Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen was the site of the 6-week "Blast at the Bellagio" championship event (#1 of 3 championships in the Free Poker Network). 

The region qualifying for this event consisted of 64 bars in the northern region of the Minnesota Poker League.  A total of 97 players qualified, and despite the winter's most threatening weather of the season, 91 players showed up!

Jeremy Lee (pictured) was the big winner, representing the Hutchinson Elks Lodge.  Jeremy played a wonderful tournament, start to finish.  Despite losing two big hands with pocket kings in the early and middle stages of the tournament, Jeremy was among the chip leaders all day...It is fitting the Jeremy took down this event due to the fact he was the OVERALL points leader in Minnesota Poker League for this contest!

Sheldon Giese from the Morris Legion was the runner up and took home $500 cash for his accomplishment.  Sheldon had a wild ride to the final table.  His stack would be down one minute and right back up the next.  He played great poker the whole way, but ran into Jeremy Lee's full house on the final hand.

Jeremy is the first of 3 big winners in the "Blast at the Bellagio" 6-week contest.  We are looking forward to watching him play the $1,500 event on April 13th at the Bellagio during the "5th Annual Five Star Classic" one week before the WPT Championship.

Click to continue for the live blog with pictures and coverage from Shooting Star Casino during the tournament...

LIVE BLOG COVERAGE FROM SHOOTING STAR CASINO 

12:00am WE HAVE A CHAMPION!

Jeremy Lee is the winner!  He flopped two pair and turned a full house.  Sheldon Giese made a move on the river suspecting weakness, but he ran into a monster!  This tournament is over folks!  Our runner up played a great tournament and will go home with a $500 cash consolation prize.

11:55pm HEADS UP - MARK SEVIGNY BUSTED

Jeremy Lee had taken several pots in a row, then, raising all-in, got called by Mark with K-Qs.  Jeremy had A-4o and the board was good for Jeremy: 9-4-5-A-Q.  A second spade came on the turn, giving Mark 8 outs, but the queen was not a spade and Jeremy won the pot

Jeremy Lee rakes another nice pot.  Well, every pot is a nice pot with the blinds at 15k/30k!  If Jeremy goes on to win this thing, he will be the first overall points leader during the regular season to accomplish the feat.  We'll see what happens soon...

11:45pm

Approx chip counts 3-handed:

Sheldon 225k
Jeremy 500k
Mark 130k

11:43pm ROBERT ILLG BUSTED

HUGE HAND.  Robert pushed short-stacked on the button with A-8o.  Mark Sevigny re-raised all in and Sheldon called with pocket Queens.  The queens held up and Robert busted....

Robert (pictured right) has been a regular player from Fergus Falls since the early days of the Minnesota Poker League.  He's always been among the league leaders and it was no surprise to see him make the final table in this event...

I have a feeling we'll see Robert Illg again on a future championship final table...

11:42pm DARRELL MCKINNEY BUSTED

Darrell pushed on the button with A-2, but Jeremy Lee woke up to A-K in the small blind.  Jeremy ended up making the ace high straight and knocked out Darrell.  Jeremy has increased his chip lead and now has a commanding lead over the rest of remaining players...

11:36pm ROBERT ILLG CRIPPLED

Robert Illg pushed with pocket 5's.  Darrell called all-in with A-K in the big blind.  The chip counts are close, but Robert has a slight lead.  Darrell caught a king on the flop crippled Robert...

The very next hand Robert doubled up with pocket Aces!  Wow, good time for aces!!!  He's still alive...

It's 5-handed and we're grinding...There have been a lot of position raises without seeing a flop for quite a while.  We've taken a short break with the blinds now at 15000/30000...Jeremy Lee has grinded his way into the chip lead with 400k...

11:00pm ROBERT ILLG HITS MIRACLE RIVER TO STAY ALIVE

Robert Illg moved in with K-J on the short stack.  Darrell called him with A-5.  The board ran out 3-4-3-4-J.  The jack on the river saved the day for Robert (for the moment).  The double up was much needed...

10:48pm  JOHN ZINDLER BUSTED

John busted with K-10 to Sheldon Giese Q-Q.

10:45pm MIKE STUEVE, BRAD OLSON BUSTED

Brad Olson busted to Jeremy Lee despite having the same starting hand, Ace-King offsuit.  The flop produced 3 clubs and Jeremy held the Ace of clubs...Sure enough, a fourth club hit the board and Jeremy stole the pot and busted Brad...We're down to 6.  If this was a WPT event, we would now be taping the final table for television...

10:30pm  MIKE BLANK BUSTED

The final table is underway with rousing introductions...Mike Blank (pictured right) was the first to bust, the shortest stack to begin the final table.

Mike Blank played a great tournament again, this is the 2nd final table appearance at a championship event.  He came oh so close last summer (3rd place) in the Tournament of Champions final for a seat to the main event of last summer's World Series of Poker...Another great run Mike, keep playing!   

Here are the final table players/chip stacks just before Mike busted:

1. Mark Sevigny 233.5k
2. Darrell McKinney 171.5k
3. Sheldon Giese 166k
4. John Zindler 93.5k
5. Robert Illg 87k
6. Jeremy Lee 75.5k
7. Brad Olson 40k
8. Mike Stueve 37k
9. Mike Blank 17.k 

9:49pm FINAL TABLE SET

Finally, we lost two in one big hand.  Mark Sevigny busted Greg Boedigheimer (11th) and Roger Rutt (10th) with pocket fives. 

9:42pm TOURNAMENT IS DRAGGING ALONG

Round and round the blinds go, we're at 6000/12000, going to 8000/16000 soon, and it seems everytime someone goes all in they survive.  A couple hands ago Sheldon Giese doubled back through Roger Rutt and now is the cheap leader with nearly 200k.  Mike Blank was all in short-stacked with K-5 against John Zindler and Darrell McKinney in a 3-way pot.  With a board of 8-8-6, Zindler bet the flop and McKinney folded.  Zindler had K-10 and Mike was in big trouble, but a 5 fell on the river!   

9:30pm

Joel Bergeron busted.  Wayne Jackson, among the chip leaders all day, busted after losing 2 all-in hands with Sheldon Giese.   A couple hands later Roger Rutt doubled through Sheldon Giese to go up to 120k.  Jason Hoeft (Rusty Nail) busted in 13th place.  Ron Ditsch (Springsteel Resort) busted in 12th.  Several players from Warroad had a nice run today. 

Mark Sevigny (Ratzo's-Barnesville) is the overall chip leader with around 140k..

 9:00pm

The blinds are at 4000/8000.  We're down to 15.  Dale Swanson, Mike Svir, Leroy Johnson, and Joel Reichel busted.

8:15PM

We have started back up, 20 players remain with an avg stack of 45k...

Here are some of the remaining players:

Robert Illg - Mabel Murphy's
Jeremy Lee - Hutchinson Elks
Wayne Jackson - Bucky's
Mike Blank - Z103
Mike Stueve - Shoreline Lanes
Darrell McKinney - Madison Bowl
Ron Ditsch - Springsteel Resort
Brad Olson - Giants Ridge
Leroy Johnson - Barnesville VFW
John Zindler - 4th St. Station
Sheldon Giese - Morris Legion
Dale Swanson - RC's Silver Spur
Joel Bergeron - Patch Restaurant
Joel Reichel - JC's Corral
Mark Sevigny - Ratzo's
Greg Boedigheimer - Playtime Sports
Roger Rutt - Primetime
Jason Hoeft - Rusty Nail

8:00pm DOUG FOX, ASHLEY MORAN BUSTED

Doug Fox busted with AK, losing to a 4-card flush after hitting an ace on the turn.  What a roller coaster of a tournament for Doug. 

Ashley Moran (pictured right seated next to Dale Swanson) just busted after moving in with 9-9, but ran into Wayne Jackson's Q-Q...Nice run for Ashley, making 2 championship tournaments in a row.  She qualified as the league champ at 4th St Station after playing only 3 out of the 6 league nights... 

 Down to 20 players.  There will be a short break while we re-seat the remaining players.

7:45 LAST FEMALE STANDING MAKES BIG LAY DOWN

Ashley Moran, league champ of 4th St. Station in Grand Rapids, is the last female still alive in the tournament...She raised 12k under the gun with the blinds at 2000/4000 only to get re-raised by Jeremy Lee for 20k more.  Wayne Jackson, down to 12k called all-in and Ashley went into the tank...A crowd gathered and after a long pause, Mitch said, "Ashley Moran has about 50 people rooting for her, and 1 person against."  Finally, she folded.  It turned out to be a good fold as Jeremy Lee had pocket Kings and Wayne Jackson had pocket Aces...The aces were good and Wayne Jackson is right back in the game, tripling up!

7:15pm  HUGE HAND ALERT

Just about as quick I realized Doug Fox was the chip leader, he's not anymore.  Doug had Darrell McKinney halfway to the parking lot when McKinney got lucky.  Mitch proclaimed, "This game is simple, folks, get your money in there, catch a 2-outer and keep going." 

Doug took the hit in stride.  Darrell is back in the game with a nice stack of 50k+

7:05pm  DOWN TO 3 TABLES

The action after the break has heated up.  Another player is knocked out while I'm writing this - and then another- and now we're down to 26 players.

Mike Stueve and Christian Duval get 'em all in there with the exact same amount of chips...AK for Mike, Christian with JJ.  Mike outflopped Christian to get down to 25 players..

By the way, we have a new chip leader: Doug Fox (Madison Bowl) with about 90k...Jeremy Lee is still strong with around 65k.    

There have been some interesting hands to get to the dinner break, I will update later...

At the dinner break, here are the chip leaders (average stack is just under 24k)

#1) Jeremy Lee 64.5k, #2) Tom Knutson 57.5k, #3) Joe Reichel 41.5k

3:45pm HUGE HAND ALERT

Christan Duval just became the new chip leader.  Duval stole a HUGE pot (52k) when he nailed an ace on the river against Jeremy Lee's pocket Kings.  Lee (pictured right) went into the hand the overall chip leader.  Duval flopped the nut flush draw and all the chips went into the pot after the flop.  

The very next hand, Jeremy Lee doubled up with 9-9 and knocked out Derrick Thiele (Kandi Bowl-Wilmar) in the process... 

3:35pm UNBELIEVABLE RE-SUCKOUT!

With the blinds at 400/800, Chris Glines held AKc suited and found himself all in against Travis Boyd (pictured right) holding pocket Kings.  Chris flopped the nut flush draw with a board of 8c-8d-4c and hit his over, the ace, on the turn.  With one King left in the deck and Mitch Schock announcing the hand dramatically, a king hit the river for an incredible one-outer!!! 

Wow!  Now that's a suckout!

THE DEGREE ALL-IN MOMENT

Troy Mattson (Primetime Food & Spirits-Breezy Point), pushing in his remaining chips on the short stack, has put his deodorant to mimic the "Degree All-In Moment" featured on ESPN. 

Unfortunately for Troy (who made the fall 2005 championship final table), his hand was 2nd best and he was sent to the rail...Shortly thereafter he made his way to the poker room in the casino... Better luck there, Troy! 

Troy is a good guy from the Brainerd area and we look forward to seeing him again at a future championship event...

3:00pm  STRAIGHT FLUSH - HIPPEE

Jeff Hamilton hit an 8-high straight flush.  That will most likely be the high hand of the day. 

Going into the second break, here are the current chip leaders:

1. Jeremy Lee (Hutchinson Elks) 43k - Jeremy was the overall chip leader in the state for the 6-week promo!

2. Waynee Jackson - (Bucky's-Elrosa) 37k

3. Mike Blank (Z103-Fergus Falls) 32k - Mike placed 3rd in the Tournament of Champions last summer

As usual, Mitch is making this tournament a lively one...He has made a couple of comments that have people rolling with laughter...In one instance while calling a hand, he remarked about a player getting caught bluffing: "Folks, he just got caught with his pants down.  The good thing about getting caught with your pants down is sometimes you get laid!"

2:00pm 1ST BREAK

Chip leaders at the first break:

1. Jimmy Olson (32k) - Rusty Nail

2. Wayne Jackson (31k) - Bucky's

3. Landis Benton (29k) - Russel's

4. Greg Kirk (25k) - Met Lounge

5. Kathy Renwick (23k) - East Grand Forks VFW (Kathy made it to the tournament over an hour late - what a start!)

1:20pm HOUSTON WE HAVE A PROBLEM

We have a small problem.  Today's tournament is being held at the bingo hall, which is located in the northeast corner of the parking lot here at the casino.  The casino had arranged to setup a cash bar since the bingo hall does not regularly use one.  We were informed last minute that due to lack of staffing, the casino would be unable to get us the cash bar previously promised...Oh boy, bar poker league players like their alcohol so this is not good.  Bright minds working together have come up with a solution: there is an offsale liquor store right across the street.  Our host gave it the okay to go with BYOB!  Nice work.

1:00pm

After 2 levels, we finally suffered our first casualty of the tournament...Kevin Raguse (Wheaton Legion) had pocket Aces cracked!  Tough way to go.  Kevin did earn a $25 cash prize for first bust-out.

12:25pm

A few minutes before the first break, John Zindler (4th St Station-Grand Rapids) made quite a laydown.  Facing an all-in bet from Greg Kirk (Met Lounge-Morris), John went into the tank.  Finally, after having a player call for time, John finally folded after a countdown, showing A-10 to a board of A-2-A.  Greg said, "Good laydown!" but did not show his cards. 

Mitch Schock, 29th in last summer's WSOP Main Event has announced "Shuffle up and deal!" and the cards are flyin'.  

Noon

What a weekend to get socked with a winter storm!  As it turns out, we are having a great turnout despite the weather.  It's hard to pass up a shot at the $4,500 worth of prizes being given away today in a FREE tournament.  First place is a $3,000 package to play in a $1,500 buy in event at the Bellagio in April which includes $500 spending cash, and airfare and hotel accommodations for two.  An additional $1,500 in CASH is being given away to the rest of the players on the final table, and an additional $300 in prizes for side games.  It's going to be a fun day of poker!  Good luck all players!