The Heartland Poker Tour kicked off its 2007 season in Las Vegas this weekend with a $2,650 event that was filled with people who qualified through feeders that turned one of Hooters Casino's conference rooms into one of the biggest poker rooms in the city.
After the dust settled, Steve McLaughlin, a professional sports bettor from Philadelphia won the tournament and the $46,011 payoff, plus a $3,000 seat in the HPT Championship at the end of the year.
Vegas pro Chris Bonita finished second, winning $23,006; Bruce Knee finished third for $14,789; Tim Singleton, who got into the main event through a $125 satellite, finished fourth for $11,503; former HPT winner Matt Lessinger finished fifth for $9,860; Las Vegas local David Gorman rounded out the TV table and finished sixth for $8,216.
Many of the players who sat in the main event Sunday got there by playing satellites that started at $65. The winners of these – and also the top-two finishers of the $125 single-table satellites – played in one of four $550 supers that were spread. It's HPT's mission to provide ways for amateur players to get a taste of what it's like to play in events that they would not be able to normally afford.
Two Guys From Fargo
The HPT holds tournaments all across the country, in casinos not usually associated with big-time poker. The events usually attract hundreds of poker players who consider the game as a fun hobby, and the HPT sets its pay scale accordingly. At Hooters, for example, 67 players played and the top 30 received prizes.
Todd Anderson and Gary Lang, the two guys from Fargo, North Dakota, who founded the HPT only three years ago, say they do this keep the players coming back. It also gives players the ammunition to get permission from their wives to play in the semi-major poker events HPT holds across the Midwest.
Anderson and Lang came up with the HPT after playing poker one night. They thought a poker show featuring normal people with real jobs would be watched and appreciated by many of the poker fans throughout the Midwest. Both of the men had spot TV production experience under their belts, so they set out to produce a pilot and hit the road to sell their show to local networks.
The shows look so good the viewers would never tell that the first season's set was made of plywood and vinyl sheets, or that many times, when they arrive at a casino, they sometimes have to account for such small thing as tables and chairs, and that sometimes cables need to be strung over bodies of water, which happens the times the tournaments take place on riverboats.
The HPT is truly a case of the little guys doing good, both on the tables and behind the scenes.
50 Million
The way the HPT has taken off was beyond both the men's imaginations. Each week, the show is broadcast on more than 50 stations and reaches more than 50 million viewers. Its events turn eight-table card rooms in places like Deadwood, South Dakota, Onamia, Minnesota, and Turtle Lake, Wisconsin, into poker arenas.
The entire production staff and talent involved in the show are from Fargo, and a map of the broadcast area covers large swaths of land from the Canadian border to Arizona. By coming up with something different that appeals to poker fans, the HPT has found success and giant viewer numbers.
The players featured on the show for the most part are middle-class people who could use an extra $40,000 more than, say, Phil Ivey. There's real emotion involved, because these players are inexperienced. It's interesting to see how they play in front of the cameras, how they fare in front of an audience. It's good poker TV, which is verified by the number of people who watch.
Rest of 2007
The 2007 schedule is still being hammered out, but the next several dates are as follows: Lucky Nugget Card Club, Deadwood, South Dakota, Feb. 28 to March 4, $1,650; Meskwaki Bingo Hall and Casino, Tama, Iowa, March 14-18, $1,650; Shooting Star Casino, Mahnomen, Minnesota, April 11-15 (buy-in to be determined); and Leelanau Sands Casino, Peshawbestown, Minnesota, May 16-20, $1,650.
A championship event will be held in Vegas in December, and an event is being scheduled for the Chicago area in March. HPT expects to hold about 14 tournaments this year.
