Nebraska Poker League Fall Championsip 06

The first-ever Nebraska Poker League Championship was held at the American Legion in Columbus over the weekend...What a tournament!  In the end, a river card would twist the fates of two players from Columbus.  The big winner was Jeff Merrill from Sports Page/American Legion. 

Jeff will join the rest of the Free Poker Network winners in the Bahamas in less than 4 weeks!  Congrats to Jeff and all the Nebraska final tournament participants. 

The tournament began at 2pm with 51 out of 53 qualifiers in attendance.  A giant 100" rear-projection screen was setup to display tournament stats as well as a slide show of pictures the 2006 Caribbean Adventure, giving everyone a good idea of what they were playing for...

All the Alamo players were looking sharp with custom Tshirts from the bar.  They had 9 total qualifiers, a very nice showing.  Unfortunately, the first player to bust was also from the Alamo, Monte Hueftle.  Bob Drozd-Sports page/American Legion busted with trip Aces when Gary Ziegler hit a straight on the turn early in the tournament.   A couple players who really got after it early was Tabora Baker (Alamo-North Platte) and Paul Lamonde (Finish Line-York).  Both players were really looking to move chips early and had built nice stacks after busting several players.  With a board of 2-3-3-7-8, with big bets on each street, "T" Baker got the best of Paul for a 46k pot after hitting an 8 on the river holding A-8 vs. Paul's J-2.  I made the remark, "Some of you are playing cards, these guys are playing poker!" over the microphone after calling the showdown.  This hand gave T the chip lead and he held on to it for most of the tournament...

At the end of the first break, the early chip leaders were T Baker (Alamo) 60k, Gary Ziegler (Sports Page/Am Legion) 30k and Don Lieske (Libations) 26k.  

The field was slowing but surely trimmed down to 3 tables when Jeff Merrill woke up to a tournament saving hand.  The blinds were 200/400, just before 5pm.  It looked like Jeff's day might end when he put his chips in with 9-9 and got 3 callers for a 4-way pot.  Low and behold the hand was good and Jeff nearly quadrupled up.

The chip leaders at the dinner break were T Baker 84k, Gary Ziegler 65k, and Dan Wemhoff 44k. 

Rod Lovig (Bula's-Norfolk) had an interesting poker story, he hit a straight flush to beat quads at the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs in September to win a share of a $90,000 bad beat jackpot.  His luck was not running as good in this tournament, however, and his day ended in the late stages of the tournament right before the final table.

Mitch Fagen, owner of the Alamo-North Platte played a great tournament.  He doubled through T Baker with the blinds at 2k/4k to get up to 75k with short-handed play before the final table.  Shortly thereafter, he flopped a flush only to run into a bigger flush held by Jeff Merrill.  The hand crippled Mitch going into the final table...Jeff, however, became the new chip leader.

FINAL TABLE PLAYERS

1) Shawn Boss (Sports Page) 12k

2) Jeff Merrill (Sports Page) 147k

3) Rick Willmont (Legends) 35k

4) Tabora Baker (Alamo) 40.5k

5) Dan Wemhoff (Sports Page) 56k

6) Valerie Olson (Sports Page) 33k

7) Dan Scully (Legends) 92k pictured right

8) Jeremy Phillips (Bulas) 70.5k

9) Mitch Fagen (Alamo) 13k

10) Gary Ziegler (Sports Page) 14k

There was definitely a buzz in the room to start the final table.  The players were introduced by in order of their chip stacks (worst to first) to a nice ovation from the crowd.  

Both qualifying players from Legends-Lincoln had made the final table, Dan Scully and Rick Willmont.  Rick survived a long day on the short stack, but seemed to make perfect bets all day to stay in contention. 

With the number of short stacks to begin the final table, it was no surprise that we had several busts right away.  Mitch busted to Jeff, then Gary Ziegler busted to Shaun Boss in a strange hand that had a dealer error.  The dealer accidentally burned 2 cards instead of one before the flop.  The players were all-in preflop and it had appeared that Gary had hit the jack he needed, but unfortunately the jack was really the 2nd burn card.  However, when the board was corrected to reveal the true flop, another jack hit the board!  But Gary's day ended when the river brought an ace to give his opponent the winning hand. 

Dan Scully went on a tear, busting three players back-to-back-to-back.  I can't remember ever seeing that before at a championship final table.  He nailed a set of 8's to bust Jeremy Phillips, then woke up to pocket kings to bust Valerie Olson's pocket nines.  Then, he  nailed the nut flush vs. Shaun Boss, taking him out as well...

A few hands later, Dan Scully got tangled up with Rick Willmont.  Dan's J-J beat Rick's A-J in a preflop all-in race.

Down to 4 players the play slowed considerably.  T Baker hit "Broaday" Ace-high straight again Jeff to stay alive.  The chips counts were fairly even between Dan Scully and Jeff Merrill, with Dan Wemhoff and T Baker on the short stacks.  After a while, T Baker busted to Dan Wemhoff (pictured left) in a hand where they had EXACTLY the same chip count.  The double-up for Dan Wemhoff was much needed but he was still short going into 3-handed play against the monster stacks of Dan Scully and Jeff Merrill...

Jeff Merrill was the chip leader for most of the final table but found his stack going down, down and play continued.  Dan Scully took over the lead and at one point looked like he might be unstoppable.  Then, Dan Wemhoff made his run.  It started when he took a sizeable pot of Dan Scully.   Then, he won 3 consecutive hands to suddenly find himself 2nd in chips to Jeff. 

Play continued and the match dragged on for awhile with the blinds going up every 30 minutes.  Jeff Merrill began to regain momentum during this time.  At 11:15pm with the blinds at 6k/12k, he had the chip lead with over 300k.

Then, we had a huge hand alert.  Dan Wemhoff vs. Dan Scully.  Scully had found himself 3rd in chips after having the chip lead earlier.  In an all-in preflop race, Dan Wemhoff rivered an ace to knock him out and we were heads-up!

We took a short break and the cat and mouse game was on.  Dan Wemhoff started headsup play with 227k to Jeff Merrill's 285k.  Both players took turn raising and taking down pots preflop, with Jeff pushing the action more often.  Then Dan suddnely captured the lead early in a big hand where he flopped 3 kings and got Jeff to bet into him.  But Jeff regained momentum with aggressive play and recaptured the lead.  With the heat turning up on Dan, all of sudden we had an "all-in" and "call"....

Jeff had Dan covered.  The flop read K-J-3.  Both players turned their hands up.  Jeff held K-10, for top pair with a ten kicker.  Dan held K-3, for 2 pair.  It looked very likely that Dan would cripple Jeff since both players were fairly close in chips, so this would be the defining moment of the tournament. 

The turn was a 7. 

Jeff (pictured right) was going to need one of 9 outs on the river escape this predicament and was basically looking at a 1 in 5 shot with one card to go.  He needed a ten, or seven, or a jack.

The river was a Jack - pairing the board - giving Jeff the best hand.  

Jeff instantly recognized he had a winning hand and shouted, "Yes, I won, baby!"  While the shocked crowd stared at the board in amazement.  Dan Wemhoff shrugged, and with a smile shook Jeff's hand and congratulated him.  Dan was truly a great sport, taking the missed opportunity in stride.   He played a wonderful tournament and just missed. 

Jeff and his girlfriend Lori are very excited to be going to the Bahamas.  When I met Lori the night before the tournament, she matter-of-factly announced that "my boyfriend is going to win it all tomorrow".  Wow, was she right.  Jeff qualified by playing in the Monday night league at the Sports Page/American Legion and was the league champ.  We are excited for the big trip and opportunity to play among the top pros in the game in the World Poker Tour at Atlantis Resort Jan 5-10th. 

Good luck Jeff!