Berny’s Big Win: Bernstein Takes Down the Main at PPT #4

It was another successful 2 weeks of poker in Edmonton as PPT #4 set up shop at Pure Casino Yellowhead. Michael “Berny” Bernstein was the big winner in the Main Event, though July winner Ryan Cairns came pretty close to a repeat, bubbling the final table.

There was an invasion from Ottawa partway through the second week, and that sparked an uptick in the numbers. The Main Event finished with strong numbers that were equivalent to last year with ME prizes of more than $380k and total series prizes of more than $825k.

More than 1,700 entries were recorded in the series with the Main Event topping the list at more than 400 and the Mystery Bounty closing in on 225. Five other games, all one-day events, cracked the 100-entry threshold.

PPT #4 at a Glance

Event:	2024 Pure Poker Tour #4
Venue:	Pure Casino Yellowhead, Edmonton, AB, CAN
Dates:	Sep 15 – 30, 2024
Entries:	1,711
Prizes:	$828,574

Get all the details for the full series on our Live Reporting Pages, hosted by PokerPro and powered by Main Event Travel.

Main Event Scores Big with $383,724 in Prizes

The Main Event this year saw 408 entries over the two starting flights, and that played down to 53 paid spots. In the end, only 52 players came back on Day 2 as Taran Parmar bagged both $1,770 for a min-cash after busting after the bubble on Day 1a, as well as another $4k for 17th with the stack he bagged on Day 1b.

Both champions from this year were in the hunt on Day 1 and while Ryan Cairns was able to bag a Day 2 stack, two-time winner Eric Wasylenko was playing the High Roller (and finishing second) on Day 2. Cairns, for his part, made a solid effort at defending his title before becoming card dead late on Day 2 and bubbling the final table.

It wasn’t a cakewalk for the eventual winner, Michael “Berny” Bernstein. He came into Day 2 with an average stack but started the final table with one of the bigger stacks. He was up and down a fair bit throughout the remainder of the night with him on the short stack late in the evening three ways.

They bagged up the final three at the end of Level 30 and returned at 11:30 am the following day to finish it out. Four hours later, Berny was holding the trophy for his biggest lifetime win by about 2.5x. The ~$75k (~$55k USD) puts him within $10k USD of $200k in earnings on Hendon Mob.

Ottawa Invasion

The second week of the series showed a lot of growth in field sizes, and among the headline newcomers were a group of familiar faces from Ottawa. Marc Lavergne, Duff Charette, Michael Khan, and Manfred Gunther all sauntered into the Pearl Showroom at Pure Casino Yellowhead mid-afternoon on Sep 24 and Lavergne proceeded to late register and win the ongoing event, the NLH/PLO Mix, about 12 hours later.

Lavergne wasn’t the only player in that group to find a trophy. Duff Charette had to wait until the final day in the High Roller, but he got it, adding to his multiple Circuit rings. Michael Khan didn’t quite manage a trophy this week, but he showed he knows poker, no matter how many cards you give him.

He first found his way to the final table of the PLO Big Bounty, won by Vancouver’s Gary Rooprai, but came up a bit short with third. Then in the Main Event, he went just as deep, again finishing third for for more than $35k in wins from his trip. Gunther, who picked up a ring during his last visit to Calgary (while Charette and Khan were heads up across the room, no less) in the PLO Bounty event, was 4th behind Khan (and ahead of Charette who min-cashed in 9th).

Vancouver Mini-Invasion

Gary Rooprai and Sean O’Reilly were in town for most of the series and they both found some success with four cards. Rooprai knows about PPT success already with a 3rd place in July’s Main Event but this time around he took down the PLO Big Bounty over local player Talal Shoush. O’Reilly final-tabled the NLH/PLO Mix game a few days earlier.

Next Stop Pure Casino Argyle

They don’t have much time to move the setup for the next PPT with action on PPT #5 set to go Oct 15 – 21 (live satellites begin in Edmonton on Oct 13 – KKPoker running online qualifiers as well). They don’t have far to go though, as the next series is just across Edmonton at Pure Casino Argyle.

Check out the full schedule below for all the details.