North Dakota Crowns 5 New Desert Heat Champs
Poker players from all around the state of North Dakota gathered at the Bismarck VFW this past Saturday for their shot at becoming the final big winners in the Desert Heat promotion. In the end, Brent Hauge, Vance Barta, John Kihne, Kerry Wentz, and Mark Masseth were crowned champs. There will be ONE more trip awarded online as a LAST CHANCE bonus.
Play got underway at 1pm as 135 of the 156 qualifiers were in their seats and ready. Action started out fast and furious as the players were not going to mess around. We lost our first player Gar Hagemeister (Hagges) within the first 15 minutes. Thane Fliginger (Mr. G's) was off to a fast start becoming the chip leader within the first hour of the tournament with over 30,000 in chips.
When we had made it to our first break we had lost more players than any other championship tournament losing 18 within the first two hours of the tournament. Thane, the early chip leader, was also eliminated right before break.
As we came back from break it was time for some of the short stacks to make a move and they did. The action was pretty fast-paced despite a very slow structure and by the time we hit the dinner break we were down to 59 players, losing exactly 59 players or half the remaining field from the first break.
The two chip leaders at the dinner break were Charlie Poitra from Mr. K's in Crosby with 62,500 and Logan Wysocki from the Knickerbocker in Hickson with 69,000. These two players would end up at the same table shortly after dinner and would be involved in a very big hand that had the attention of the whole room. Tournament director and emcee Pete Bushey caught up with the action on the turn and saw Logan check-call a 20K bet from Charlie bringing the pot to 100K! Logan checked the river as well and Charlie immediately went all-in having Logan covered. Logan tanked for almost five minutes before asking Charlie if he would show if he folded. Charlie said, "yes" and Logan reluctantly let his hand go, opting to hold onto his last 20K in chips. Charlie flipped over a king-high bluff and scooped the pot giving him 170K and over 10% of the chips in play with 50 players remaining! WHAT A BLUFF!
Things did not slow down after dinner break and within a couple of hours we were down to the final two tables and then finally down to ten. Some players going out in the top 20 included Casey Horpestad (Million Dollar Lanes, Williston) Larry Schwartz (Bismarck VFW), Tim Peterka (Bucks, Grand Forks), and Tracy Reimche (Riviera Lounge, Minot) Larry's beat came all-in preflop as he had AK vs. the pocket queens of Wayne Niemann and two queens flopped giving Wayne quads!
The final table looked like this:
Seat 1 - Brent Hauge - 163,000 from Drinks in Mohall
Seat 2 - Bob Haas - 317,500 from the Lonesome Dove in Mandan
Seat 3 - Charlie Poitra - 107,000 from Mr. K's in Crosby
Seat 4 - Vance Barta - 102,000 from Borrowed Bucks in Fargo
Seat 5 - John Kihne - 47,000 from the Silver Dollar in Mandan
Seat 6 - Kerry Wentz - 258,500 from the Silver Dollar in Mandan
Seat 7 - Wayne Niemann - 101,000 from the Sports Bar in Hillsboro
Seat 8 - RJ Olson - 111,500 from Mr. G's in Fargo
Seat 9 - Mark Masseth - 116,000 from the Silver Dollar in Mandan
Seat 10 - Galen Fisher - 52,000 from the Vets Club in Wahpeton
Since it was the top five players that won Grand Prizes, everyone was playing extremely cautious as one wrong step could mean the end. However, the blinds and antes were starting to eat some people up so some of the smaller stacks had to make a move.
RJ Olson moved all in preflop with A-9 and was called by Brent with J-J. The window card was exactly what RJ needed bringing an ace, but the tables turned quickly on fourth street when Brent hit his jack to send RJ home in 10th place.
Galen Fisher now found himself being the short stack with only 21,000. With half of his money in the big blind and one raise from the button by Wayne Niemann, Galen put his other half in hoping for live cards with his 10-4. Wayne had a monster grip on this hand as he flipped over 10-10. Galen was not able to catch anything and we were down to eight.
Next to go was one-time chip leader Charlie Poitra as he moved all in with 68k at the 10k-20k level with A-5 to John Kihne's 9-9. Unfortunately for Charlie he could not catch an ace to save his tournament life and he was eliminated in seventh place.
After a couple of dealer changes and many button orbits around the table the blinds were at 15k-30k. Kerry had raised to 90,000 with Vance Barta (pictured left) in the big blind. Vance looked down at pocket Kings and moved all in which was only another 10,000 for Kerry to call. Kerry tabled A-5 and the flop brought Kerry his ace, Vance was drawing to the two remaining kings. The turn was a blank and Vance was out of his seat putting his jacket on when the crowd went nuts after a miracle king spiked on the river.
A few hand later Wayne Niemann moved all-in under the gun and got called by chip leader Kerry Wentz (pictured right). The flop paired both Wayne's queen and Kerry's jack, but Wayne continued the poker day of his life and hit his 6 on the river for two pair knocking out Wayne.
Finally, there were six left with only one more player in the way of the HPT Red Rock in Las Vegas. Blinds had just moved to 20k-40k and Bob Haas found himself as one of the short stacks after coming into the final table as the chip leader. He went all in with Q-J after a raise by John Kihne with A-K. John called and the flop brought a window ace, but the turn gave Bob a queen and 5 outs. Unfortunately for Bob he could not get the miracle river and John sent Bob home and four other to Las Vegas.
Congratulations to our five new North Dakota winners!
Brent Hauge, Vance Barta, John Kihne, Kerry Wentz, and Mark Masseth!