Tournament of Champions Report
6/24/06 - Report by Brook Lyter

Dustin Gulbrandson (pictured left) from the Depot Express in Alexandria was the big winner of the Tournament of Champions, held at Hagge’s Bar in Mapleton, ND, beating out a field of 74 players to capture a seat to the main event of the 2006 World Series of Poker coming up in late July at the Rio in Las Vegas.  Brad Snortum from J.B. Yates in Granite Falls was the runner up.

This championship contest pitted individual tournament winners from Minnesota and Dakota Poker Leagues over a 10-week period last winter.  To make it to the championship event, players had to win a tournament of 30 or more players at their local bar and then place in the top 10% of a regional qualifying tournament.  The contest was a first for mixing Minnesota & Dakota Poker League players in a championship event.

Several players previously qualified for the recent state championship tournaments- held in May- where Jeremy Heller (Minnesota) and Jim Nelson (North Dakota) each won a seat to the main event of the WSOP.

Mitch Schock was the tournament director and emcee.  Anyone who has ever attended one of Mitch’s tournaments (www.dakotapokertour.com) knows how entertaining he can be.  Mitch welcomed the players and the cards were in the air at 1pm.

Players started the day with 10,000 in chips and the blinds went up every ½ hour.  Many of the players drove a long way to make the event, including Kristi Boll (pictured left), who made it from the Howling Dog Saloon in Luverne, MN.  Kristi was late due to a flat tire but had no problem taking her seat as late entry was allowed for one hour.  Unfortunately for Kristi, she was also one of the first players to bust!  Sometimes it’s just not your day, but she made the best of it and stuck around for some free side games and witnessed the action of the final table.

Several good starting hands fell hard early. The official first bust occurred when JP Fear (Playmakers-Fargo) had his pocket Aces cracked by Chris Gray’s (Southgate-Grand Forks) KJ to a board of K-J-Q.  Jeff Rivard (South Forty Pub-Lonsdale) busted when his  pocket Kings ran into Lloyd Veld’s (Brian’s Supper Club-Fulda, MN)  quad nines. 

After the first break, the early chip leader was Kevin Peterson (pictured left from the Main Line Bar-Downer, MN) with 29k.  This was Kevin’s first experience at a championship event.  Shortly behind Kevin were tough players Mike Henry (Boxers Bar-Faribault, MN) 22k, Clay Lipke (Primetime-Breezy Point, MN) 21k, and Rhonda Kraft (Midway Lanes-Mandan, ND) 20k. 

Mike Henry (pictured right from Boxers Bar in Faribault) had been no stranger to qualifying for championship events.  He made it to the final table twice before this event, in the fall and winter championships, an amazing accomplishment.  We knew he was going to be in for another good day after watching him bust a player with J-10 when he landed a miracle flop of J-10-10.

As usual with no limit Texas Holdem, we saw good drama and a few crazy suckouts and re-suckouts.  For example, Kevin Peterson (Main Line-Downer, MN) was involved in a lot of big hands.  He held pocket 10’s to Matt Burnett’s (Torge’s-Fairmont, MN) pocket 8’s, but found himself severely behind when the flop cam A-8-Q.  Luck was on Kevin’s side when the turn card came a 10 and sent Matt to the rail.  Shortly thereafter, Seth Martin A-A (Lariat Lounge-Velva, ND) got into a tangle with Kevin (pocket 8’s) after a flop of K-K-8.  Things looked pretty good for Kevin when 4^th street brought a queen, but Seth nailed an Ace on the river to win and double up.

At the dinner break we were down to 37 players and several players were building nice stacks, including Shane Ambuehl (Z103 Bar & Grill-Fergus Falls) who was took over the chip lead with 53k.  Shane traveled with Eric Bagley (winner of the WPT Championship 4-week contest in March) to Las Vegas and was feeling good about how his day was going.  John Ullend (Lariat Lounge-Velva) was also having a good run with 46k in chips.  This was John’s 3^rd championship tournament experience.

After the dinner break, things began to heat up.  Shane Ambuehl (pocket 8’s) lost the chip lead on a huge pot with Brad Snortum (J.B. Yates-Granite Falls, MN) when Brad’s A-K found a King on the River.  Mike Reverts (pictured left from Sharkees-Luverne, MN) was making also making a run when he flopped 2 pair to bust Tim Holden (Red Wing Golf Club-Red Wing, MN).  Reverts woke up to pocket aces a little while later and bust two players to make him a commanding chip leader with about 130k.

Next thing you know were were down to the final 20 players, with 13 players remaining from Minnesota and 7 from North Dakota.  Chad Kolloen (Champs-Dickinson, ND) hit a nice hand when his pocket Queens tripped up and eliminated Kevin Lillquest (Menahga VFW-Menahga, MN) in 14^th place.  The two tables grinded it out and we finally had our final table set:

Mitch Schock (Dakota Poker Tour-Bismarck, ND) gave a rousing introduction of the players with music thumping in the background.  Mitch gave a brief history of each player and told the crowd what each player planned to do with the money if they won it all in Las Vegas.  Mike Reverts, the chip leader, said he would “Party for two weeks…then party for two more!”  And with that, we were underway.

It didn’t take long to see big action.  Rhonda Kraft woke up with pocket Kings on the third hand and doubled through Chad Kolloen.  Shortly after, Chad busted in 10^th place. 

Dustin Gulbrandson started the final table 6^th in chips but it didn’t take long for him to make his move.  With Brad Snortum raising 10k preflop, Dustin called then re-raised all-in after a flop of 8-3-10.  Shortly after that, Dustin busted John Ullend in 9^th place and was threatening to take the chip lead.  His next victim was Rhonda Kraft (pictured left).  Rhonda raised under-the-gun to with A-Q 24k and got called from Kevin & Dustin (K-J).  Rhonda tried to steal but got caught.  She moved in on a flop of K-J-2 into Dustin’s 2-pair and was eliminated in 8^th place. 

The final table then dragged out a bit, with a lot of chips moving around, but not too many showdowns.  Dustin was certainly getting the best of the table with the chip lead.  He made a lot of timely bets and raises that worked.  He rarely got called and never lost a showdown.

Another player made a move on Dustin and was sent packing.  Kevin Peterson’s chip stack had dwindled to under 70k.  He ended up pushing his A-6 after a flop of 2-Q-9 (Ace high).  Dustin thought for a minute and called with A-9 to bust Kevin in 7^th place.

Scott Rosendahl lost when his A-J did not improve and Brad’s pocket 8’s held.  Brad later woke up to pocket Aces and busted Mike Reverts in 5^th place.  Brad’s run continued as he busted Nick Weiand in 4^th place. 

With three players left to go, Mike Blank (pictured left) moved all in on a semi bluff against Dustin and made the nut flush, giving Mike a very nice 200k pot.  The race was on.  Dustin held a strong lead but Mike Blank & Brad Snortum were hot on the trail.  Play continued for quite a while until Mike Blank was finally eliminated in 3^rd place. 

The big prize came down to Brad & Dustin, with Dustin in a commanding chip lead of almost 3 to 1.  Dustin came out firing, taking down the first three pots.  Dustin was gaining momentum and Brad was feeling the pressure.  Brad managed to stay alive quite a while and eventually got the big double up he needed to get back into the match.  In that hand, Dustin called on the button with 6-3 and Brad moved in on a flop of 4-6-K.  Dustin thought for a while and announced, “I don’t think you have anything” and called.  Brad doubled up and all of a sudden he was within sriking distance with 302k vs Dustin’s 480k.  Play continued for another 9 minutes and then we had the final hand at 1:15am with the blinds at 20k/40k. 

The board read 7s-10s-5s.

Brad held 10-5 for two pair, but Dustin had flopped a flush with Qs-Js.  Brad did not fill up on the turn or river and Dustin was crowned champion.

Brad and Mike were bummed out to get so close and not win.  Brad earned a buy-in to a Heartland Poker Tour event as consolation, plus a $100 gift certificate to Best Buy and various merchandise.  Mike won a home edition Minnesota Poker League tournament chip set along with a MPL padded tabletop as consolation. 

Dustin is very excited to earn a trip to the main event of the World Series of Poker, he played great and is the first ever Free Poker Network Tournament of Champions CHAMPION!  We will be looking forward to watching his progress from inside the rail at this year’s WSOP along with the other league winners. 

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