Mike Malm was dominant at the final table tonight. He came to the FT with the chip lead, and while he wasn't the leader for the whole FT, he maintained his dominant style of play. In one big pot heads-up he called down runner-up Francis Fan with just ten-high. Fan mucked his hand so we'll never know what he had, but Malm called with ten-four on a paired board that also included an ace and a king.

Malm is having a pretty good month so far. He had a great series at the Grande in Calgary earlier in the month where he booked a win plus three other cashes. A week or so before that he cashed multiple times in the August WSOP-C in Calgary, including a 2nd place in the Big 30 Stack game. After he won, he mentioned that he chopped the Monthly Deepstack at Deerfoot in Calgary on Wednesday before coming to Edmonton, so Malm looks to be on a hot streak right now. The rest of the field better watch out in the upcoming PPT events when they see Malm sit down.

It was a wild final hand that saw Francis Fan end his run in 2nd place tonight. All the money was in before the flop when Fan shoved with but ran into pocket queens for Mike Malm.

What should have been an easy win for the queens turned into a rollercoaster when Fan flopped open-ended with a flush draw on . Fan hit his straight on the river while it gave Malm the set. The river flipped the script again to give Malm the winning riverboat.

It was limped preflop between Mike Malm on the button and Francis Fan in the big blind. Fan check-called for 60k on the flop. Both players checked the turn, and Fan slid out 100k on the river. Malm took a bit of time before he called and Fan mucked his hand face down. Malm showed for the sick ten-high hero call.

Mike Malm now has the lead with about 1.5 million to 1 million for Francis Fan. Malm scored a double with six-five against seven-five when he flopped a six but Fan had straight outs. The six held for Malm to take the lead.

They are down to heads up now after Mike Malm shoved from the small blind and Mike Ho called off from the big. Ho had pocket sevens but was racing against the queen-eight for Malm. Malm flopped his eight and never looked back.

Mike Malm raised the small blind to 100k and got a call from Mike Ho in the big. Malm fired 50k on the flop and Ho called to the turn where he folded to a shove from Malm.

Francis Fan raised to 100k from the button, then called off when Mike Malm shoved the small blind. Fan had , behind the for Malm but Fan smashed the flop with two jacks so even the cliche ace on the river couldn't save Malm. That puts Fan up to about 1.2 million with Malm on about 780k.

They are down to 3 left now after Karim Koval hit the rail in a race. He shoved pocket jacks and Mike Malm woke up with ace-king. Malm hit his ace to take it down and send Koval to the rail. That puts Malm around 1 million.

Mike Malm started the final table as the chip leader, but he took a few hits since then and was down to just 295k when he called off the button shove from Karim Koval. Koval was good with pocket kings, but Malm called for an ace to hit his ace-queen. He got his ace, and a queen, on the flop and never looked back to double up to about 650k while Koval is down to about 385k now.

The average stack at the moment is just over 20 bigs.

Mike Ho just got a double in a huge cooler spot. Mike Malm looked down at pocket sevens in the small blind and shoved the big stack. Ho woke up with aces in the big blind and, of course, snapped it off. The aces held for another Mike on Mike battle going to Ho.

There are just four left now after Jason Pelletier shoved ace-four blind on blind but Mike Malm woke up with big slick in the big blind. The ace-king held and Pelletier was off to collect $1,294 for 5th place.

They are down to 5 left after Adam Ross hit the rail for 6th place money.

They are down to 6 left in the Bounty now after Gerald Chung got ace-eight into ace-ten and couldn't find his 8.

Mike Malm raised the middle to 60k, then called off when Mike Ho shoved from his left. Ho was on against for Malm. Neither player hit the board so Ho's king played for the win.

They are down to seven just before the break as Mohammed Shah has just hit the payout cage.

There was a double knockout on the FT bubble tonight as Lee Clarke and Brad Stevens hit the rail on the same hand. That left 8 players at the final table, shown below. I'll grab some chip counts at the break coming up in a few minutes.

There are 10 players left now after Patrick Michaud and Lee Kremin recently hit the rail.

Mike X, who won the Seniors at Argyle in July, was the first player out in the money tonight.

They are in the money now after Ernie Smylski was the bubble tonight while Brett Higgins was the player who got them to the bubble.

They are now hand for hand to the money with 14 players left. Lee Clarke just got some "fake stand up equity" after he got pocket threes in against the pocket fours of Jason Pelletier. Clarke made a move to stand up on the turn as it looked like he was about to bubble, but the dealer laid down a trey on the river to save his life.

They are down to 15 left in the Little Bounty game now, two away from the 13 paid spots for tonight. I'll grab stacks at the next break, but below is a look at the players still battling it out for money tonight.

The final tally for the Little Bounty was 128 entries with 44 players left alive and action in Level 11. There will be 3 players paid out later tonight with $17,920 in total prizes in addition to $6,400 in bounties.

The Little Bounty players are on their second break of the day and entries will be closed when they return to the felt in about 10 minutes. There are 127 entries on the board right now, but there may be a few more before they sit back down. If 127 holds, that will mean 13 players will share in $17,780 in prizes in addition to the $6,350 in bounties in play.

I'll confirm the numbers once the prizes are posted shortly after the break.

There are just under 10 minutes left in Level 5 in the Little Bounty game now with the field at 88 entries and 63 players left alive. That puts the combined prizes at $16,720 with $4,400 in bounties and $12,320 in prizes.

Level 2 has about 15 minutes remaining with the field now at 50 entries. That puts the combined proxes at $9,500 with $2,500 of that reserved for the bounty pool. There are 49 players still listed at the tables, so that means one of the $50 bounties has already been awarded.

While the opening trophy event of PPT stops is usually reserved for the 50+ crowd, all players still have a shot at a trophy on opening day as the $230 Turbo Bounty kicks off at 5 pm with open registration. Players will have until the start of Level 10, or about 8:30 pm, to buy into this one, and it will award the trophy sometime early Friday morning most likely. Players sit down with 20k in chips for 20-minute levels.

Most of my focus on opening day will be the Seniors game until they decide a winner, but I'll move over to cover the endgame of this one once the Seniors are safely tucked into bed.