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Stacy Stanford & Jeff Miller Big Winners in Nebraska
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
League Newsletter
The Nebraska Championship finished up Sunday night with the top two players each earning a $2500 trip to Las Vegas to compete in the 2008 WSOP.
Jeff Miller from Omaha (left in photo) and Stacy Stanford from North Platte survived the championship field to become the latest big winners in the Nebraska Poker League.
Recap
On Sunday May 18th shortly after
one o’clock we kicked off the
Nebraska
state championship where two lucky people will be heading to
Las
Vegas to play in the World Series of Poker. It was a beautiful day as the tournament over
looked the golf course at
HiddenValley
in
Lincoln. The action was heating up as was the temperature
inside. Unfortunately the air went out
for a little bit, but was fixed within an hour. The first player to bust was also the loudest for the whole tournament
until she lost her voice, former champ Jeff Schultz’
s mom
Toni Englebart was knocked out early. She let the whole tournament know that the pressure was off them to be
the first to bust. We had four former champions looking to be the first ever
person to be a two time main event champion.
Vern Runyan and Jeff Schultz both won
WSOP seats one year ago, Jeff Merrill who won a $12,500 WPT Caribbean package,
and Larry Culhane coming off a WPT Bay 101 win in January. About four hours into the
tournament former champ Jeff Merrill busted another former champ
Vern
Runyan.
Pat McGrane
from Legends was the chip leader at dinner break. Shortly after Dinner break Jeff Miller from
MVP Lounge in
Omaha got tangled up
in a pot with Ron Sjullie from Touchdown Club in
North
Platte. Jeff got
all his chips in the pot on a bluff while Ron was holding pocket Kings. Jeff had King-Ten. On the river Jeff catches the miracle card of
a queen, giving him the gut shot straight and taking a huge pot. When we got down to the final table we had a husband and
wife couple of Pat and Janet McGrane, and Jeff Merrill former champ. Jeff Miller had a majority of the chips in
play and was controlling the action. Everyone wanted to double up through him, but didn’t want to commit
chips on marginal hands because it was hard to figure out what Jeff had since
he was playing so many. Jeff Merrill
woke up to Kings as Jeff Miller had raised. J. Merrill went all in and J. Miller made the call knowing that he was
drawing slim with his 10-2. The window
card was a 10, but not enough help, turn another blank, but the two on the
river sealed the deal as J. Miller collected more chips knocking out the last
remaining champ who was his second previous champion knock out as he had taken
Jeff Schultz out earlier. When we got down to three people Jeff Miller, Stacy
Standord, and Don Lueschen both Stacy and Don had minimal stacks compared to
Jeff. Knowing this Jeff controlled the
action almost every hand making every bet 100,000 to play which would virtually
put Stacy and Don all in. Stacy had made
the call three times, and able to survive all three to Don’s
disappointment. The last hand of the night had Jeff on the button who folded
and Stacy went all in trying to take Don’s big blind as each blind steal was
crippling to these two players. Don woke
up to pocket queens and couldn’t call fast enough. If Don wins the hand he virtually takes out
Stacy as he wouldn’t have enough chips to call either the big or small
blind. If Stacy wins he knocks out Don
and it’s over. Stacy was holding K-3 to
Don’s pocket QQ’s. Flop nothing, turn
nothing, but the miracle three outer on the river pairing Stacy’s King ends the
tournament as we had our two winners. Don was crushed as three times earlier Stacy’s tournament could have
been ended, but was able to survive and when he got all his chips in as a huge
favorite he was unable to survive the dreaded river.
Various photos from the event have been uploaded to the gallery. Additional notes from the championship event will be posted soon. Thanks to all players and bars who participated in the contest!
Congrats to Jeff Merrill for making his 3rd final table at a Nebraska State Championship. If it weren't for his pocket kings getting cracked by 10-2 he might have won again!
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