: $230 PLO Turbo

The PLO Turbo is all over with Branden Tremblay emerging as the leader. The final table was mostly a battle between Tremblay and 3rd place finisher Malcolm Bolger. Between them, they had most of the chips in play with runner-up Bruce Drake playing a shorter stack and mostly staying out of the way of the action.

Tremblay sent Bolger to the rail in third with a massive flush-over-flush cooler to build a huge lead, and it only took him a couple of hands to find a spot against Drake to take it down. He flopped two pair to Drake’s pair and straight wrap and the two pair held for the win.

Heads up was quick with just a couple of hands played after Malcolm Bolger busted in 3rd place. Branden Tremblay had most of the chips at that point, with Bruce Drake quite short, and the money went in on a flop of 8♥7♠6♦.

Drake was on a pair and a straight draw with Tremblay on two pair. Tremblay held for the win to take it all down.

They are heads up now after a huge flush over flush spot. The money went in on the turn of a board showing [invalid notations] with Branden Tremblay betting 100k, Malcolm Bolger potting to 440k, Tremblay shoving, and Bolger calling it off. Tremblay flopped the king-high hearts over the queen-high hearts for Bolger, and the river was meaningless.

I missed the action but in the hand following the exit of Holly Orleski, Justin Pennell hit the rail for fourth place.

The action was on the turn when I got to the table with Holly Orleski already all in from previous action and Justin Pennell facing a bet from Malcolm Bolger with the board showing 6♦7♣3♥8♣. Pennell had a bit less than a pot bet behind and he was in the tank.

“Book says fold,” he muttered at one point. “Book is fucked.” The table laughed but he ultimately went with the book. Bolger was on the nut straight with Orleski already dead with her A♦Q♠Q♥J♠. Pennell said he folded clubs which would have hit on the 9♣ river.

Orleski asked that her picture not be taken.

Nathan Masih shoved the small blind and Branden Tremblay called from the big with a covering stack. it was J♥9♣8♦6♦ for Masih against A♦J♦4♠3♦. Tremblay hit his four and nothing else connected so Masih was done in 6th tonight.

They are down to 6 left after Ed Tonnellier followed Larry Quon and Shane Brotherwood to the exits. I missed the action as I was till writing up the Quon/Brotherwood bust.

It was a huge cooler when Shane Brotherwood potted to 42k from the middle. Branden Tremblay reraised to 100k from the cutoff before Larry Quon shoved 62k from the big blind.

Brotherwood had a bit more and reshoved himself with Tremblay making the call with the biggest stack. Tremblay had kings with a non-seven, Brotherwood was on queens with a ten-eight, and Quon had jacks with a king-nine. The kings held for Tremblay and Quon was out in 9th with Brotherwood out in 8th.

Below is a look at most of the final table. Holly Orleski requested that her picture not be taken so she is on the FT, but not pictured below.

They are down to 11 left in the PLO Bounty game and the clock is paused for hand-for-hand play. Two minutes are coming off the clock manually for each hand until the next elimination puts them in the money.

They are down to 18 players left in the PLO game now. That puts them 8 players off the money. Malcolm Bolger looks to be in the lead right now with more than 400k in front of him but Brandon Tremblay is also playing a big stack of about 260k.

Final 18 Players in PLO

The numbers for the PLO Turbo are official with 99 entries in the prize pool of $18,810. 10 players will get a piece of that later tonight with the winner set to pocket just shy of $5.5k.

PLO Turbo Prizes

The PLO Turbo prizes are nearly up to $14k now with 73 entries on the board. Among the new faces I’ve spotted recently are Antoine Saddleback, Francis Fan, Shane Brotherwood, and Gerald Chung.

The PLO Side game is up to 55 entries for prizes of more than $10k now. The action is in Level 4 with less than 5 minutes to play and they’ll take their first break of the day after Level 5.

Among the players in the game are Mike Malm, who is leading the API Player of the Year race right now, Martin Riley, Malcolm Bolger, Bash Ramahi, Nancy Kelln, Josie Brown, Glyn Gracias, and Ron Lauzon.

The PLO Turbo side game is now off and running with 14 players in their seats to start. Regular PLO player Stefan Maloney is among the people in the mix so far, as well as Daniel O’Leary, and the winner of last night’s Turbo game, Larry Quon.

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.