12:10am WE HAVE A WINNER

John Ulland is our champ, he held Kd-10d to Royle's 7-7.  The flop was good for John again! Ten for middle pair plus a diamond draw.  Two blanks and we have a new champ.  Royle gets $500 cash for runner up prize.  

For more pictures check the photo gallery. 

11:55pm HEADS UP

John Ulland-Lariat Lounge 539.5k vs. Royle Merkel-Slammers 148

John Ulland became the monster chip leader after busting Chad Claymore in 3rd place 

John Ulland raised preflop (about 32k?) and Mingo pushed with A-J of clubs for another 80k or so.  John made the call with Q-10 of spades.  John is running good and flopped a gut-shot royal flush draw. The turn was a blank but the river was a spade and John wins. 

That does it for Mingo, who was the league champ at Seib's in Elgin and the Final Go Round in Mott.  I have a feeling we'll be seeing Mingo again at another championship event in the near future.

11:40pm  WE HAVE A GRINDER

The chips are going round and round and it's been a while since we've seen a flop.  Chad Claymore took over the chip lead for a short time before Mingo wrestled it back.  All of the remaining players have close chip stacks...Pete "Cold Deck" Bushey is dealing, and I've caught a couple of spectators yawning...

Jason Drake reminded me that Midway Lanes closes at 1am.  I told him, "I'm not worried, I've been watching these players closely and they're all about to snap."

11:15pm SHORT BREAK - DOWN TO 4

Playing aggressively, Dave Wilts busted to John Ulland.  Dave was active on the final table but couldn't quite get rolling.  In the end, John made a good call with middle pair to send Dave to the rail. 

We also lost Nathan Hausmann who was getting shortstacked and moved in preflop with A-9.  Chad Claymore called with pocket 5's and they held up... 

11:05pm  WE HAVE A NEW CHIP LEADER!

The chips have been going round and round. 

John Ulland has taken a big hit. 

Mingo Koepplin doubled through John with a flopped set of eights in a 3-way pot.  Mingo pushed and John called with a diamond flush draw and 2 overcards, but the overs were no good and he was left with 8 outs (Mingo held one diamond).  The hand put a dent in John's chip stack and gave Mingo the chip lead..

10:30pm

Here are the developments in the last level:

Ryan Legvold busted in 10th place. 

John Ulland busted Cindy Croteau (9th) & Jeff Salmonson (8th) in the same hand.

Nathan Hausmann knocked out Tallie Colville.  Tallie came to the final table on the short stack.  She managed to hold on for quite a while to capture 7th place.  She was basically all-in blind in the end and did not improve with 2 live cards.

Royle Merkel doubled through Nathan Hausmann (JJ vs 10-10)

10:00pm  FINAL TABLE

1. John Ulland (Lariat Lounge-Velva) 122.5k
2. Chad Claymore (Champs-Dickinson) 110k
3. Dave Wilts (Harwood Legion) 91k
4. Jeff Salmonson (Harwood Legion) 77.5k
5. Royle Markel (Slammers-Fargo) 66.5k (Pictured right)
6 (Tie) Cindy Croteau (Silver Dollar-Mandan) 65k
   Nathan Hausmann (Playmakers-Fargo) 65k
8. Ryan Legvold (Playmakers-Fargo) 39.5k
9. Mingo Koepplin (Seib's-Elgin) 35k
10. Tallie Colville (Sandoon Saloon II-Sanborn) 15k

All of our final table players will receive a cash payout.  John Ullend is the chip leader, this is his 4th championship appearance and 2nd championship final table.  He made the Tournament of Champions final table last summer. 

John Ulland busted 2 more players and collected another 60k, sending Paul Amsbaugh (Stadium II) and Jonathan Leither (Hagges) to the rail with a full house...

9:00pm WILL DICKINSON GO BACK-TO-BACK?

Last fall Mike Schneider from Dickinson won the DPL championship.  Now we have another Dickinson player threatening to keep the title at Champs.  Chad Claymore (Champs-Dickinson) just busted 3 players and took down an 80k pot to join the chip leaders...Then, in the very next hand he busted Roger Mattson (The Field) in 18th place with quad fours versus Roger's pocket kings...

8:00pm JOHN ULLEND WAKES UP TO ACES

With the blinds at 1500/3000, John Ullend woke up to pocket aces and busted two players.  A nice pot goes to John and now he's among the chip leaders...

6:45pm DINNER BREAK - DOWN TO 32 PLAYERS

We're taking a short 30 minute dinner break. 

Before the break Calvin Mosbrucker and Jeff Salmonson (pictured right) got into a huge hand after the flop.  Calvin had pocket 10's and Jeff had pocket Aces.  The flop was Q-J-9, giving Calvin ten outs to bust Jeff's aces.  However, the turn and river did not help Calvin and Jeff raked a HUGE 80k pot!  It's the pot of the tournament, so far...

Here are the chip leaders at the break:

1. Jeff Salmonson  (Harwood Legion) 80k
2. Mingo Koepplin (Seib's-Elgin) 50k
3. Heath Johnson (Playmakers-Fargo) 46k

6:00pm

Imagine this: you lose a huge all-in pot and after all the counting you see you have 2 black chips, not even enough for your small blind.  So you're all in blind.  You already know you're not running good, but you look up to see your opponent has pocket aces.  You're halfway out the door, right?? 

Not Jim Hebert from the Old Broadway.  Jim survives when his A-J makes the nut straight.  He comes away with 800.  After several hands, he's all-in in the big blind, 7-6 offsuit.  With 5 limpers in the hand, he catches 2 pair and rakes a nice 5k pot!  Right back in it!...Right? 

What happens next is...sick.

Jim wakes up to pocket aces.  After raising to 2400, he gets one caller.  But Jim doesn't realize Paul Amsbaugh called him, and shows his aces, thinking he was taking down the blinds.  Oops.  He's forced to play his hand face up now.  The flop comes J-4-7.  Paul holds Q-J and has hit top pair.  Jim shrugs his shoulders and puts in his remaining 1200 in chips.  With the pot over 5000, Paul is tempted to call, even though he knows exactly how behind he is...And he does!  Paul says, "This is stupid, but..."  AND SURE ENOUGH, a queen hit the river!!! 

And that did it for the short but amazing run of cards for Jim Hebert.

4:30pm

Well we made it to the break...only 4 players have busted at this point.  Jim Atkinson was the first of today's unfortunate players.  He received the $25 cash prize for first out. 

Chad Claymore (Champs-Dickinson) showed a queen-high straight flush to claim the high hand so far...It's going to be tough to top that for sure! 

At the break, we took a look for big stacks and didn't really find any.  Here are the chip leaders:

1. John "Bubba" Ulland (Lariat Lounge) 21,900
2. Royle Merkel (Slammers) 20,600
3. Mike Fournier (Champs) 19,600
4. Phil Reisenauer (Liquid Assets) 19,400
5. Dave Wilts (Harwood Legion) 19,300

3:00pm

Well, we've finished 2 levels and not one player busted.  We definitely have a tight group. 

The first all-in with a call happened just as we moved into the 3rd level.  Full-house vs. full-house.  Jim Atkinson (Stadium II-Bottineau) was unfortunate to hold pocket 5's to a flop of J-J-6.  When a 5 came on the turn, he got all the money in against Mike Omdahl's (Scootin' Scotty's-Oriska) pocket 6's!  Omdahl scooped a $15k pot, crippling Jim. 

The high hand so far belongs to Shawn Sjolland (pictured right-Mac's Place-Washburn) with quad sixes. 

2:00pm

Yikes, another bad weekend of weather.  And we thought last weekend was bad...With roads closed all over the upper midwest you could say the last 24 hours was pretty stressful, for players & organizers!

Despite the weather situation we're having a nice turnout here at Midway Lanes.  Last count was 67 players for this 2-hour delayed start.  This is the latest we have ever started a championship tournament so we're going to have to run the tournament on a very tight schedule...So far so good.