The Heartland Poker Tour recently held the largest dollar and participant tournament in Colorado history at Blackhawk's Golden Gates Casino, 40-50 minutes from downtown Denver. The $300 buy-in sold out and created a prize pool of nearly $500,000. The real story was the heads-up battle between Mike Haggard, an amateur player and businessman from Evergreen, Colorado, and Steve Klaus, also an amateur and a Denver chiropractor. First prize was $129,000 and second was $64.000. Steve slow played pocket kings to knock out Johnny "The Lion" Lima in fourth. Next, Mike Haggard slow played aces against Steve Klaus to bring himself roughly even in chips. Professional player Mike Banducci was next out when he went all-in and failed to improve with the Qd-Jd against Klaus' pair of eights. As the heads up battle began, blinds were 45,000-90,000 and the chip count looked like this: Steve 2,831,000 and Mike 1,873,000. The first hand Steve made a full house and won a nice pot by slow playing to the river. The next hand Mike had K-Q and Steve had K-T. A flop of K-K-4 gave both players trips. Steve got Mike all-in, and when two rags came, Mike took the pot and the chip lead. The next two or three pots were taken down by Steve, who regained the chip lead. A critical hand developed when Steve raised with 7-6 and Mike called with Q-J. The flop was 6-5-3 and a seven on the turn gave Steve two pair. Mike bluffed all-in, but was drawing dead for a win, and Steve quickly called. When they turned over their hands, the announcer said, "We have a winner." Then as the four was dealt on the river, he added, "Unless a four comes up for a split." "Houdini" Mike escaped. Mike took a few pots, regaining a 300,000 chip lead. Then Mike had 7-5, Steve had 8-6, and the flop was 6-5-4. The turn brought a king, and the river a seven. Mike went all-in with his two pair, lost to Steve's straight, and had only 297,000 left to confront Steve's 4,407,000. Next hand Mike's suited 10-9 went all in against Steve's A-5. The flop was Q-J-7. The turn was a blank, but Mike hit an eight for a straight on the river to survive again. The subsequent hand Mike's pocket tens pushed all-in against A-K, but Mike's tens won this coin toss (of course). Mike worked his way to 2,700,000 and a small chip lead with the blinds now at 100,000-200,000. Then Mike lost with pocket nines to Steve's pair of pocket aces, and the chip lead reverted to Steve again. The next hand Mike went all-in with A-6 and Steve called with A-Q of hearts. The flop was J-J-4 with two hearts, and Steve was a 4-to-1 favorite. Mike got another chop when the turn was a 4 and the river was the king of diamonds. Next, Mike took 7-2, the worst hand in poker, and ironed out A-Q, one of the best, when the flop was K-9-7 and Mike check-raised all-in on the flop. He won when two blanks completed the board. Mike, once again, had the lead. Steve bet all-in with A-7 and Mike called with A-3. Another split pot occurred when the board ended up 5-5-2-J-T. On the very next hand Mike moved in with two queens and was immediately called by Steve's pocket kings. The flop was Q-J-7, and when the turn was a five, and the river a deuce, Houdini Mike pulled off one of the most amazing tournament wins ever.
