BY TENDAR TSERING

Staff Writer

ttsering@minotdailynews.com

When the 11th annual North Dakota Texas Hold’em Championship ended Friday night, a Minot man, Preston Dean, was declared the new N.D. poker champion.

Amidst roaring cheers, the Minot man took away the poker championship prize of $50,000. Preston Dean has been participating in the tournament for the past four years, and this time, he proved himself as the 2014 champion, going home with the grand prize.

Indeed it was a memorable and tough tournament for the Minot man as more than 1,000 players from more than 40 states and seven countries participated in the four-day tournament.

“It is pretty hard to believe. It is pretty amazing to win the tournament,” said Dean, who is planning to go on a vacation with his wife.

The second prize also went to a Minot man, Joe Roerick, and the crowd at the tournament shouted “Minot rocks,” as the two men from the Magic City took away their respective prizes.

The final round of the four-day poker championship kicked off Friday morning and wrapped up around midnight on the same day. Despite snowfall and storm warnings outside, hundreds of fans and poker lovers went to the tournament at the Vegas Motel and stayed tuned to the tournament up to the end.

“This is really a nice tournament and pretty cheap entry fee just $150. Usually I never miss this tournament and I have been participating in the tournament for last six or seven years. Last time, I won the 12th position and this time, I won the nine position. And this is my best shot,” said Josh Zietz, another Minot man at the tournament.

Wendy Rupert, co-founder of the tournament, said the tournament is also known as a charity tournament.

“Minot State University Alumni is our charity, and a portion of the proceeds of the tournament will be donated to the university as a scholarship fund for the marketing students at the university,” Rupert said. “Our 2006 champion Curtis Langford passed away (in 2007) and we decided to donate a portion of the proceeds to the university in his memory.”

Langford was an online student at the university when he passed away, according to his obituary.

The amount of the scholarship fund is unknown. However, the tournament this time has earned more than $150,000 from its entry fees.

The organizer said the tournament prize is actually decided by the number of the participants in every tournament.

When it first began in 2004, the tournament had only 387 entrants and the winner’s prize was $19,000. In recent years, the number of entrants has been overwhelming, according to the organizers of the North Dakota Texas Hold’em Championship.

Many of the players were repeats, and after becoming familiar faces to each other, for many of them, the tournament is like an annual holiday trip.

“You have holidays where you travel to see your family,” said 2012 champion Gregg Dahle. “Well, this is another holiday where you get to go and see your poker family.”

And the 2012 champion added the poker tournament is one of those things that will be here to stay and everyone who attends loves it.

There were several past champions at the tournament but none was able to beat Dean. In fact, the tournament has been finding new champions every year, according to the regular participants.