Cupcake Baker Cooks Up $138K Win in Record-Breaking Poker Event

Terry Ketterer’s magical run on the $1,140 Roughrider Poker Tour South Dakota State Poker Championship is one thing he envisioned all the way in which again at first of the week.

Ketterer and fellow Bozeman, Montana native Mikiyo Aoki joked when the match started that they’d make it heads-up in opposition to one another.

That dream really turned a actuality, and Ketterer, a cupcake store proprietor with simply $35,000 in dwell tournaments earnings earlier than this week, went wire-to-wire immediately and emerged as champion over a record-breaking subject of 671 gamers to take residence the Double Pistol trophy and $138,000 high prize.

RPT South Dakota State Poker Championship Last Desk outcomes

“That’s the coolest trophy that I’ve ever seen. I’m going to construct a shelf in the home only for that trophy,” he stated after beating Aoki in a brief heads-up match.

“I acquired to play heads-up in opposition to considered one of my good mates. We joked about all of it week, and we really acquired to play heads-up in opposition to one another, in order that was fairly cool. If I had to decide on who I might need to play heads-up for the trophy, I might select Mikiyo. I used to be pumped.”

Whereas Aoki is a seasoned professional with a number of WSOP remaining tables on her resume, Ketterer solely performs poker recreationally. He and his spouse personal a cupcake store again residence in Bozeman. The primary prize far surpasses his earlier dwell outcomes mixed, however Ketterer has no plans to alter how he approaches the sport going ahead. “I simply love enjoying poker. It’s an enormous a part of my life,” he stated.

“Proper now, we’ll in all probability stil make cupcakes, increase youngsters, and play poker once I can, as I can. Hopefully I can get into a few greater tournaments right here and there,” he stated.

Day 2 Motion

The 671 entries throughout three beginning flights constructed a prize pool of $671,000, making this the biggest poker match in South Dakota historical past. Simply 91 gamers returned to the Silverado On line casino in Deadwood at 11 a.m., and solely 72 would survive to make the cash.

Ketterer started the day precisely the place he wished to be, as chip chief and the one participant above 1,000,000. He stored his foot on the fuel as the sector thinned, choosing up two kings in opposition to Ken Lybeck’s jacks to ship Lybeck out in 18th place and preserve himself firmly close to the highest of the counts.

Momentum continued to swing his approach because the match moved towards the ultimate desk. He made journey threes to remove Heath McAllister in twelfth place, then delivered one other large blow simply earlier than the ultimate 9 when he picked up pocket aces in opposition to Damon Muehl’s kings to carry the sector to the ultimate desk.

Ketterer carried 5,325,000 chips into the ultimate desk, narrowly forward of Aoki, and from there he by no means actually loosened his grip. He rivered a straight to bust Dave Ouellette in sixth place, then stored the stress on as he despatched Alan Curl to the rail in fourth place with ace-king dominating king-seven.

With Lance Schuchard eradicated in third place, the dream state of affairs that Ketterer and Aoki had joked about at first of the week formally turned actuality, as the 2 Bozeman natives squared off heads-up for the title.

Aoki known as off her final 1,800,000 with jack-ten. Ketterer had queen-six, and Aoki acquired no assistance on the board as Ketterer claimed the trophy.

The city of Deadwood is the embodiment of the picture of the previous Wild West that exists within the common creativeness. Simply steps from the Silverado On line casino is the spot the place, in August 1876, the legendary “Wild Invoice” Hickock was shot and killed whereas holding the “Useless Man’s Hand,” aces and eights, in a sport of poker. His grave is on a hill overlooking the on line casino. Gunslingers, frontiersmen, and gold prospectors as soon as got here by means of right here, in search of their fortune in a wierd and weird land.

Deadwood is extra of a vacationer vacation spot now then a lawless frontier outpost because it was within the nineteenth century, however fortunes can nonetheless be made right here. Ketterer proved that, baking up an ideal efficiency and icing it with an impressive trophy.