U.S. Tournament Poker > PLAYER OF THE YEAR TOURNAMENT...3/07/10

From the 75 possible qualified, 50 players arrived for the 1st USTP PLAYER OF THE YEAR TOURNAMENT!
Players represented our locations from as far as Estacada & as close as Beaverton, all going for a tournament buy-in & stay at Wildhorse Resort in Pendelton as the 1st prize! We used Malone's great "game room" off the main bar area to seat our players for the event. Malone's owner gave every player a gift certificate from the bar to use that day or in the future!
We gave every player a bigger starting stack of 10,000 to make it a little more interesting & it was approved of by all the players!
With a 12:45 start time, our 1st to go out was Mandy Anderson from Estacada, who got a consolation DVD for her effort. The play didn't take much of a toll until the blinds reached 1,000/2,000 where the field started to thin. By about 5:00 pm we were down to the final 9 needing to lose 1 more for the final table. Amelia Moore from Jubitz, got herself all-in with pocket Jacks on a flop of 5/5/5 against Dean Olstead who showed A/K . Amelia looked good when a blank came on the turn, only to see Dean catch a King on the river to knock her out on the bubble. At that point there was the lone female, Paula Hayes left at the final table. After a short break, the final table play resumed, when Michael Peace from Jo's Saloon went out in 8th place, followed by Brian Klupenger from Hanko's going out in 7th place. A few hands later, our USTP Series 9 champion, Ryan Smith from Gemini, was gone in 6th place. A few more hands later, Paula Hayes from Jubitz, was short stacked & got all-in with pocket 2's, but they didn't hold up & she went out in 5th place. Another short stacked player & past winner at Pendelton, Pogo Hyde from End Zone, was put out in 4th place, leaving the final 3, who all play at Prairie Bar & Grill in Washington. There was some good play back & forth until Ron Bertholf ran into quad 7's to go out in 3rd place. Our final heads up hand saw John Kotrlik a little behind with K/9, against Dean Olstead with K/10, but two 9's hitting on the board gave John the win!
CONGRATULATIONS TO JOHN KOTRLIK
USTP 1ST "PLAYER OF THE YEAR" WINNER!
In addition to his Wildhorse tournament buy-in, John received a beautiful "Poker" bracelet inscribed on the back with his win!
Thank you to all players & Malone's for hosting this event & good luck to our winner!!Here is the
"USTP Player of the Year Tournament"
Final Table!
1 JOHN KOTRLIK...PRAIRIE
2 DEAN OLSTEAD...PRAIRIE
3 RON BERTHOLF...PRAIRIE
4 POGO HYDE...END ZONE
5 PAULA HAYES...JUBITZ
6 RYAN SMITH...GEMINI
7 BRIAN KLUPENGER...HANKO'S
8 MICHAEL PEACE...JO' SALOON