Once Again the Father Hennepin Festival in Champlin Minnesota has invited the Minnesota Poker League back to host its annual Free-to-Play Texas Hold 'Em event. Saturday June 14th at 3:00 PM in the Beer Tent.
Day 2 of the MN Destination Las Vegas promotion concluded a 2-day tournament to decide the top 10 players that will be off to Las Vegas to represent Minnesota in the WSOP. The tournament was held at The Hub in Fargo, ND, which provided a spectacular scene for a poker tournament...
We are getting close the 14th Minnesota championship this weekend at the Hub in Fargo. It’s going to be a great time with 10 people from the state of Minnesota going to the World Series of Poker. There will be sit-n-go’s and freerolls for players that have busted and any spectators that would like to participate. With the big field there will be plenty of bad beat stories, suck outs, and coin flip situations happening left and right, it’s inevitable, but it makes for a great weekend of poker!!
Two players will be competing to become the first players in Free Poker Network history to win their second championship. Back in 2005 Greg Anderson who qualified from the Stampede Saloon won our Bahamas event playing in a World Poker Tour event and stayed at the fabulous Atlantis Resort. Also Jeremy Heller playing out of Ruttles in 2006 won a seat into the main event at the World Series of Poker.
There are some players in the field who have come close with some final table appearances. Jeremy Evans playing from Sanow’s Pub took 10th place in last years WSOP promotion. Denny Carey playing from Flicek’s took 9th place back in 2006 in a WPT 4 week event. Tim Holden from Skyline on Pepin took 9th place in our $10,000 2006 Summer Poker Challenge. Josh Lueck from Front Street Bar & Grill also has a final table appearance in the 2006 WSOP promotion. This will be Denny’s, Tim’s, and Josh’s fourth championship event. Other notables include five time championship qualifiers Clay Lipke with a final table appearance at the Last Chance event taking seventh place. Marcus Holm who is the number one and two point leader this promotion. Six time championship qualifiers Dave Chaput from Z103 who won a HPT seat in the 2006 Summer Poker Challenge, Shaun Steinbach from Z103 who made the Bahamas ’06 final table taking fourth, and Skip Wood out of the Moorhead VFW who is a champion double qualifier taking down both the leagues at the VFW.
And then there is Joel Smith who is a staple at all of the Minnesota championship events. This will be his ninth, yes ninth championship event. Joel qualified from Billy’s Corner Bar and already has two final table appearances taking 9th place at last years WSOP promotion and 2nd place at the Bahamas ’06 promotion loosing out to winner Bob Holappa when he ran into Bob’s pocket aces. Is this the year that Joel finally breaks the streak? Do we have our first ever two time champion? Or do the 156 people who have never made a championship event until this weekend have something to say about it? We'll find out soon!
Former Minnesota Poker League Champion Jeremy Heller is back...After the regular season, he is the overall points leader at Ruttles in St. Peter, qualifying directly for the Minnesota Championship.
Jeremy won the 2006 MPL Championship and earned a seat in the richest poker tournament of all time, the year that Jamie Gold won $12 million for first place...Heller busted when his aces got cracked, and boy would he like another shot at it...
Greg Anderson from Hewitt has also qualified for the championship, surviving a recent playoff qualifier. Greg won a trip to the Bahamas to play in the WPT in 2006. Several other successful league players will be on their way to regional championships where lots of WSOP seats are up for grabs in the Free Poker Network's biggest league contest to date. We can't wait to see the list of winners!
Joel Smith ran over the competition at Billy's Bar in Vergas, MN to qualify directly for the upcoming Minnesota Poker League championship. This is a league record 9th time Joel has qualified for a league championship tournament. You may recall Joel has made 2 final tables at championship events, placing runner up to Bob Hollapa, just missing out on a trip to the Bahamas to play in the World Poker tour in 2007. He followed up that showing by making the final table in last year's WSOP contest, just missing out again...
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Former Minnesota Poker League Champion Jeremy Heller is back...After the regular season, he is the overall points leader at Ruttles in St. Peter, qualifying directly for the Minnesota Championship.