Indiana Poker player wins Best Damn Poker Show

A 51 year old Indiana man played lots of poker hands in his quest to be champion of FSN’s Best Damn Poker Show. Patrick Karst edged out 23 other contestants that were chosen by the show’s producers. Karst, a native of Markle, Indiana, is a conveyor building company team leader who earned his way to the show after winning four satellite tournaments on Ultimate Bet. He was the only online qualifier and beat out somewhere close to 16,000 other online players to win his seat.

Karst was somewhat overwhelmed and in disbelief by the whole thing saying, “To win that, I still can’t believe it.”
The run he had on the FSN series is just as unbelievable. FSN’s Best Damn Poker Show is part reality tv and part poker tournament. In the early rounds of play he received praise from Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke who said his play was “flawless”. That statement gave Karst quite a boost to his ego. But when he made mistakes later he was able to get lucky, helping him to claim the win against two players Patrick himself will tell you were the best on the show, Shaun Van Asdale and Jason Lee.
“Someone once said ‘I’d rather be lucky than good,” says Karst. “Sometimes that’s what it takes.”
Having Duke as his team leader on the show was something special for the champion, as she’s been one of his poker heroes since he started playing regularly in 2006. His admiration for her goes back to when he began watching poker on television, when he saw a segment on Duke and her family during one of the tournaments she was playing. “It seemed like she really has it all - family, kids, being able to play poker,” says Patrick, a father of three himself. “I’m pretty much all about family, too.”
For her part, Duke says she’s impressed with his feat. “Patrick is one of the nicest people I have ever met and for that I am very happy that he won. I was very glad to have him on my team. It is an amazing thing about poker that someone could start in a freeroll against that many people and end up with a trip to the WSOP and Aruba, playing for prize pools worth more than $60M.”
Even Hellmuth, whose team went down in defeat, praised Karst’s play. “You have to give Patrick a ton of credit. First he beats thousands of players in the Ultimatebet.net free online event to make it onto the Best Damn Poker Show. Then he beats another 18 people on the show to make the final cut, and amazingly he beats the last six remaining players to take down the title. Too bad he was on Team Duke.”
For emerging as the show’s best damn player, Patrick earned entries and travel to the Aruba Poker Classic and the WSOP Main Event. He says Aruba didn’t go as well as BDPS, but it was a “nice family vacation.” But the WSOP? Win or lose, that’s the big one. “It just doesn’t get any better than that. It’ll be the experience of a lifetime.”

News Added: 11 March, 2009

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