Altaf Busts Out, Buys Back In, and Wins the Whole Season

A record-tying 26 entries, a runner-up playing his second-ever game of poker, and the first time our points leader has been caught at the finish line

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Four seasons in, the Pineapple Premiere on September 5 gave us two things we’d never seen before.

It was the first event we’ve ever played a game other than Hold’em (and with a record-tying 26 entries, people seemed to enjoy it). And when the last chip was pushed across the table, Altaf had won the tournament and the 2026 Player of the Year title, catching pre-event leader Luciano—the first time the leader heading into the season finale didn’t end the year with the POY title.

A New Game and a Full House

Twenty players came through the door, tied for the second-biggest turnout we’ve ever had. Six of them bought back in after busting, which is how a $20 tournament ends up with a $520 prize pool.

The game was Pineapple: three cards in your hand instead of two, and you throw one away right before the flop. Nobody had played it before, and it created a lot of action right from the beginning.

The Rookie Hour

The night belonged to the new players before it belonged to anyone else.

Sam chopped the first two hands of the tournament (Ace-King against Rob, then King-Queen against Chris), which is a strange way to start an evening. Rob took the next one. Then, on hand four, Dotun, playing the first game of poker of his life, won his first pot ever.

He wasn’t finished. Around 8:00, he won three big hands back-to-back-to-back, which made the rest of the table skeptical of his claim that he’d never played before. He took a big pot against Chris’s pocket Jacks. Then he made a flush to beat Chris’s two pair, and on the very next hand he made two pair against Altaf’s pocket Jacks and won that one too. That’s three big pots in about ten minutes from someone who (allegedly 😉) had never sat at a poker table before.

First-time players doing far too well has become a bit of a PPC tradition, and Dotun made the case louder than anyone before him.

Four Players All In, Three Players Out

The re-entry window ran through the end of Level 4, and it closed with the loudest hand of the night: four players all in at once, with Kasra on the right side of it. He knocked out three players on that one hand (Peggy, James, and Sunil). James and Sunil bought straight back in. Peggy’s night was done, and she took 20th.

The whole stretch leading up to the end of re-entry was action-packed. Hari collected two knockouts of his own, and Roman sent Altaf to the rail (though Altaf’s night would ultimately end on a much higher note). Six of the night’s 25 knockouts came in Level 4 alone.

Thuy Takes Over the Red Table

Coming back from the break, Thuy took over the red table. She raised, re-raised, and raised again after the flop, and she took down pot after pot without much argument. It was the most controlled stretch of poker anyone played all night.

Dotun was the one who pushed back. At 9:27 he called a series of big bets and made a straight on the river to win a big pot off her. Most experienced players would have folded earlier, but chasing the straight paid off.

Thuy’s answer came minutes later, when her pocket Aces beat pocket Kings to end Chris’s night in 16th. It was the second time she had knocked him out (the first, back in Level 4, he bought his way out of).

Around the same stretch we lost Sam (19th), Kara (18th), and Daniela (17th), and Christina went out 14th at Kasra’s hands. Tania sent Hari out in 15th before James ended her night in 13th. Erick (12th in his second club appearance) and Ravina (11th) went out back to back in Level 10 to Quang. And Luciano, who had walked in as the points leader, fell in 10th.

Roman Would Not Leave

If Dotun owned the first hour, Roman owned the middle of the night.

He was playing his first PPC event (and only the second game of poker he has ever played, after his dad taught him this summer), and he survived all-in after all-in through the middle levels. Every time somebody looked to have him, he was still sitting there when the next hand was dealt.

Then, in Level 11, he knocked out Rob (his dad) in 7th place. Apparently, dad’s lessons paid off a bit too well.

Both Roman and Dotun made the final table, which isn’t supposed to happen to two people playing their first game here on the same night.

Altaf’s Run

Altaf, who had busted early, put another $20 on the table, and for two hours he more or less just survived. Then the final table formed, and he took command of it.

At nearly 11 PM, he made a full house to win an enormous pot and triple his stack. From there the cards kept coming: a straight on the river, a flopped full house, and top set (the best possible three of a kind) twice. He knocked out Dotun in 6th, Quang in 5th, James in 4th, and Thuy in 3rd.

Thuy made him work for it. Four-handed, she survived two all-ins: one where she was ahead with 7-3 against Altaf’s 6-5, and another where she was behind and made a pair to stay alive. But eventually, she too fell, leaving Altaf (one of our more experienced players) heads-up with Roman, the rookie.

The Title Changed Hands Twice

With 26 entries, 1st place was worth 24 Player of the Year points, enough that almost everyone in the room was still mathematically alive deep into the night.

• Luciano came in leading on 22 points. When he busted in 10th, he was on 24 and was the player to beat.
• James passed him by surviving to five-handed, which guaranteed him at least 26. That was also the moment Roman and Dotun (both still live to tie for the title with a win) were finally out of the race. James busted in 4th and finished on 29.
• Thuy and Altaf could both still catch him. And when Altaf knocked Thuy out in 3rd, he locked up at least 31 points and the title, with one player left to beat.

It’s the first time in club history that the player leading the standings going into the season finale didn’t still lead when it ended. In 2023, Chris and Kasra held a share of the lead through the finale, in 2024 Christina held it, and in 2025 Peggy held it. Luciano is the first to be caught.

Heads-Up

Altaf took a big chip lead into heads-up play against Roman, and Roman refused to accept it. He survived three all-ins (including pocket Kings and pocket 10s) and clawed back a real share of the chips.

But the gap was too big. At 11:35 PM, in Level 14, Altaf finished it.

Roman took 2nd in his first game at the Pinnacle Poker Club, and he ended the season tied with his dad on 18 points from a single night.

Final Standings

Every knockout carried a $5 bounty. Altaf collected seven of them (plus his own); Kasra four; Quang and James three each; Hari, Roman, and Thuy two each; and Sunil and Tania one apiece.

The Bingo Challenge Is Over Too

September 5 was the last chance to fill in squares, and it settled the race that had been running alongside the poker all season.

Tania wins the 2026 Bingo Challenge with four completed lines and 20 of the 25 squares, the most of both. She finished one square short of a fifth line.

Four other players finished with a line: Luciano (2 lines, 16 squares), Thuy (1 line, 15), Rob (1 line, 11), and Peggy (1 line, 8). That’s nine completed lines across five players, and each one is worth 1,000 bonus chips at the Main Event.

Spare a thought for Quang, who ends the season with 15 squares but not a single line, level with Thuy and behind only Tania and Luciano. He finished one square from completing Column 3, and the missing square was “Attend All 5 Events” (not exactly a poker problem). He did pick up his second High Hand of the Night of the season (Queens full of deuces), after his Aces full of Queens back at the Kentucky Derby.

The biggest single night on the card belonged to Thuy, who filled eight squares in one evening, beating Luciano’s seven at the Summer Deepstack. Her 3rd-place run checked off a Skills Challenge hat trick, a cracked full house, five knockouts for the season, 12+ POY points, two final tables, and a cash.

Altaf added six squares on his way to the title, James four, and Rob and Luciano three each (enough for Rob and Luciano to close out lines). Four players ended the season exactly one square from a line: Altaf, James, Christina, and Kara.

Your 2026 Player of the Year

Altaf: 37 points, five events, one win, nine knockouts. James takes 2nd on 29 and Luciano 3rd on 24. Full standings are on the website.

One Left

The season isn’t quite over. The Main Event Championship is Saturday, November 7. It’s a freeroll (no buy-in), with the season’s awards handed out before the cards are dealt and the last title of the year on the line. The only cash on the table is a $20 bounty on each of this season’s five event winners. Your starting chips are built from every POY point you earned this season plus 1,000 for each Bingo line, so no two stacks are the same.

We’ll publish everybody’s starting chip count later this month. For now, Altaf will sit down with the biggest stack in the room. He has won this event twice (2023 and 2024), both times from near the bottom of the counts, and this will be the first time he starts it as the player everyone is chasing.

And since it’s free, it’s the easiest invite of the year: anyone playing their first-ever PPC game gets 2,000 bonus chips. Bring a friend.

Details and registration

Congratulations, Altaf. And welcome to the club, Roman and Dotun. What a way to start.