Grand Casino Mille Lacs: February 13 - 21, 2010

Man or Machine?

 

Much like with Ivan Drago in Rocky IV, rumors have swirled about whether Jeremy Dresch is a man or a machine. A human or an android. Quite frankly, evidence to the latter is overwhelming.

 

After a stretch in late-2009 that included back-to-back Heartland Poker Tour titles (unprecedented) and a Fall Poker Classic Main Event final table, Dresch followed up by winning the Minnesota State Poker Tour event at Grand Casino Mille Lacs on February 21 for $36,084.

 

His total live tournament earnings over the past four months exceed $180,000.

 

The Minnesota tournament poker scene has never been bombarded with such dominance. In 2009, it was 3-Putts who finished second in three of the state’s most prestigious events -- Canterbury’s Fall Poker Classic and Twin Cities Poker Open, and Running Aces’ Midwest Poker Classic. But 3-Putts’ feat turned out to be the opening act for Dresch’s triple encore.

 

Dresch looks and talks like a normal dude. He wears hooded sweatshirts supporting his favorite sports teams, and he courteously says, “Please,” and “Thank you,” when the beverage lady hands him a diet soda.

 

But make no mistake. Jeremy Dresch is a robot sent from Fridley to scoop chips, read souls, and dominate local poker tournaments.

 

It’s funny, because Jeremy Dresch might be the hottest poker player in the country right now, but hardly anybody knows about him. The Fall Poker Classic, Minnesota State Poker Tour, and Heartland Poker Tour are not as widely recognized or prestigious as the World Poker Tour, World Series of Poker, or other major $10k events, but Dresch still deserves a spotlight.

 

We’re not just talking about going deep in big tournaments. We’re talking about winning them.

 

“I hear people talking, people pointing me out and things like that, but people seem to forget from one tournament to the next who I am,” Dresch said. “I’m a real nice guy at the table, I never bad mouth anyone, I’m not loud, I’m not obnoxious. I think because I’m nice to everyone at the table, people aren’t out to get me like they would be with other people.”

 

Just like he describes, Dresch is a mild-mannered guy who grew up in Northeast Minneapolis, owns a gas station, and wears hooded sweatshirts supporting Big Ten college teams. On this particular Sunday, Dresch rocked an Ohio State hoodie.

Dresch entered the MSPT Mille Lacs final table as the massive chip leader. In fact, he sat behind nearly half the chips in play, making his quest for the improbable somewhat anti-climactic.

 

Some tough players remained, most notably Everett Carlton, but nobody had enough chips to put a significant dent in Dresch’s stack. And seeing as how Dresch might be the best tournament player in the state right now anyways, he wasn’t in any imminent danger of being outplayed either.

 

“I had such a big chip stack when we got down to 15 people that I was raising way more than the average person,” Dresch said. “I was raising four times more than anyone else at the final table just because I could, and everybody else was in push/fold mode.

 

“I could fold to their re-raises if I didn’t have a good enough hand, and nobody was coming over the top of me. I got three-bet probably at the final table, as much as I was raising, four or five times total. Three of the times I had a good enough hand to