 The
final tournament kicked off at 1pm at Hagge's
Bar & Grill in Mapleton, ND. 66 out of 71 qualifiers made trip for a
shot at winning the grand prize, a trip to Las Vegas plus a $2,500 buy in
to the WPT Championship super satellite at the Bellagio in April. T-Bonz
Steakhouse (Perham, MN) and Torge's (Fairmount, MN) had the biggest
showings in this tournament with 7 qualifiers each.
 All
of the qualifiers who showed up received a collector's edition Minnesota
Poker League/Budweiser drinking glass.
The first big hand of the tournament was between Seth Carlson
(Brother's Bar & Grill-Rochester-pictured right) and Sandy Simpson (Pestello's-Backus).
Sandy hit a straight on the turn holding 8-9 and got all her chips in,
only to get beat on the river, when a 4th spade saved Seth's pocket KK's,
giving him a King-high flush. I guess you could say this hand set
the tone for the day. We saw a lot of 4-card flushes on the board
and there were some really bad beats, especially on table #1, which we
like to call the "Feature Table". At the end of the first
break, the chip leaders were Dan Putnam 31k (T-Bonz), Jamie
Elliot 26k (Moorhead VFW), & Troy Bonin 23k (Torge's).
About 3 hours into the tournament, Mike Morris
(Lamplighter Bar & Grill-New Ulm) became the new chip leader when his
pocket Kings held up against Jamie Elliot's (Moorhead VFW) pocket Jacks and found
himself with around 55k with the blinds going up to 400/800.
 Andy
Worden (Stampede Saloon) was in pretty good shape when he got his
money in with top pair (Queens) only to suffer a knockout blow when
Skip Wood (Moorhead VFW) tripped a third jack on the river.
The jack on the river would show up several times later in tournament...Paul
Coty's (Brothers Bar & Grill) pocket Queens eliminated Troy Bonin
(Sirloin House) in 25th place. Scott Schmidt (T Bonz)
eliminated Anne Schultz (LeMays Grill-pictured left) when Scott's
K-K held up against Anne's A-K. Father & Son combo Richard &
Dennis Carey (the two qualifiers from the South 40 Pub)
both went very deep in this tournament. Richard Carey busted out
16th and watched his father play on to the final table.
The hand of the tournament had to be when Eric Bagley
(Z103) & Mike Frank (Sirloin House) got into a tussle when the field
was down to 2 tables. Both players were among the chip leaders when
Eric (Q-J) got his chips in after hitting a flop of J-9-4, only to find he
was behind to Mike's pocket Kings. It didn't look so good for Eric
after the turn was a blank, but the river came a Jack, which not only
saved Eric's tournament life, but made him a commanding chip leader.
About 6 hours into the tournament, we reached the final table:
|
FINAL TABLE |
|
Seat |
Name |
Bar |
Chip Count |
| 1 |
Doug Sandstrom |
Moorhead VFW |
23,000 |
| 2 |
Dan Putnam |
T Bonz |
99,000 |
| 3 |
Paul Coty |
Brothers Bar & Grill |
52,000 |
| 4 |
Eric Bagley |
Z103 Bar & Grill |
176,500 |
| 5 |
Mike Frank |
LeMays |
64,000 |
| 6 |
Scott Schmidt |
T Bonz |
82,500 |
| 7 |
Troy Gochanour |
Sirloin House |
11,500 |
| 8 |
Andy Davidson |
Brothers Bar & Grill |
45,000 |
| 9 |
Dennis Carey |
South 40 Pub |
11,500 |
| 10 |
Deb Ziegler |
Thumper Pond |
79,500 |
Eric was in a nice position with the 2-1 chip lead, but
got even more help on the first hand. Dan Putnam had black 10-10 to
Eric's red 10-10. The board was kind to Eric when the turn and river
produced a heart flush. This hurt Dan's stack considerably and he
ended up busting out in 8th place. Mike Frank had some tough luck,
the first hand he played he doubled up the low-stacked Troy Gochanour.
Then, holding Q-10 in a dominating position against Scott Schmidt's J-10
with a flop of 2-4-10, Mike moved in and got called. But you had a
feeling we might see another jack...and sure enough we did. Mike had a great
tournament but finished a disappointing 10th.
When the field trimmed to the final three, we had Deb
Ziegler (Thumper Pond), Andy Davidson (Brothers-pictured left)
and Eric Bagley (Z103). With the blinds at 6,000/12,000, all
players were in to see a flop. Deb Ziegler immediately moved in with
her remaining 78k in first position to take down a nice pot of 90k.
The battle ensued for about 45 minutes until finally Andy Davidson
crippled Deb with a little luck from the river when his Q-6 vs. K-Q found
a 6 on the river...Deb busted out shortly thereafter.
At the beginning of heads up play, Eric held roughly
400k to Andy's 220k. Andy had some momentum but was going to need a
big hand early in order to compete. Eric played big-stack poker and
eventually pinned Andy into a corner. Then, with the pressure on,
Andy made a move with Q-6 to try and steal a pot post-flop but ran into
Eric's 2-pair (A-3).
Andy didn't go home empty handed, however. He won
a seat to the next Heartland
Poker Tour event ($340 buy in) at Grand Casino Mille Lacs March
24-26th. The final tournament will be televised and we wish Andy the
best of luck.
 Eric
relished his win and is excited for the opportunity to take a crack at the
qualifying for the WPT
Championship at the Bellagio-Las Vegas. The tournament begins on
April 16th and we will report on Eric's progress in the event.
A quick thanks to everyone who participated in this
4-week contest and all the volunteer dealers who helped. We hope to
see you all at the next state championship event at Jackpot Junction
Casino May 6th!
Final Results
1st Eric Bagley, Z103 $2,500 WPT buy in plus $1,000 travel
accomodations
2nd Andy Davidson, Brothers $340 buy in to Heartland Poker Tour
3rd Deb Ziegler, Thumper Pond MPL poker table, 500pc WPT
Bellagio premium chip set
(4-10th received misc. merchandise for prizes)
4th Scott Schmidt, T Bonz
5th Paul Coty, Brothers Bar & Grill
6th Doug Sandstrom, Moorhead VFW
7th Troy Gochanour, Sirloin House
8th Dan Putnam, T Bonz
9th Dennis Carey, South 40
10th Mike Frank, LeMays Grill |
