Extreme Poker Minnesota Style
Hello once again, avid readers. This month, I have several great stories to share with you; none, however, are better than the one you are about to read.
Kyle Morris has worked with me on several projects over the past few years and I asked him to share a story in this issue that I guarantee will make you laugh. Having made several cameo appearances in previous Bluff articles, Kyle will attempt to entertain you all with this tale from a place they call “L’Etoile du Nord,” or “The Star of North,” Minnesota.
Until next month, may the flop be with you…always!
Rob Huxley
Sitting at a bar in Central Minnesota, discussing poker with a few friends, it didn’t feel any different than a Friday at home in Vegas, except for the three feet of snow on the ground. The usual topics of big tournaments, internet accomplishments, and bad beats all surfaced over a few brewskis, but one of our subjects just couldn’t be forgotten. Jason could not get over an article he had just read in the latest Bluff: Phil Laak’s story about playing poker underwater in the Caribbean. Before we left the bar that night, Jason had decided we were going to play a little extreme poker tournament of our own. Without divulging too much of his plan, he made sure to tell us to leave Sunday afternoon open for a little EXTREME POKER, MINNESOTA STYLE. He thought it sounded like fun; I thought it sounded like the Captain and Cokes talking.
Fast forward to Saturday afternoon. We ventured to a couple of the Minnesota Hold’em Tour events, which take place in bars and establishments throughout the state. The tour is a series of weekly free-to-play tournaments that awards prizes, including seats to the World Series of Poker’s $10,000 buy-in event. Even though the league’s events are free, the level of competition is about as fierce as I’ve seen. I never made it past the first table in either of the tournaments I played in, and it wasn’t for lack of trying! You would think these players are playing in the WSOP Main Event, not just qualifying to win a seat. The poker bug has sure bitten a lot people round here.
After both of my early exits, I found a way to pass the time by playing with other patrons who had been knocked out of the tournament but still wanted to play. Kudos go out to Jason Bruun and Paul Trieglaff for setting up and running the Minnesota Hold’em Tour, and for giving the residents of Minnesota a place to get their poker on.
Sunday rolled around, and I got a reminder call from Jason at 10:00am. Doesn’t he know in Vegas that 10:00am is my bedtime? Finally, Jason let the cat out of the bag – our extreme poker tournament, he explained, would be taking place in the middle of a frozen lake! He figured that playing poker on water had to be better than playing poker underwater. Half an hour later, wrapped in all the warm clothes we could find, we prepared to find out.
As we prepped to play our “freeze out,” we loaded up the van with ice fishing buckets to sit on, a full-size poker table, cards, chips, and a sizable load of beer. (Note the absence of ice and a cooler; you don’t bring sand to the beach and you don’t bring ice to a poker game on a frozen lake!)
Before we could set up our table, we had to get out to the middle of the lake, and that proved to be problematic. Our van got caught in a snow pile on the lake’s edge, and all the manpower we had couldn’t get it to budge. Getting out of our predicament didn’t take long, however; in true Minnesota style, help arrived in the form of a Jeep Cherokee and a full-size Chevy truck, both with tow ropes and hitches to get us out of hot... er… frozen water. A couple of snowmobilers also stopped to offer us advice and even more manpower. A couple tugs later, we were back on land and now we had a full game! (By the way, you wouldn’t believe the conversation we had with Onstar when we showed up on the operator’s computer screen in the middle of a lake! That show alone was worth the price of admission.)
The tournament lasted a little over an hour and the boys from MN proved they can play a little poker. I got “cold decked” and was the first one out, so I was stuck playing photographer (and keeping myself warm in the car).
If you are ever in the state of Minnesota and get the itch to play some poker, check out www.mnholdemtour.com and see if the league has a place to play near you. Has poker become the pastime of the State of Minnesota? You betcha!
-Kyle Morris
