Starting on Feb. 14, the Championships featured $300 buy-ins for several disciplines of poker and drew quite respectable fields. The average field was 219 players, topped by the 754 runners that came to the line for Event 2, the No-Limit Hold’em State Championship. There definitely seemed to be something for everyone as Omaha Hold’em, Pot Limit (both Omaha and Texas Hold’em) and even H.O.R.S.E. champions were crowned.

The finale of the two weeks of poker was the $3,000 Oklahoma State Championship, a No Limit Hold’em tournament. Former world champions Berry Johnson and Scotty Nguyen, the Cherokee Casino’s sponsored professional players, were both in attendance, as was fellow pro Keith Lehr.

While Johnson and Lehr both were eliminated early in the action, Nguyen stuck around for most of the tournament before being eliminated on the final-table bubble.

The gentleman who took out Nguyen, Fred Roll of Seneca, Mo., turned out to be the story of the tournament. He was a one-man wrecking crew as he eliminated all but one player at the final table and, incredibly, took out three in consecutive hands at one point.

For his two days of work at the Cherokee Casino, Roll captured the Oklahoma State Championship and a payday of $113,680.

“I’m happy I won. I felt confident about the game and I’ve been catching cards the last two days,” Roll offered as an explanation of his success.

Roll was followed at the final table by the following men:

This is the third year that the Cherokee Casino has offered the State Championships, which is one of three large tournaments that the casino offers annually (the Cherokee Poker Classic and the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge are the other two).

“I’m proud of our accomplishments in the poker room here at Cherokee and we look forward to what our improvements will bring for the upcoming year,” says Poker Room Manager Jimmy Simms. For a list of all the new Oklahoma state champions, be sure to visit www.cherokeecasino.com for more details.

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The 23-year-old nursing student from Greensburg, Ind., won her way into the National Heads-Up Poker Championship through a promotion on PokerStars.net. It was the only seat available to the general public online.

Players could take a shot for free in the qualifiers at PokerStars to win the $20,000 entry into the tournament as well as four nights’ accommodation in Las Vegas and $1,000 cash for travel.

Now Alisha Kunze will test the skills she used to win the seat against some of the world’s top professional poker players as well as against celebrities who were invited to participate in the NHUPC.

“I have a lot of preparation to do,” Kunze said. “Playing heads-up is much different because it moves quicker and you have to play more hands. But I’m very excited and so grateful to PokerStars for this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Some of the celebrity players confirmed to attend the tournament are Jason Alexander, Shannon Elizabeth, Don Cheadle and Orel Hershiser. The pros include David Singer, Gavin Smith, Doyle Brunson, Scotty Nguyen, Johnny Chan and many more.

There will be 64 players in all heading to Las Vegas to play each other heads-up and work their way through the brackets to the winner’s circle. The winner will take home $1.5 million.

The tournament will be filmed for broadcast on NBC and CNBC.

Related Articles:

• NBC Confirms Players for NHUPC
• PokerStars Offering NBC Heads-Up Seat

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