October 29 2004

2004 OPT Halloween Poker Challenge

Finally the third major of the year was upon the Oregon Poker Tour. To this point, both current Champions had been their only win of the year. Now was the time for another player to step up and take a seat at the OPT Championship table. The third of five seats was up for grabs, as twenty-one players paid $5.00 to try to get the third automatic bid to the Championship table.

The three tables of players quickly boiled down into the final table, as Co-founder Shortridge bounced players from the tournament left and right.

Seat #1 Luke Shortridge $2,380

Seat #2 Jenell Armstrong $2,031

Seat #3 Chris Rutkowski $568

Seat #4 Greg Krumnow $612

Seat #5 Tony Hartford $1,134

Seat #6 Kelly Sawyer $1,094

Seat #7 Tim Dugan $581

Both of the Co-founders of the Oregon Poker Tour made the final table, but only one of them was positioned to make his way into the championship, and with the way the cards were going, Luke was looking like he would roll through the final table.

Luke might have taken the chip lead into the final table, but Co-founder Dugan found pocket aces four times at the final table, and the fourth time bounced Shortridge out in fifth place, after over two hours of five handed play. Dugan had gone from the short stack to the chip leader, and looked ready to take the Halloween Championship. However, during heads up play, he got smacked by pocket aces twice, leaving the championship to . . .

Third Place ($5.00) Kelly Sawyer

Second Place ($12.00) Tim Dugan

Jenell Armstrong used her first victory to get a spot at the OPT Championship table. Dugan ended up in second place, still holding onto the top of the OPT Leaderboard.