Terry Ketterer Wins RPT South Dakota State Poker Championship

Terry Ketterer’s magical run at the $1,140 Roughrider Poker Tour South Dakota State Poker Championship is something he envisioned all the way back at the start of the week.

Ketterer and fellow Bozeman, Montana native Mikiyo Aoki joked when the tournament began that they would make it heads-up against each other.

That dream actually became a reality, and Ketterer, a cupcake shop owner with just $35,000 in live tournaments earnings before this week, went wire-to-wire today and emerged as champion over a record-breaking field of 671 players to take home the Double Pistol trophy and $138,000 top prize.

RPT South Dakota State Poker Championship Final Table results

“That is the coolest trophy that I’ve ever seen. I’m going to build a shelf in the house just for that trophy,” he said after beating Aoki in a short heads-up match.

“I got to play heads-up against one of my good friends. We joked about it all week, and we actually got to play heads-up against each other, so that was pretty cool. If I had to choose who I would want to play heads-up for the trophy, I would choose Mikiyo. I was pumped.”

While Aoki is a seasoned pro with multiple WSOP final tables on her resume, Ketterer only plays poker recreationally. He and his wife own a cupcake shop back home in Bozeman. The first prize far surpasses his previous live results combined, but Ketterer has no plans to change how he approaches the game going forward. “I just love playing poker. It’s a big part of my life,” he said.

“Right now, we’ll probably stil make cupcakes, raise kids, and play poker when I can, as I can. Hopefully I can get into a couple of bigger tournaments here and there,” he said.

Day 2 Action

The 671 entries across three starting flights built a prize pool of $671,000, making this the largest poker tournament in South Dakota history. Just 91 players returned to the Silverado Casino in Deadwood at 11 a.m., and only 72 would survive to make the money.

Ketterer began the day exactly where he wanted to be, as chip leader and the only player above 1,000,000. He kept his foot on the gas as the field thinned, picking up two kings against Ken Lybeck’s jacks to send Lybeck out in 18th place and keep himself firmly near the top of the counts.

Momentum continued to swing his way as the tournament moved toward the final table. He made trip threes to eliminate Heath McAllister in 12th place, then delivered another big blow just before the final nine when he picked up pocket aces against Damon Muehl’s kings to bring the field to the final table.

Ketterer carried 5,325,000 chips into the final table, narrowly ahead of Aoki, and from there he never really loosened his grip. He rivered a straight to bust Dave Ouellette in sixth place, then kept the pressure on as he sent Alan Curl to the rail in fourth place with ace-king dominating king-seven.

With Lance Schuchard eliminated in third place, the dream scenario that Ketterer and Aoki had joked about at the start of the week officially became reality, as the two Bozeman natives squared off heads-up for the title.

Aoki called off her last 1,800,000 with jack-ten. Ketterer had queen-six, and Aoki got no help on the board as Ketterer claimed the trophy.

The town of Deadwood is the embodiment of the image of the old Wild West that exists in the popular imagination. Just steps from the Silverado Casino is the spot where, in August 1876, the legendary “Wild Bill” Hickock was shot and killed while holding the “Dead Man’s Hand,” aces and eights, in a game of poker. His grave is on a hill overlooking the casino. Gunslingers, frontiersmen, and gold prospectors once came through here, seeking their fortune in a strange and unusual land.

Deadwood is more of a tourist destination now then a lawless frontier outpost as it was in the 19th century, but fortunes can still be made here. Ketterer proved that, baking up a perfect performance and icing it with a magnificent trophy.