Dan Burcham Wins R50 rummy appPT Montana State Poker Championship

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Table Of Contents

• 2025 RPT Montana State Poker Championship Final Table Results
• Navigating Variance
• Hometown Hero

After three days of action on the felt here in beautiful Billings, Montana the 2025 RPT Montana State Poker Championship has officially come to an end with Dan Burcham claiming victory to capture his career-best score of $29,000 along with the RPT bracelet.

The ninth edition of the tournament attracted 283 entries, generating a prize pool of $148,575. After a heads-up deal, Burcham defeated Andrew Hilleren to win the title, something that meant more to him than the money.

"The money is nice, I'm not going to lie," Burcham told PokerNewsfollowing his win. "I get a lot of my self-worth from my peers thinking I did well at something. This is a lot of validation that I can hang with the best players in Montana. It means a lot to me".

2025 RPT Montana State Poker Championship Final Table Results

Place	Player	Country	Prize (USD)
1	Dan Burcham	United States	$29,000*
2	Andrew Hilleren	United States	$27,000*
3	Richard Bennett (MT)	United States	$14,000
4	Austin Gates	United States	$10,075
5	John Majdic	United States	$8,000
6	Shane Broesder	United States	$6,000
7	Pat Brunelle	United States	$4,500
8	Will Anderson	United States	$3,700
9	Rob Hium	United States	$3,000
10	Aaron Fanuzzi	United States	$2,400

* Denotes heads-up deal

Navigating Variance

When asked how he was feeling after the biggest win of his life, Burchman responded, "Pretty surreal, actually. It's been one I wanted to win for a couple of years. I've been having some run bad, actually kind of emotional."

He went on to talk about dealing with the ups and downs of tournament poker. Leading up to this weekend he had been experiencing a really tough string of run-bad and was considering taking some time off after this event.

He mentioned taking "bad beat after bad beat, kind of beating me down, making me wonder if I was actually even good at the game. I started to question it, but I just kept trudging along, studying, and trying to get better. So the validation does a lot for me."

Hometown Hero

Burcham was surrounded by friends on the rail who were eager to greet him as the final card fell on the river in what proved to be an exciting heads-up duel. He has been a part of the Montana poker scene for a long time, which is a very tight-knit community.

"I grew up here, a little town called Hardin, about an hour away. I grew up there until I was 18, moved to Billings for college and have just been here ever since."

Burcham was asked if it was extra special to win an event like this in his home state surrounded by his peers. He replied, "Absolutely. I mean, Wade owns the Seat Open locally, so he came down to support. I have all my friends who came over just to rail for me. It's a little small local thing, but they came down and spent the time, so it means a lot to me."

Not only was the recognition from his group of friends and acquaintances important, but it was also a personal redemption story. Two years ago, I got third at the same event for $14,000. This is my biggest score by a lot."

When asked whether he was still considering taking some time off, Burcham commented, "Maybe not now. I might parlay this and go down to the World Series of Poker. I've never played poker outside of Billings before, so I might go try something there."