Dakota Poker League
WPT Championship Super Satellite
STATE TOURNAMENT
Borrowed Bucks - Bismarck
118 S 3rd Street, 701-224-1545
Saturday, March 4th
 Story
by Jason Drake
Borrowed Bucks Road House
in Bismarck hosted the WPT 4-week state championship tournament. After
regional contests, 49 players were remaining with a chance to capture the
title. 47 out of the 49 qualifiers were able to make the trip to take
a shot at winning a trip to Las Vegas and the opportunity to play in the
$2,500 World Poker Tour Super Satellite event at the Bellagio. A great
turn out considering the dire weather predictions. Fortunately, those
predictions didn't amount to enough to cancel this event...At the final
tournament, fifteen bars in all were represented. The Old Broadway-Fargo
ended up with the most qualifiers (9) followed by Hagge’s (8). As a
congratulatory token, the League presented each of the qualifiers with a
collector’s edition Dakota Poker League/Budweiser pint glass.
Play in the early levels of the tournament was unbelievably tight with only
one player being eliminated in the first two levels. Leonard Melgaard
of Million Dollar Lanes in Williston was unfortunately that person
when a higher full house ended up sending him to the rail. Leonard was a
good sport and did not go home empty handed. An Official DPL hat was his
consolation prize.
Aggressive play was rewarded in the early levels due to the tight play, one
of the early chip leaders at the first break was Jason Tuel from
Hagges. (Due to the lack of poor note taking on my part, exact chip
counts are going to be sketchy). Every time I glanced at his table he
was in a hand, making a raise or dragging a pot.
 After
the first break we ended up with the first wave of casualties as the blinds
increased and the level of play loosened. I was quickly down to 3 tables as
the dinner break approached.
At the Dinner Break are top 4 chip leaders were:
Jim Nelson 93,000 (Midway Lanes, Mandan) Mitch Donley 43,500
(pictured right) (Hagge’s,
Mapleton) Jason Tuel 42,000 (Hagge’s, Mapleton) Mike Albrecht 39,500 (Old
Broadway, Fargo)
Jim Nelson had a commanding 2:1 chip lead at this point and looked
poised to sail to the final table. We were quickly down to the final two
tables after the dinner breaks as the short stacks were put down
mercifully. With players re-seated for the final two tables the race was on
for the trip to the Bellagio.
 As the players dwindled toward the final table a couple of quick notes of
interest. The last woman standing, 16th place, was Joanne
“Grandma Poker” Mattson (pictured left) from 12th Street Lounge in Grafton.
Don’t let this little white haired lady fool you, when she sits down on the
table she means business!!! Mike Albrecht from the OB was unfortunately the
bubble boy, 10th place, for the final table.
 The final table (pictured right) was dominated with three players from
Hagge’s. The other six players hailed form Buck’s in Grand Forks,
Playmakers, The Old Broadway, the Sportsmen in Englevale, the Original in
Minot, and Midway lanes of Mandan.
 Mike
Butts (pictured left) from the Original Bar in Minot could not overcome his
short stack on the final table and was eliminated in 9th place.
Clayton Dilly from Hagge’s played a strong tournament and finished in
8th place. John Waliser of Sportsmen’s in Englevale who
had a great run of cards earlier (he had A’s 4 times and KK twice and was
able to get them all in and have the hands hold up) in the tournament wasn’t
able to find any at the final table. He finished in 7th place.
Jim Nelson of Midway lanes in Mandan told that he wasn’t able to catch a
cold let alone any cards on the final two tables. Jim was able to carry his
once dominant chip lead to a 6th place finish and a DPL hat.
Jason Tuel, from Hagge’s, who had been one of the early hip leaders was
actually down to his last 2,000 in chips during the final two tables, a
couple of quick double ups and Jason was on the Final table. Jason’s 5th
place finish earned him a DPL sweatshirt. Mitch Donley from Hagge’s was
actually the chip leader going into the final table with at least a third of
the chips in play. Mitch played an outstanding tournament and turned in a
very respectable 4th place finished and earned himself a WPT
500pc Bellagio premium poker chip set.
The final three consisted of Michael Krein (Playmakers), Christian
Kjelland (pictured below right) (Old Broadway), and Chris Thompson
(pictured below left) (Buck’s-GF). The table talk was getting amusing
as there was a lot of preflop action and position play for the final three.
“You show me yours and I will show you mine”, was the predominate theme as
both Chris and Christian went back and forth with preflop raises and all-in’s.
Eventually Chris would succumb to Michael who slowly played very steady
during the final table. Chris’s 3rd place finish earned him a
but in to the next Dakota Poker Tour event. ($200 value)
  Heads-up
looked to belong to Christian in the early going as he had a 4:1 chip lead.
Over the course of the next half hour Michael was able to overcome the
commanding chip lead with some key double ups and preflop re-raises. With
the Chip lead now reversed Michael and Christian were able to get them all
in the middle with Michael holding A10 offsuit and Christian hold QJ off
suit the board fell in a rainbow of suits and neither player spiked. Ace
high held on to win the
WPT North Dakota State
Championship for Michael Krein (pictured top of page) of Playmakers.
Christian with his 2nd place finish earned himself a buy-in to
the next Dakota Poker Tour event
I
would like to thank all the players for supporting and participating in the
league and I wish you the best of luck at the tables.
Special thanks also goes out to Jesse Zimmerman and all the volunteer
dealers who helped make this event possible. |
