Poker News

Majestic Star Hosts HPT’s Biggest Tourney to Date

The Majestic Star Casino in Gary Indiana hosted the largest tournament in Heartland Poker Tour history this past weekend with a total prize pool that exceeded $800,000. A sold out main event field of 422 players concluded when thefinal six players squared off in front of the TV cameras in the Majestic Star poker room.

After nearly six hours of play, Dan Zogman, 47, an employee of a local Home Depot store, took down the monster first place prize of $227,811. Proudly wearing his “donkeys can’t be bluffed” t-shirt that his wife had purchased for him, Zogman conquered the final table, surviving several all-ins and finding a little luck on the way.

“This is incredible,” said Zogman, insisting the HPT title was more important than the money. “Winning a Heartland event has been a goal of mine for some time. I guess it’s time to set a new goal.”

Zogman’s wife, a poker player in her own right, sat in the front row during the TV taping, talking on the cell phone to poker buddies and their kids, giving those who couldn’t be in attendance a play by play.

“We’ve already booked our trip to the next HPT event in Minnesota,” said the newly crowned champion, who made the plans Sunday night after making the final TV table that afternoon. The final table started about 1 p.m. central time with all six players within a few hundred thousand chips of one another. Zogman was in the middle of the pack when play began but quickly picked up some chips and settled in as one of the chip leaders early on. The crucial hand took place with three players remaining. Zogman managed to dodge 14 outs twice and eliminated accomplished professional Scott Bohlman, who finished third. “That was a big hand,” said Zogman, who would have been crippled had he lost. “I felt I was in the lead with middle pair and was right, but I didn’t know he’d have so many outs!” he said of Bohlman who flopped bottom pair and a flush draw.

Destiny played into Zogman’s hand all the way to the finish. Against eventual second place finisher James Kasputis, Zogman turned a straight with 5-4 to double up through Kasputis’ two pair. Kasputis, finished second and take home $113,906, despite spending a good portion of the day as the table’s short stack.

“I got in trouble early when my jacks ran into kings,” said Kasputis “but I tightened up and picked my spots, and almost won the thing.”

For the Majestic Star Casino, this was by far the biggest poker event in their history. A total of 1,481 people played in the daily qualifiers to the main event and 123 direct buy-ins swelled the field to its maximum capacity of 422 players. “We were overwhelmed,” said Dom Niro, poker room manager. “The turn out was phenomenal for this event. We’re going to have to figure out a way to get more people into the main event when the HPT comes back in December.”

Niro, who runs the 21- table poker room, had decided to use flights for this HPT event which doubled its capacity, but didn’t anticipate selling out. “I guess we may have to add another flight in December,” said Niro.

“It was a really great event” said Todd Anderson- HPT co-founder. “The 2008 calendar for the Heartland Poker Tour is nearly booked, including plans for three events at the Majestic Star.”

Photo details: (Top row, l. to r.) Kenny Nguyen (4th Place), HPT TV Announcer Chris Hanson, HPT Reporter Katie O?Keefe, HPT TV Announcer Fred Bevill, Jim Kasputis (2nd Place).(Bottom row, l. to r.) Daniel Zogman (1st Place), Scott Bohlman (3rd Place),Mark Owens (5th Place), Greg Monaldi (6th Place)

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