Heartland Poker Tour Crowns 1st Winner of Season IV

The first event in Heartland Poker Tour's fourth season had five no-limit events and over 1400 players in the week's tournaments, with the main event's $74,642 first place prize going to self proclaimed 28 year old "poker fanatic" Dusty Hamers (plus a $3000 champions package).

Competition for the main event's $248,806 prize pool got under way Sunday morning at the Grand Casino Mille Lacs, 90 miles north of Minneapolis Minnesota USA. 176 players set out to be crowned the first champion of 2008. All but 36 of those players were able to earn their $1650 seat through the HPT qualifying rounds on Thursday through Saturday.

At 1AM Monday morning, a champion was crowned when Dusty Hamers, a 28 year old machine operator from Waite Park, MN, watched a Ace hit the board, allowing his AQ to prevail over second place finisher Ray Bendijo's pocket two's. Here are the finishers:

"I told everyone I know that I was going to win this thing," reported a chuckling Hamers saying on the Heartland Poker Tour website. "I guess I had to do what I said."

Hamers, who has a full time job at a wood craft company in St. Cloud, MN, admits that his passion for poker has been raging since he was 8 years old. His hobbies include 'watching poker', 'reading about poker' and 'going on-line to study and read about poker.' His passion paid off this week with his biggest cash to date.

"I definitely think I have the skills to be a pro poker player," Hamers said during his pre-final table interview. "Right now, the only thing stopping me is bankroll. Winning this tournament could put me in the right direction."

Once again this week the Heartland Poker Tour lived up to its reputation as the only TV poker tour that caters to the smaller buy in, 'regular' American poker player. Included on the final table was a plumber, a contractor, a retail home improvement store manager, and an ex-marine.

"We're thrilled to get the new season under way and to have another diverse and interesting final table," said HPT co-founder Greg Lang. "I know we made a lot of new friends this week that we'll be seeing down the road. It' going to be a great year."

The Heartland Poker Tour will be back on the road March 2nd when the tour makes another stop to Meskwaki Casino in central Iowa. In all there are 16 total tour stops for the HPT in 2008 as far east as New York and as far west as Colorado.

Here are the remaining events of the 2008 HPT:

For more information about the Heartland Poker Tour visit their website at: www.heartlandpokertour.com.

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