The RPT Montana State Poker Championship Begins at 2 p.m.
Welcome out to Billings, Montana where The Roughrider Poker Tour is hosting The Montana State Poker Championship for the eighth year in a row. Players from Montana, North Dakota, and the other surrounding states are likely to come out in their quest to claim this title. They will all congregate at The Billings Hotel and Convention Center where the biggest tournament in the state of Montana will commence.
Last year saw a $470 buy-in take the tournament to new heights as a total of 318 players created the biggest prize pool yet of The Rough Rider Poker Tour with $120,840. As the dust settled a total of 37 players collected a piece of that prizepool with Leif Jurgensen defeating Jonathan Bailey heads up to collect his first RPT title and a career best score of $27,045.
2023 Montana State Poker Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Leif Jurgensen | $27,045 |
| 2 | Jonathan Bailey | $16,555 |
| 3 | Daniel Burcham | $12,010 |
| 4 | Roger Mouse | $9,675 |
| 5 | Ilyass Mallak | $6,645 |
| 6 | Rick Burleson | $5,130 |
| 7 | Troy Kicker | $3,965 |
| 8 | Pat Brunelle | $3,145 |
| 9 | Paul Schulz | $2,435 |
While Jurgensen won’t be back to defend his title, others who snagged a piece of last year’s prizepool and those looking to come play this stop for the first time. Dave Ouellete and his lovely dog Jack have been seen around the tournament area, as well as last year’s player of the year Arlie Brandvold, with tournament crusher Miles Barnum expected to make his RPT debut.
This year sees the buy in increase to $625 with an estimated prizepool of $200,000. Players will sit down with 60,000 in chips with the levels starting at 100/200 with a 200 big blind ante. Levels will last 40 minutes each with a break occurring at the conclusion of every three levels. The 60-minute dinner break will occur at the conclusion of level 6 around 5:40 pm. After that, registration will continue until the beginning of Level 13, then players will play until either the conclusion of Level 15, or to 12.5% of the entrants remain.
Players will have the ability to fire three bullets into the two flights. If they do not find a bag in today's flight they will have tomorrow’s flight that begins at 2:00 p.m. as well to try to find a bag, contingent on them not having already used all three bullets. Before that flight begins, the satellite will be running begging at 10:00 a.m. so players have a chance to get into the flight for a cheaper price. The survivors of this flight will bag up and return on Sunday, April 14 at 11:00 am to play down to a winner.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for all updates regarding The Roughrider Poker Tour.