Die Hard Poker League

The Main Event starts on Monday and it looks like Brant Taylor and quite possibly myself will be entering Day 1A. Our league winner Larry Williams already has his seat set for Thursday, July 8 in Day 1D. So everybody get ready as I expect Larry to go deep and cash this puppy.

WSOP Main Event Mega Satellite Days July 3-7:
10 AM $550 Buy-In Mega Satellites
1 PM $1060 Buy-In Mega Satellites
4 PM $550 Buy-In Mega Satellites

9 PM $2080 Buy-In Mega Satellites

June 10, 2010 – Moderate Success at the World Series of Poker! Guy Bottin and Darren Kennedy Cash in Event #3!

Well boys we finally cracked the league goose-egg at the World Series of Poker. Going into 2010 our league winners were a combined 0-18 at the series. But this series was to be different. Dave Sims, Darren Kennedy and Guy Bottin along with Adrian Nelson who was playing on his own dime all met at the Rio in Las Vegas, at noon on May 29^th to begin the tourney. We all started with 3000 chips. My day was up and down. A bad bluff resulted in me dropping all the way to 450 chips 4 hours in, but I doubled up KQ vs TT and was able to work it up from there.

Here are my tweets from the day:

12:10pm Let the games begin/ #wsop3, table 139 seat 7. Let’s go

1:21pm End of Level 1: Started 3k, now 2450, Nothing remarkable going on.

2:16pm Moved to tbl 88, 2325 after level two.

3:00pm At break for DHPL: Dave 5300, Adrian5600, DK 2325, Guy alive but unknown stack

8:18pm Shorty coming off dinner break. 5k ave 10k. Guy at 8k and Adrian at 3600

9:16pm Now at 9900, QJs out turned A9 after I cbeta K33 flop, spiked a Queen and chk chk chk chk to river for 6k pot vs A9. Easy game

10:32pm End of level 8. I have 10600, ave ~17000, 500 of 2801 left. Adrian at 6800, Next level 150/300/75

10:49pm Adrian busto first hand after break L. Guy alive still with 10k and Daves busto earlier with AKs vs JJ

11:11pm Tbl broke, now at 31. Won first hand and over 20k now

1:13am Damn! Lost a bunch in last level. Going into Day 2 with just 13100. 285ish of 2601 made it thru. Near the bubble

Adrian and Dave had not made it thru the day but both had put on decent shows with Dave beating about 70% of the field and Adrian nearly 85%. Clearly our members were showing that the DHPL is becoming a great breeding ground for solid poker players.

Guy had made it thru the day with 9000 chips and I had 13100 chips. The restart was to be on Monday as Sunday was another Day 1. There were 4345 players and 481 made it thru to Day 2 of which 441 would make the money. I was currently in 363^rd place and Guy around 400^th so we were in decent shape even though we were both less than half average stack. Next stop burst that bubble! My tweets from Monday were as follows and include Eric Herman who was playing for the league in Monday Event #5 a $1500 NLH:

2:35pm #wsop3 restart in two mins. I have 2^nd overall chip leader at table and @JonathanLittle to my right. 4 other shortstacks with my 13100.

3:20pm In the money in #wsop3, now trying to chip up.

3:37pm Guy also cashed in the $1k, he’s out now though, he min-cashed for $1877 at 431^st AK < AQ.

4:13pm Eric Herman playin for DHPL in #wsop5 just got KO’d level 4 when his JJ couldn’t outrace the AQ of Greg Raymer. Took a world champ to beat him.

4:38pm Busto in 361^st place, pushed last 7bbs Q9s<A5, battle of blinds. Board bricked, 361^st place. $2150

Guy did well to get to where he did and was in a good spot to double with AK vs AQ when a cruel Queen hit the board. Darren got it in behind and was unable to get there. Both players did a great job and were ecstatic to put the league in the win column.

Eric was never able to get going and would last 4 hours before he made a stand with Jacks against none other than 2005 WSOP Main Event Champ Greg Raymer. Raymer spiked a pair and that was it for Eric’s 2010 WSOP. We still have Larry Williams who is playing in the Main Event left to try and bring the league home some more money but a pretty solid showing so far as we went 2 for 4 bring the leagues total cashing up from 0 for 18 to 2 for 22. Not too shabby now.

Other players coming down included Graham Spence, Harry Aujla, Brant Taylor and Adrian Nelson. Adrian was able to get his first major cash in a Venetian Deepstack $340 tourney in which he finished 58^th and Brant in the same event finished 66^th out of 843 players for his second card player cash. Graham and I railed them for the last hour. Adrian took $830 and Brant $708 for their efforts. Great job boys. Brant, Harry and Graham had been here before but it was Adrian’s first World Series. He played one event in the Series and 2 Venetian Deepstacks. He did very well in all three events, cashing in one and proved he could play with the big boys. A few tweaks to his game and he could be a major threat. Graham played the $340’s and performed well bubbling the last event he played. Harry cashed in a $230 Golden Nugget deepstack and Brant added an $1100 cash in that same tourney to go with his Venetian deepstack cash. So all in all a much better performance than last year for our league players.

I myself (Darren) added a cash in the $340 Limit Omaha 8 or Better tourney when I cashed 24^th of 310 players for $763. In this event I played with Alex Outhred and Hollywood Dave Stann. I got it in really good on my last hand with AAK5 single suited vs QQT6. The board however ran out with a T and 6 and no low leaving me on the rail to collect my money.

I also played the $1500 Limit Omaha 8 or Better at the WSOP. I lasted until about half hour short of end of day in this one and played with a tone of names including Justin ‘BoostedJ’ Smith, Tony G Guoga, Ted Forrest and a few others. I played the $1500 Pot Limit Holdem and that field was ridiculous. My starting table included Eugene Toddboro, Scott Seiver, Andy Black and PJ Kelly. I started that tournament hot and built my 4500 up to about 8000 before the following hand AKdd with a flop of QdT8d. At that point I got it all in with Andy Black and his JJ. I missed the flush, straight and two overs and doubled up my toughest opponent. I still had about 3000 chips though and continued to fight. Then as recorded on poker news I doubled up Scott Seiver another ridiculous opponent who was down to 875. With Andy Black opening and me shoving over the top all in with QQ and Scott calling all in with K9 and about 650 of dead money in there, the dealer of course flopped a King high board. After that I would double one more time before finally succumbing.

My last event was another $1500 NLH on the Friday. In that one I made the biggest mistake calling off my last 1700 chips with 4000 in the pot holding KQ on a KJT7 board against an opponent I knew was super tight. Sure enough he had a made straight with 89 and no A or 9 on the river and I was done.

I had a great time and overall I felt I showed once more I can play with the big boys. I’ll be back soon (perhaps even this year) and take another shot at the bracelet!

The league so far has $560 from Guy and $645 from Darren to split. Not getting a rich but everyone will get at least $10 dollars back. Now let’s hope Larry pulls through. A min cash in the big one is around $20,000 and then we can all get something decent back! Go Larry Go!

May 11, 2010 – Possible $100 Buyin Tourney at Coyote Creek in Mid-July

No definite plans yet, but we will probably have a $100 buy-in cash tourney in mid-July (either July 16 or 23). More details to follow in next week or 2.

May 1, 2010 – League Final Recap is Finally Here!

Quick WSOP info for those going or curious.

Please note those bolded events are events being played for the league as part of the league end of the year prizes. The other events listed are people playing on their own bill.

Our league players will be playing the following events:

Saturday May 29^th at noon, WSOP Event #3 ($1,000): Darren Kennedy, Dave Sims, Guy Bottin

Monday May 31^st at noon, WSOP Event #5 ($1,500): Eric Herman

Thursday July 8^th at noon, WSOP Event #57 ($10,000): Larry Williams

Player	Arrive	Depart	Hotel	Events	Phone
Darren Kennedy	Fri, May 28, 7pm	Sat, June 5, 2pm	Rio Room 1	#3: $1000 NLH Sat #4: $1500 LO8 Sun #5: $1500 NLH Mon #8: $1500 NLH Wed #9: $1500 PLH Thu #11: $1500 NLH Fri	425-894-4030
Adrian Nelson	Fri, May 28, 7pm	Sat, June 5, 2pm	Rio Room 1	#3: $1000 NLH Sat
Guy Bottin	May 14	After Event #3	Unknown	#3: $1000 NLH Sat
Dave Sims	Thu, May 27	After Event #3	Unknown	#3: $1000 NLH Sat
Eric Herman	Sat, May 29	Sat, June 5	Harrahs	#5: $1500 NLH Mon
Graham Spence	Tue, June 1	Sat, June 5	Rio Room 2	#8: $1500 NLH Wed
Brant Taylor	Wed, June 2	Mon, June 7	Rio Room 3	#11: $1500 NLH Fri #13: $1000 NLH Sat
Harry Aujla	Wed, June 2	Mon, June 7	Rio Room 3	#11: $1500 NLH Fri #13: $1000 NLH Sat
Larry Williams	Wed, Jul 7	Wed, Jul 14	Condo 2	#57: $10,000 Thu (1D) July 8^th	778-228-5246

Just to get all schedules in one place (to help with my sanity), I’ve put all the relevant WSOP, Venetian, Caesars, Binions and Orleans tourney schedules below for May 28-June 7

World Series of Poker First 12 Days of Schedule

(WSOP Full Schedule)

Date	Day	Time	Event	Entry	Game
May 27	Thu	9AM			Registration Opens, Live Action & Satellites Begin
May 28	Fri	12 PM	1	$500	Casino Employees NLH
May 28	Fri	5 PM	2	$50,000	Player’s Championship (10 Game)
May 29	Sat	12 PM	3A	$1,000	No-Limit Hold’em
May 30	Sun	12 PM	3B	$1,000	No-Limit Hold’em
May 30	Sun	5 PM	4	$1,500	Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
May 31	Mon	12 PM	5	$1,500	No-Limit Hold’em
June 1	Tue	12 PM	6	$5,000	No-Limit Hold’em Shootout (2000 Player Max)
June 1	Tue	5 PM	7	$2,500	2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit)
June 2	Wed	12 PM	8	$1,500	No-Limit Hold’em
June 3	Thu	12 PM	9	$1,500	Pot-Limit Hold’em
June 3	Thu	5 PM	10	$10,000	Seven Card Stud Championship
June 4	Fri	12 PM	11	$1,500	No-Limit Hold’em
June 4	Fri	5 PM	12	$1,500	Limit Hold’em
June 5	Sat	12 PM	13A	$1,000	No-Limit Hold’em
June 5	Sat	5 PM	14	$1,500	2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit)
June 6	Sun	12 PM	13B	$1,000	No-Limit Hold’em
June 6	Sun	5 PM	15	$10,000	Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship
June 7	Mon	12 PM	16	$1,500	No-Limit Hold’em

Daily Tourneys also at WSOP:

3pm: $330 Mega Satellite

7pm: $340 No-Limit Hold'em

9pm: $550 Mega Satellite

11pm: $200 No-Limit Hold'em

1pm (Tues, Wed, Thur only): $550 Buy-In No-Limit Hold'em

Single Table Satellites ($65, $125, $175, $225, $275, $325, $525, $1025), winner take all.

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III Schedule

Date	Day	Time	Event#	Entry Fee	Game
May 28	Fri	12 PM	1	$340	No-Limit Hold’em
May 29	Sat	12 PM	2	$340	No-Limit Hold’em
May 30	Sun	12 PM	3	$550	No-Limit Hold’em
May 31	Mon	12 PM	4	$340	No-Limit Hold’em
June 1	Tue	12 PM	5	$1070	No-Limit Hold’em
June 1	Tue	1 PM	6	$340	Omaha 8 or Better
June 2	Wed	12 PM	7	$550	No-Limit Hold’em
June 3	Thu	12 PM	8	$340	No-Limit Hold’em
June 4	Fri	12 PM	9	$340	No-Limit Hold’em
June 5	Sat	12 PM	10	$340	No-Limit Hold’em
June 6	Sun	12 PM	11	$340	No-Limit Hold’em
June 7	Mon	12 PM	12	$550	No-Limit Hold’em

Caesars Mega Stack Schedule

Date	Day	Time	Event#	Entry Fee	Game
May 29	Sat	12 PM	4	$225	No-Limit Hold’em
May 30	Sun	12 PM	5	$330	No-Limit Hold’em
May 31	Mon	12 PM	6	$330	No-Limit Hold’em
June 1	Tue	12 PM	7	$225	No-Limit Hold’em
June 2	Wed	12 PM	8	$330	No-Limit Hold’em
June 3	Thu	12 PM	9	$330	No-Limit Hold’em
June 4	Fri	12 PM	10	$550	No-Limit Hold’em
June 5	Sat	12 PM	11	$225	No-Limit Hold’em
June 6	Sun	12 PM	12	$330	No-Limit Hold’em
June 7	Mon	12 PM	13	$330	No-Limit Hold’em

Binions Poker Classic

Date	Day	Time	Event#	Entry Fee	Game
May 29	Sat	2 PM	4	$210	No-Limit Hold’em
May 30	Sun	2 PM	5	$210	No-Limit Hold’em
May 31	Mon	2 PM	6	$160	No-Limit Hold’em
June 1	Tue	2 PM	7	$130	Limit Hold’em
June 2	Wed	2 PM	8	$210	NLH 6-Handed
June 3	Thu	2 PM	9	$160	No-Limit Hold’em
June 4	Fri	2 PM	10	$310	HORSE
June 5	Sat	2 PM	11	$210	No-Limit Hold’em
June 6	Sun	2 PM	12	$210	No-Limit Hold’em
June 7	Mon	2 PM	13	$210	No-Limit Hold’em

2010 Orleans Open

Date	Day	Time	Event#	Entry Fee	Game
May 28	Fri	???	7	$330	HORSE
May 29	Sat	???	8	$330	Omaha 8 or Better
May 30	Sun	???	9	$540	No-Limit Hold’em

April 29, 2010 – League Final Recap is Finally Here!

I know I have taken forever to get this up, but here is the League Final recap.

We came into the evening with 24 players vying for 1 $12,000 Main Event package and 4 $2,000 WSOP Packages. Guy Bottin already was guaranteed one of these, and Jay Peturssen was a no-show, so effectively we had 22 runners fighting for 4 unclaimed prizes and Guy trying his best for the number one spot. The action was intense right out of the gate:

Level 1: (100-200)

Our first elimination occurring only a few minutes in when Andrew Krywaniuk overplayed his KJon a Jack-high board againt Chris Flaman’s covering stack and AA. Andrew would go out in 23^rd place in Level 1.

Level 2: (200-400)

It wasn’t long into this level that Chris Fraser sitting on a short stack (6500) saw a 4 way flop for 600 holding AJ. The flop was AKQ and Jamie Hucul led out for 600, Chris re-raised to 3000 and Brant Taylor moved all in. Chris took a while and knew he was in bad shape but eventually made a pot odds call to see Brant turn over JT for broadway. The turn and river came 9 4 and Chris was our 22^nd place finisher.

Also in this level a 5 way limped pot saw a flop 5h3h2. Darren Kennedy led out for 3000 in BB, Rick Rohrback UTG went all in for another 7800 holding 66. It folded around and Darren made the call with Kh7h for the flush draw with two overs. The turn was a 4 making a straight for Rick and removing 6 outs from Darren, but the Ah spiked on the river and Darrens flush meant Rick was our 21^st place finisher.

Now at 20 players we broke down one table and continued on with 2 tables.

Level 3: (300-600)

A trend of the night began when Chris Flaman picked up AA for the third time and this time ran them through Rob Sims KK. All in preflop and the AA held leaving Rob shaking his head and out in 20^th place. Poker can be cruel.

Unlike prior years the action was not very tight early and there was great chip movement and splashing around by all players. The early benefitters were Jeff Scott who quintupled his stack (8000-42000) in the first three levels and Chris Flaman who’s 3 pocket AA’s helped him go from 10800 to 26500. Josh Hughes also went from 13200 to 24100On the other side Guy Bottin dropped from 40000 down to only 7600 and Darryl Nicholson who went from 8000 to just 3000.

Level 4: (400-800)

It took another Level before the next player was KO’d, but Level 4 saw 5 people bust out.

A short-stacked Jamie Hucul saw a flop of KcQc8 with 3c5c and got his remaining 4000 chips in the middle against the AK of Jeff Scott. No club came and it was see you next year for Jamie who went out in 20^th place.

A similarly short-stacked Harry Aujla would move all his chips in the middle preflop with JTss and be called by Jeff Scotts AK. The board was an interesting giving Harry an open-ended-straight-flush draw but ultimately let him down coming 9h8h939 and leaving him as our 19^th place.

On the other table Larry Williams doubled up through Chris Flaman on a flop of AT5 holding AT versus Chris’s AK. No King on the 93 turn and river meant Chris shipped a good portion of his chips over to Larry.

A fairly monstrous lay down by Josh Hughes when on a limped pot Josh and Scott Brynen made it to the river with about 75% of Josh’s chips in the middle before Josh laid down a Q5 on a board of 444Q7. Scott showed the 54 to the relief of Josh who made a great laydown.

Yet another cooler had Adrian wakeup with KK against Dave Sims who had been playing a lot of hands and get it all in preflop only to see the bad news that yes indeed Dave had AA. No help saw Adrian become the 17^th place finisher.

Rob Holmberg pushed a short-stack all in pre-flop with A2 and was called by Larry’s A9. The flop moved Rob into the lead, but the river killed him on a board of 2xxx9 and Rob was out in 16^th place.

Level 5: (500-1000)

Chris Flaman was the next to go when he pushed K7 into Eric Hermans K8 on a Kxx board. No miracle on turn and river and that was it for a player who’s luck started out incredibly good in the first two levels. He would be the 15^th place finisher.

Josh Hughes then went to war with Guy Bottin in a classic flip situation. Guy held TcT vs Josh’s AK. The flop kept it interesting coming Kc6c3c. The turn blanked, but Guy spiked a Ten on the river and sent Josh home in 14^th place. This pot at the time was the biggest of the nights at a little over 50,000 in chips. Guy had a made a phenomenal comeback being as high as 40,000 and as low as 6000 in the opening few levels.

Level 6: (600-1200)

Scott limped preflop and Brant saw a flop from the SB. The board came 9-high and Brant bet, Scott raised allin and Brant thought long and hard before making the call with K9 to see he was up against A9 of Scott. No help as board ended 984QQ sent Brant out in 13^th place.

Everett was next to fall in 12^th place and his bust-out was the only bust-out hand I did not seem to record. I think I was likely involved in a big hand myself at the time and thus missed it.

Ray Rohrback pushed all his remaing chips in the middle with K2 and was called down by A7. The board bricked and Ray was our 11^th place finisher. With Ray’s departure we re-drew and combined to a Final Table.

Level 7: (800-1600)

This level was uneventful as everyone at the Final Table treaded lightly. A lot of pots were done preflop and we saw only one turn card this entire level until the last hand of the level which was:

Scott raised UTG+1 to 4000 and only Eric called from the BB and they saw a flop of Q92. On the flop Eric checked, Scott bet 4500 and Eric called. The turn card was an 8,and Eric pushed all in for 14,000. Scott thought for a moment and then made the call showing AA, but saw the bad news when Eric turned over JT and doubled through with a straight. The meaningless river was a 7.

Level 8: (1000-2000)

The next hand saw a now short-stacked Scott push UTG with QT and Darren call UTG+1 with KK. No miracle for Scott and he was our 10^th place finisher.

Moments later Darryl Nicholson pushed 6400 chips all in with AJ only to run into Dave Sims AK. Again a dry board and Darryl was out in 9^th.

Another big hand saw Darren and another player limp for 2000, the SB also limped and then Guy put the squeeze on with a re-raise from the BB to 10,000. The first limper folded and Darren shoved for 32000 effective. Guy snapped called with … 22!!!! But he was right and ahead of Darren’s AK and it was Darren who was at risk. The board came 335KA and Darren doubled through leaving Guy very short.

Guy managed a double with AA vs JJ of Jeff Scott shortly thereafter to get back to a playable stack.

Level 9: (1200-2400)

A big hand saw Larry move all in preflop with KJ, UTG+1 and called by Pat Woelk on BB with a covering stack and JJ. A cruel King on the river knocked Pat down and kept Larry alive.

After running his JJ into Guys Aces, Jeff was getting shorter. He would make a stand with AJ, but the SB Graham Spence had AK and dodged any danger on a 55QKA board. Jeff would leave us in 8^th place.

Guy, who had a guaranteed prize already and had been playing extremely agro all night long called all in for 30k after a raising war with Eric Herman pre-flop. Guy held 33 against Eric’s AK. A King spiked on the flop and that was it for Guy. This now meant that with one prize gone and Guy out, the bubble would be at 5 players with 4 prizes left.

Only a few hands later we were on the bubble after Larry and Graham made it to the river on a J988x board. Larry pushed Graham all in. It was only a small percentage of the pot at that point and Graham call with T9 vs Larry’s AJ. Graham was out in 6^th place, just two spots from payday.

Level 10: (1500-3000)

We were on the bubble for all of Level 10 without losing anyone. Pat and Darren were the shortstacks and it looked likely that one of them would go out on the bubble and leave Dave, Larry and Eric to fight for the big prize. Lots of stealing with very few contested pots, but there were a couple of all-ins by Darren and Pat that were called down. We managed to double a couple times and both Eric and Darren had pots that looked like they were going to win a significant pot against Dave ultimately result in chops from double paired boards.

Level 11: (2000-4000)

The bubble would finally burst on a cooler. 5 handed Pat woke up with AK to Larry’s 88. The board ran 8KJxx and Pat was out. The remaining players were guaranteed a $2000 prize and first place was $12000, including a $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat, so there was still a lot to battle for.

Level 12: (3000-6000)

Darren’s luck would finally run out as he pushed from the SB with JsTs into Dave’s KQ. The final board was A922x and Darren’s dream of playing the Main Event this year took a serious hit.

Level 13: (5000-10000)

The threesome battled for quite awhile and the chip lead changed hands multiple times with Larry getting short-stacked after doubling up Dave. But the chips would not stay still and eventually Dave found himself all in against a gambling Larry with Dave holding 66 to Larry’s QJ. A queen as the door card followed by nothing of importance resulted in Dave being ousted in 3^rd place.

Entering heads up play Eric Herman took a 2 to 1 chip lead over Larry Williams. This heads up battle was for a $10,000 difference in prizes. They battled hard for 40 minutes, with Larry being by far the more aggressive of the two pushing almost every hand pre-flop while Eric was more in a trap mode, preferring to limp in a lot. Larry ground Eric down and took the chip lead about 10 minutes into the heads up. Larry would ultimately finish Eric off on the following hand: Eric held T6 and Larry held 34. It was limped preflop, Larry bet the flop (62J) and Eric called. On the turn (5) Larry pushed all in with the nut straight and Eric thought for a long time before calling with 2^nd pair.

That was it, the tourney was over and Larry Williams had won and will represent our league in the World Series of Poker Main Event at the Rio in Las Vegas! Eric Herman will be playing a $1500 event and Dave Sims, Darren Kennedy and Guy Bottin will be playing $1000 event. Good luck to you guys and best of luck to everyone else next season.

April 10, 2010 – League Final Results!

A well played, action-packed final saw Larry Williams outlast Eric Herman for the Seat at the Main Event!

Also heading to Vegas on DHPL packages will be:

1. Larry Williams - Main Event Seat

2. Eric Herman - $2k package

3. Dave Sims - $2k package

4. Darren Kennedy - $2k package

7. Guy Bottin - $2k package

Our unfortunate Vegas bubble boy was Pat Woelk who went out holding AK all in pre flop against a small pocket pair of Larry's.

Hopefully one of these 5 can actually cash down there this year.

PS: Heads up last about 45 minutes and the tourney ended around 2:15am.

April 4, 2010 – Changes to Final Tournament Structure

Roger correctly mentioned the structure looked a little long, so I took a good solid look and using past events and the fact that we need to be done by 2am-ish made some changes. I removed the 150/300 and 250/500 levels and changed the last 3 levels to 20 minutes. Given that we start at 7pm, in the original structure we would have been at 1500/3000 blinds at 1:30am which is still 114 BB’s in play. Most of our tournaments end when we have about 36 BB’s in play. Given that theirs is a monstrous difference between first and second, if anything this tourney may last a little longer at the end. With the changes we will now be at Level 13 (5000/10000) at 1:30am which is 34 BB’s and thus right around the right ballpark.

April 3, 2010 – League Final Details.

First off, we have 5 packages up for grabs. One $12,000 package that includes an entry into the WSOP Main Event and 4 packages that include $1000 WSOP buy-in and $900 cash. Secondly we start theLeague Final with 3 8 handed tables and will merge to two 10 handed tables after we lose the first 4 players. We will continue until there are 10 players remaining at which point we will combine to the final table. Unlike previous years we will need to play down to the winner as clearly the difference between 1^st and 2^nd is very significant. The player seating will be drawn on Friday right before the tournament begins. We have 3 super stacks to start the tournament (that being a stack more than double the average). Total chips in play will be 343,600 with the average stack being 14,300.

Final note. We will start at 7pm exactly whether you are there or not, so do NOT be late.

Another note is that the blind levels for the first 14 levels will be 30 minutes. The blind structure is included below:

Final Tournament Structure
Level #	Minutes	Small Blind	Big Blind	Start Time	BB’s
1	30	100	200	7:00pm	1718
2	30	200	400	7:30pm	859
3	30	300	600	8:00pm	573
10 Minute Break				8:30pm
4	30	400	800	8:40pm	430
5	30	500	1000	9:10pm	344
6	30	600	1200	9:40pm	286
10 Minute Break				10:10pm
7	30	800	1600	10:20pm	215
8	30	1000	2000	10:50pm	172
9	30	1200	2400	11:20pm	143
5 Minute Break				11:50pm
10	30	1500	3000	11:55pm	115
11	30	2000	4000	12:25pm	86
12	30	3000	6000	12:55pm	57
5 Minute Break				1:25pm
13	20	5000	10000	1:30pm	34
14	20	7000	14000	1:50pm	25
15	Unlimited	10000	20000	2:10pm	17

For those that were not fortunate to make it to the League Final or were not part of the league to begin with that still want to get a little poker in this Friday, we will have the cash table open and be doing 10 person, $50 Sit and Go’s that will pay first $250, second $150 and third $100. So come on out.

March 28, 2010 – Event #10 Sees Scott Brynen win and Guy Bottin Lock Down the League Points Title

We also saw not a single person crack the critical top 24. Everyone that went into the day in the top 24 remained in the top 24. Scott Brynen made it two wins on the season, to go along with his sub picking up 10,000 points for him thanks in large part to a nice back-to-back all-in, 3-outers at the final table where his A4 out-flopped AQ and then his AJ on the next hand out-flopped QQ. The back to back double ups put him in decent shape, and he played solid the rest of the way to take down the title. Guy Bottin remained a force as the league points title came down to the wire with both Guy and Dave Sims fighting with big stacks to the bitter end. Guy held on and is guaranteed one of the prizes to the WSOP. Even more interesting is that the two were placed side-by-side early in the tourney on Table 3 and ended up sitting next to each other on the Final Table as well.

But the story of the night was not one person breaking thru to the top 24 leaving even Brant Taylor who went in to the night with the 24^th stack still in 24^th spot at the end of the night even though he busted out early. So sure was he that he had no chance that he left and never found out until the next day that he had indeed made it to the League Final. 3 players made the Final Table last night with a chance: TJ Johnston needed 6^th or better in points and got 8^th, Dan Moklatore needed 3^rd and got 6^th, while Richard and Greg needed a 2^nd and got 10^th and 9^th respectively. We’ll see if Brant is able to do anything with his second life at the League Final.

For the league final there will 343,600 chips in play, making the average stack 14,300.

The in the point finishers for Event 10 were (1-11) : Scott Brynen ($1100), Everett Wicklund ($620), Guy Bottin ($440), Rick Rohrback ($340), Christine Cartwright ($240, non-league), Dave Sims ($160), Dan Molatore ($100), Jamie Hucul, TJ Johnston, Greg Herman, Richard Wardroper.

March 7, 2010 – Event #9 In the Books. Guy Bottin wins and takes League Lead

Guy Bottin has been on fire and has now got points in 14 of the 27 events he has played, a very impressive feat for which he can now add his first tourney victory. Larry Williams needed some big points and came through with 8,000 to assure a spot in the League Final, Graham Spence received 6,400 points for the 3^rd time this season adding some more chips to his League Final arsenal. These 3 were dead even in chips at one point and did a 3-way even split of the money taking $710 a piece before playing it out for the points. Mike Mittermuller had no points before today and was in great shape 4-handed when he had decent chips and got it all-in with AA against Graham’s JJ. A cruel Jack on the turn left him out in 4^th and needing another top 4 in the Event #10. Nobody said poker was easy!

The important 24^th spot moved from 7,200 points to 7,600. It will be interesting to see what ends up being the final spot for 24^th. From a pure mathematical standpoint there is a chance for 24^th to be as high as 9,600, but that is a more than a 1 in quadrillion shot, so I wouldn’t worry about it too much J. 8,800 should be more than safe, and I would be shocked if 8,400 didn’t get in. 8,00 is the dangerous spot.

All Time Standings page updated for last 3 events.

The in the point finishers for Event 9 were (1-17): Guy Bottin ($710), Larry Williams ($710), Graham Spence ($710), Mike Mittermuller ($300), Adrian Nelson ($220), Peter Jensen ($150, non-league), Kevin Dowell ($100, non-league), Josh Hughes, Chris Fabbro (non-league), Ed Sue, Chris Fraser, Keith Matsalla (non-league), Ray Rohrback, Adam Perkin (non-league), Traz Benning (non-league), Kevin Holbeche (non-league), Jeff Scott

February 27, 2010 – Event #8 The Night of the Non-Leaguers, Michal Vydrzel takes first for $960

Definitely a night for the subs as they account for all top 4 spots and 4 of the 10 point placings. My buddy from Seattle who came up to watch some Olympics, Michal Vydrzel took first place coming back after losing a big hand when his KK fell to AQ. Michal went on a big rush at the final table when it mattered to close out the tourney and the 10,000 points for Scott Brynen. Kevin Van’Thullenaar made a return to the DHPL and took home 2^nd place and earned 8,000 points for Daryl Nicholson. And Marie Hilts made it 3 cashes this year with a 3^rd place finish and 6,400 points for Andrew Krywaniuk. Marie really ought to have signed up for the season this year as she would be well into the final table. Another good friend of mine, Derek Thomson from Edmonton was in town to play his first event ever in DHPL and came up with 4^th place. Derek was one of my original poker buddies from back in the pre-Moneymaker days. Good to see him do well. Some other very clutch performances from player who need the precious points came from Rick Rohrback who’s 2,800 points puts him at 9,200 which is likely enough for the Final Event and Chris Fraser 2,000 to get within striking distance of that League Final.

24^th place now sits at 7,200 and likely the cut line will be around 8-9,000 points, but really to be a 100% lock you need 9,600 points. See below for the rest of the splits. The number in brackets is the percentage likelihood that that amount of points will be enough to crack the top 24. Clearly the 8,000 mark is critical to get to to give yourself any real shot.

9,600 is enough: 500 (100%)

9,200 is enough: 497 (99.4%)

8,800 is enough: 449 (89.8%)

8,400 is enough: 424 (84.8%)

8,000 is enough: 370 (74%)

7,600 is enough: 64 (12.8%)

7,200 is enough: 0 (0%)

The in the point finishers for Event 8 were (1-13) : Michal Vydrzel ($960, non-league, playing for Scott Brynen), Kevin Van’Thullenaar ($570, non-league, playing for Daryl Nicholson), Marie Hilts ($380, non-league, playing for Andrew Krywaniuk), Derek Thomson ($280), Guy Bottin ($210), Eric Herman ($150), Rick Rohrback ($100), Chris Fraser, John Forsythe (non-league), Jay Petursson, Peter Smith (non-league), Chris Hebert, Dean Hilts (non-league, playing for Ed Sue).

January 23, 2010 – Dave Sims Takes Event 7 Making it an Incredible 3 for 7 This Season

Dave wins! Dave wins! In another great night at Coyote Creek, Dave Sims makes it back to back titles and has now won 3 of the 7 events this season. My apologies for the lack of an update, but this event coincided with about 3 weeks of madness for me, so other than updating the standings page there is no further update from this event.

The in the point finishers for Event #7 were (1-13): Dave Sims ($1080), Jamie Hucul ($600), Jordi Muckle ($440, non-league playing for Harry Aujla), Brent Doucette ($330, non-league), Rory Woods ($240, non-league), Pat Woelk ($160), Marie Hilts ($100, non-league, playing for Andrew Krywaniuk), Derek Elke, Guy Bottin, Jan Kappers (non-league), Kevin Holbeche (non-league), Ken Freeman (non-league), Richard Getty (non-league, playing for Everett Wicklund), Ed Sue, Dan Cassidy (non-league), Steve McLarty.

January 14, 2010 – Event #7-10 Confirmed for Coyote Creek

Just a quick confirmation to everyone that we have secured the Arizona Room at Eaglequest Coyote Creek Golf Club for the remainder of this year’s Die Hard Poker League Season. This is the same room we had last week for Event #6. They were very happy with the business we gave them and we were very happy with the facility. One note from this though is that we will start precisely at 7pm in order to try and finish no later than 1:30am. I knew we would start late last week since it was a new facility and all, but we must get back to starting within 5 minutes of designated start time. So please, PLEASE get there at least 15 minutes early so we can get the buy-ins dealt with.

January 10, 2010 – Event #6 Results: Dave Sims becomes the first double winner this Season!

A new year and yet another new location for the Die Hard Poker League saw us playing at Eaglequest Coyote Creek Golf Club. The facility was perfect for us especially having round tables making it easier to deal from any position. The fact that we had food and bar service didn’t hurt either. I will be talking again with Janette this week to see if we can use the facility again for the next events.

As for the tourney we had 54 runners and considering we were at a new place we started only 15 minutes late. This tourney had some interesting hands early but nothing more so than about 5 hands in on Table 6 where on a flop of 3c4c5c, Rob Holmberg thought we was in good shape holding 67 for the nut straight, Steve M liked his odds with a set of 3’s and Harry was sitting in the catbird seat with 2c6c for a straight flush. The turn was another 5 giving Steve M a full house and no way of getting away. Unlike most every other tournament we’ve had, no player seemed to ever take a monster chip lead. It wasn’t until the final table when Dave took a monster chip stack and eventually held on for the win against Ray Rohrback who had had an up and down tourney being short-stacked with 45 players remaining before fighting back and doubling up many times. TJ who finished 4^th worked the shortstack all tourney and seemed pretty happy to make it to 4^th. Lance at the final table had a crazy run of cards which included getting KK 3 times in a 6 hand stretch. With the win Dave takes over the overall points lead as well.

No non-leaguer cracked the final table with the in the point finishers (1-10) being: Dave Sims ($920), Ray Rohrback ($560), Guy Bottin ($380), TJ Johnston ($280), Brant Taylor ($210), Howard Holt ($150), Lance Murdoch ($100), Josh Hughes, Rob Sims, Jason Nadeau.

January 10, 2010 – Event #5 Results: Rob Sims makes it Two Sims winners this year.

We moved from our regular location to play at a Townhouse Complex. It was the first time in a new location since beginning the league. 48 events at the Cloverdale Elks Club but we are done now. With the new locations size we allowed only league members and designated subs to play which lowered our turnout to just 47 players. In the end Rob battled off Everett for the win and coveted 10,000 points. Graham Spence came 3^rd and took over the league points lead.

The in the point finishers (1-10) were: Rob Sims ($830), Everett Wicklund ($550), Graham Spence ($380), Dean Kilback ($240), Larry Williams ($150), Pat Woelk ($100), Doug Crone, April Wolsnuk (non-league, playing for Eric Herman), Jamie Hucul, Darren Kennedy.

January 4, 2010 – We’ve got Coyote Creek for this Friday!

Monster thanks to Dave Sims. Thru Dave we have a location for this Fridays tournament. We will be having it at Coyote Creek Golf Club. The room we have is on the lower level, so when you arrive from the parking lot take the ramp downwards towards the pro shop. Shouldn't be too hard to find. But as always if you have trouble, call me on my cell (425) 894-4030. We have the room from 6pm until about 2am.

Our contact person at Coyote Creek is Janette. Note that there is NO BYOB alcohol at this venue. None, nada, zip! We will have a bartender for service and basically will be getting the room for free if they get enough business from us. Last call will be 12:30am and bar shuts at 1am. They will apparently allow us to stay a little later though to finish up the tourney. There is also a restaurant on site so if anyone’s interested they have a Roast Beef Buffet that night for $14.95.

As I mentioned we are starting at 7pm and you can pretty much assume most of our future events will be at 7pm. I am pretty pumped about this venue so look forward to seeing you all there. The venue can hold up to 80 people so obviously after a one event hiatus, spares are more than welcome once again. If you are a spare and want on the list please email me with your name to let me know. Likewise if you are a league member and know you can't make it or have someone coming as a substitute, an email would be appreciated.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't also offer a big thanks to others who put in legwork to finding a venue including Graham, Josh and Brant.

See you guys on Friday!

November 27, 2009 – Note that Event #5 will start at 7 PM!

We will be starting an hour earlier than usual at 7pm for Event #5 on December 11^th and it will take place at: Amenities Room, Fleetwood Meadows Townhouses, 8260 162A Street Surrey, Surrey, BC. This is Roger’s townhouse complex and we will need to be quieter than usual. We are still on the hunt for a more permanent solution. Also please note that there will be no dropins allowed for this event unless they are designated substitutes for a league player.

November 24, 2009 – Location for Event #5 Set

The new location for Event #5 has been set. We will convene at Roger’s townhouse amenities room. Address is above.

November 22, 2009 – IMPORTANT - Elks Hall No More

This is an important notice for all involved with Die Hard Poker League. Our rental agreement with the Cloverdale Elks Hall has been terminated effective immediately! WE are no longer welcome at that facility.

We need to find a new venue to hold our tournaments ASAP. If anyone has any suggestions or leads on facilities that would be suitable for us please let me or Roger know ASAP. Preferably we would like a place where we could be there from 7pm - 3am on Fridays, but if there is a place that you know of that we could get from 6pm to 2am we could look at changing the start time to 7pm. One option we will check out is the Surrey Golf Course. Being that I am in Redmond, its is difficult for me to explore other options up there so I could really use some help in this regards.

Roger has a townhouse amenity room that we can use for the December 11th event. We will do so but we will need to limit the number of players to 50 for this event. I will send out the address one week before the event.

The reason we were given for the termination of our rental agreement was cleanliness and the fact we were playing poker. I saw this coming for a while so I guess it's not that big a surprise. Please make sure all league members know that we will no longer be using the Cloverdale Elks Hall.

November 15, 2009 – Event 4 Scott Brynen Wins, Jay Peturssen Nearly Completes a Miracle

It was to say the least an event with many storylines. First off we were back to regular numbers with 54 players showing up to battle it out for first. Second, we had Scott Brynen, the winner of our very first event more than 4 years ago win this event making it the longest streak between victories and joining an elite group who have managed to take down two events. Third we had Jay Peturssen managing to come back from a single red chip and fourthly we had Brent Doucette a non-leaguer playing in only his second event finishing in the money again.

The most interesting story came from Jay Peturssen, who, along with Doug Crone played the first hour of the tourney and then abandoned their respective chip stacks to go curling and hoping to return soon enough to still have a chip stack remaining. They returned too late for Doug by about 15 minutes, and got back just in time for Jay to play his last hand with 22 players remaining. He lost the race on the chip up and went from 600 to a single red chip going into level 10. Worse, he was all in for his one single red chip of 500 on the Big Blind with the blinds at 1500-3000 when he returned. He managed to win the hand quadrupling up to 2000 and then on the next hand he chopped the pot when his J5 caught up to the QJ on a board of JT5JT. He was now at 4000 and could wait to find an actual hand. Two hands later he won again reaching 11,500 and one more triple up later and he was sitting at 36,000 chips and able to play poker. He managed to parlay his literal “chip and a chair” into 8^th place and a critical 3,600 points. Apparently after phoning from the rink and knowing he only had 600 chips left he had to be talked into returning by Doug or he would have went out in 22^nd place.

While Jay’s story was amazing Scott was the one who ultimately won. Scott’s path to victory rested mostly on one key hand where he got it all in against Brent Doucette holding JJ vs KK. Brent was big stack after having gone on an amazing run in the previous 6-7 hands. Brent was the dealer but passed the cards off because he didn’t want to deal anything bad to himself. However that didn’t change anything as a Jack hit the flop and Scott doubled up in a monster pot to become chip leader. Scott then won another big pot knocking out Darren Kennedy in an all in battle of the blinds with Darren pushing A7 vs Scotts A5. The 5 hit the flop and another 140k pot was shipped to Scott. And the final hand of the night? None other than A5 vs Eric Herman’s Kh8h and sure enough a 5 hit the flop and nothing else paired giving Scott the all important 10,000 points and of course the $920.

Non-leaguer Brent Doucette had an incredible 4th place finish meaning he’s came 2^nd and 4^th in the only two DHPL events he has entered. An amazing feat.

The in the point finishers (1-13) included: Scott Brynen ($920), Eric Herman ($560), Kai Picard ($380, non-league), Brent Doucette ($280, non-league), Richard McCamley ($210, non-league), Darren Kennedy ($150), Roger Grosset ($100), Jay Peturssen, Brant Taylor, Josh Hughes, Mike Bigelow, Lance Murdoch, Richard Wardroper.

November 9, 2009 – Event 4 Coming Friday and Changes to Operating Procedures

OK guys, as you are all aware we had a MASSIVE turnout last event. So I need you all to pay attention because this is how we will be running tournaments from now on. We will take money from all players that we knew were coming (league and spares that have reserved a spot) up until 7:50pm. At 7:50pm we will open it up for all drop ins that had not already reserved a spot in a first come first serve basis (we will keep a list).

If you are a league player who shows up and pays after 7:50pm you risk being an alternate and having to wait for a player to bust out before getting a seat. I will say that again, LEAGUE PLAYERS who show up and pay after 7:50pm DO NOT have a guaranteed starting seat. Same goes for spares who phoned in a spot. I need to do this to keep my sanity at these events and run things as smoothly as possible.

For those occassions when we have alternates, alternates will be numbered in order and when a player busts out, the next alternate will come and see me and get his chips and then go and take their seat to play. Alternates will be allowed to enter up until the end of Level 6 and all alternates will start with a full stack.

As always, non-league members vying in the cash only part of the tourney are welcome. The cost for them is $50. Please email me ahead of time to reserve a spot. Note that we will only have 7 tables, but will take alternates after the 63 player max. So if you want to play, and dont want to have to wait as an alternate, you must email me or phone me to reserve a spot!

For this event so far I already have the following non-league spots resered:

1. Jerry Abra

2. Brent Doucette

3. Blake Vailles

4. Kai Picard

5. John Forsythe

6. Paul Deol

7. Jason Fraser

8. Dean Hilts

9. Marie Hilts

Subs:

1. Darren Corea (playing for Pat Woelk)

2. Trevor Stewart (playing for Graham Spence)

We have 5 more guaranteed spots left (but of course we always have around 10 leaguers not show, so likely there will be 13-14 more available spots. If you are a non-leaguer and want in, let me know.

Darren
darrenkennedydk@gmail.com
425-894-4030

October 26, 2009 – A Record turnout ends in a 3-way Chop between Adrian Nelson, Guy Bottin and John Forsythe

A monstrous 68 players showed up for Event #3 and for the first time we had an 8^th table set up. Take note that going forward we are going to only run 7 9-handed tables and to aid overfill, we will allow alternates for the first two hours as people bust out. If you are a dropin player PLEASE phone/email me before the event to let me know you are coming to guarantee yourself a seat.

As for the tourney, it was an all out war. Pat Woelk built a monster stack early but was unable to parlay it into a cash, though he did final table. Adrian Nelson also built a large stack early only to watch his stack crumble before battling back to win the tourney. Guy Bottin was also an early big-stacker, but his stack never seemed to drop, though he did bow out to Adrian in the end. After chopping the money 3 ways, Adrian Nelson outlasted Guy Bottin for the 10,000 points and the win. Chris Fraser has now final tabled all 3 events proving he’s not a one shot wonder. Chris Flaman manned up and got 2800 points showing that he doesn’t need to rely on his subs alone for points. But one trend I didn’t like to see is 4 of 8 in the money finishers were non-league. This is our league god damnit and we ought to be keeping this prize money in-house!

The in the point finishers (1-14) included: Adrian Nelson ($750), Guy Bottin ($750), John Forsythe ($750, non-league), Trevor Stewart ($350, non-league), Graham Spence ($250), Chad McGlynn ($200, non-league), Keith Matsalla ($150, non-league, playing for David Slater), Derek Elke ($100), Chris Flaman, Pat Woelk, Jeff Scott, Mike Schubert, Peter Jensen, Chris Fraser.

October 5, 2009 – Dave Sims Wins Event #2

A total of 58 players showed up, and we had 4 players notch their second Final Table already this season. We had a first-timer go deep, but ultimately fall to Dave Sims victory. There were some big decisive hands Friday including Josh loving the pocket Queens, gaining much of his chips while holding the ladies. Adrian was a big stack early but lost most of his chips holding AA preflop vs JJ and ultimately losing a 25,000 chip pot. But all of these paled in comparison to what happened 8-handed. With about 700,000 chips in play, Guy Bottin held about 200,000 and Brent Doucett (playing for Chris Flaman had just 7,000 less). On a board of KdTd8x8d, all of the chips of the two chip leaders made their way into the middle with Guy holding 9d5d for a made flush and Brent holding Ad8x for trips and a flush draw. The cruel river was indeed a diamond and Guy was crippled and would finish in 8^th place bubbling the money proving once again that poker can be a tough game.

We are now at 53 league members.

The in the point finishers (1-12) included: Dave Sims ($1,000), Brent Doucett ($580, non-league, playing for Chris Flaman), Paul Deol ($400, non-league), Rik Rohrback ($300), Marie Hilts ($220, non-league), Chris Fraser ($150), Josh Hughes ($100), Guy Bottin, Steve McLarty, Dan Molatore, Derek Elke, Jay Peturssen

September 24, 2009

I now know that Mark Hemmings is out and Jamie Huckstable and Steve Nixon are in. Anyone know anything about Jon Pingol, Mo Pannun, Rod Seitz and Trevor F?

September 16, 2009 – Rob Holmberg Takes Event #1 and Harry Aujla chops money with him.

It was as expected another great turnout with 56 players showing up. Lots of action, including coolers, great bluffs and major suckouts led to a fun Final Table that ultimately resulted in Rob Holmberg outlasting Harry Aujla for the victory. We got started nearly a half an hour late due mostly to myself not arriving until 7:50pm. My apologies but I had a funeral service to attend. We will do better to start right at 8pm going forward. Not much break before we get right back at it next Friday for Event #2.

A vote was taken and it was clear that a large majority of players wish only 24 players to go to the League Final. So it will not be a chip and a chair at the League Final.

For the moment we sit at 51 league members though I expect that will swell up anoth 4-5 members during Event #2.

We also had a bunch of players who said they were in, not show up, so if you know anyone that still wants in let me know. And if you are one of the palyers with a question mark on the Standings page, please let me know whether you are indeed planning on joining the league this year. If I don’t hear from you soon your spot will be open for anyone else wishing to join the league. This includes: Jamie Hukstable, Jon Pingol, Mark Hemmings, Mo Pannun, Rod Seitz, Steve Nixon and Trevor F. The only one I’m somewhat sure of is Steve Nixon whom was out of town last weekend and is expected to join us for Event #2 I believe (but I would still like confirmation Steve).

Finishers 1-13: Rob Holmberg ($775), Harry Aujla ($775), Jeff Scott ($400), Dean Hilts (non-league, $300), Jay Peterssen ($200), Josh Hughes ($150), Darren Kennedy ($100), Chad McGlynn (non-league), Steve McLarty, Cory Breland (non-league), Brant Taylor, Chris Fraser, Andrew Krywaniuk

September 16, 2009 – 58 Players signed up now.

NOTE: PLEASE SHOW UP AT 7:30PM FOR FIRST EVENT

More and more players are joining. If you have anyone else that still wants in let me know ASAP. We WILL sell out this year and at this point are only 5 spots away with 5 people supposed to be getting back to me tomorrow. If you are hoping to just show up Friday and join the league you will likely be out of luck. You NEED to email me and lock up your spot ahead of time. DarrenKennedyDK@gmail.com

If you are on the unconfirmed list please drop me an email and let me know your status. DarrenKennedyDK@gmail.com

	Returning Players from Prev Seasons	New Players	Not Returning from Last Season	Unconfirmed from Last Season
1	Adrian Nelson	Charlie Brown	Darren Callaghan	Danny Tolusso
2	Andrew Krywaniuk	Chris Flamman	Dylan Ruocco	Fritz Vant’hullenuar
3	Brant Taylor	Chris Fraser	Jordi Muckle	Kevin Vant’hullenuar
4	Chris Herbert	Dan Molatore	Kerry Sweeney	Roland Calapiz
5	Darren Corea	Dave Sims	Rick Moffatt	Tyler Eby
6	Darren Kennedy	Howard Holt	Rob Wright
7	Darryl Nicholson	Jamie Hukstable	Robin Scorry
8	David Slater	Jeff Hall
9	Dean Hilts	Jordan Peever
10	Dean Kilback	Matt Janzen
11	Derek Elke	Mike Menkes
12	Doug Crone	Rod Seitz
13	Ed Sue	Ryan Watkins
14	Everett Wicklund	Steve Gadsby
15	Graham Spence	Steve McLarty
16	Greg Herman	Steve Nixon
17	Guy Bottin	Trevor F
18	Harry Aujla
19	Jason Nadeau
20	Jeff Scott
21	Jon Pingol
22	Josh Hughes
23	Lance Murdoch
24	Larry Williams
25	Marie Hilts
26	Mario Baptista
27	Mark Hemmings
28	Mike Bigelow
29	Mike Leis
30	Mike Mittermuller
31	Mike Schubert
32	Mo Pannun
33	Pat Woelk
34	Ray Rohrback
35	Rik Rohrback
36	Rob Holmberg
37	Rob Sims
38	Roger Grosset
39	Ryan McDonald
40	Scott Brynen
41	TJ Johnston
42

September 9, 2009 – Only 9 More Days Until the Season Kicks Off

That’s right we are a mere week and two days away from the kick off of Season 5 of the Die Hard Poker League. And let me tell you it will be yet another great season. It looks at the moment like we may be saying goodbye to 2 more of our original members this year as Jordi Muckle and Adrian Nelson may be dropping out of the league. Hopefully they will change their minds. Without them we would be left with only 4 original members that played every single season: Pat Woelk, Scott Brynen, Mike Schubert and myself. Original league member Jason Nadeau is set to return to the league though and we still have one other original league member in Doug Crone who has played all but one season.

We seem set to take on a whole bunch of more new players this year and as stated before I will be shocked, yes SHOCKED if we end up with less than 58 league members. The new big first place grand prize is going to make it worth even more to go hard each and every night. Not sure it will affect the strategy much, but should be interesting to see how it unfolds. We will also figure out the new league final qualifying format by a league vote at the first event. Quite simply we will go with the majority. The options are one of the two following choices:

1. Allow the top 24 players in points to go to the League Final with just their points earned.

2. Allow ALL players that received any points to go to the League Final with just their points earned. This would result in some extremely shortstacked players in the Final. Looking at last year’s standings we would have had 42 of 50 people in League Final with 15 people starting with 4800 or less chips.

So take a good think on which you prefer and I will be asking you your choice at Event #1.

The final note I would like to make is that I will be much harder/stricter with rule enforcement, misconduct, drunkeness and perceived cheating.

1. If you are noticeably drunk and slurring words, having trouble walking, etc you will be asked to leave the premises. I have no issues with those that would like to have a drink or two, just keep it under control.

2. If you are caught cheating in any way shape or form you will be banned from not just that event but the league without having any money returned. Cheating includes among other things:

a. Taking chips from another player or from the common stash.

b. Passing chips to another player.

c. Bottom dealing and other dealing mechanics.

3. Misconduct will be dealt with on a per incident basis and includes:

a. Intimidation both verbal and physical.

b. Threatening actions or behavior both verbal and physical. We have no place for the Phil Hellmuth wannabes of the world.

Another note is that during breaks all players will be asked to remove themselves from the table playing area with the exception of those helping the tournament director.

Ultimately we are all here for fun and we need to respect each other at and away from the tables. There is real money on the line, but the point of this league has always been fun first and to be more of a club-like atmosphere. Other than one or two incidents in the past I believe we have had that feeling for much of the first 4 years. With conversations I have had with others I understand that we are moving away from that lately and I will do all I can to nip this in the butt.

That’s all for now… see you all in 9 days.

August 29, 2009 – 10,000 Bonus Chips Being Removed From League Final

Another fun rule change.

The thinking goes that the bonus 10,000 chips everyone gets for the League Final is too much of an equalizer and perhaps players should just start League Final with only the points they earned. I really like this concept as I am all about making the regular league tourneys mean more.

So the proposal is to do one of the following:

1. Allow the top 20 players in points to go to the League Final with just their points earned.

2. Allow the top 24 players in points to go to the League Final with just their points earned.

3. Allow ALL players that received any points to go to the League Final with just their points earned. This would result in some extremely shortstacked players in the Final. Looking at last year’s standings we would have had 42 of 50 people in League Final with 15 people starting with 4800 or less chips.

I am definitely going to remove the 10,000 bonus chips. The question is only a matter of how many people we qualify.

My inclination is to go with proposal two, but I am not set on this one way or the other, so I'd like to put it out there and see what people think. So far most people prefer option 3…interesting., the ole Chip and a Chair!

Let me know

August 28, 2009 – More League Info.

I have had this question asked by 4 different people so it bears repeating and responding to the league in general.

The question:

Can I just bring the entire league fee ($400) for the first event and then just pay the $50 cash portion on a per event basis?

The Answer:

Absolutely you can. In fact for me it makes it very simple if people pay the whole thing up front. The reason we do the event by event thing is to make it easier for people who can't come up with the whole $400 right away. But by all means please bring the full $400 to first event if you can.

One other note and change is that we WILL guarantee a preliminary event seat to the league winner, but they will still get a chance to play in the league final for a shot at the Main Event seat. This idea was brought to my attention today and seems like a great concept as I like to reward the points leaders.

August 27, 2009 – 1^st Prize to be a $10,000 Seat at WSOP 2010 Main Event!!!!! League contributions bumped up to $40 per event.

I have made a decision that this year our first place prize will be a seat at the 2010 Main Event. To do this we are upping the league portion to $400 ($40 per event). Note that that will mean for the first event you will need to bring $170 ($50 cash + $40 for Event 1 and $40 for Events 9 and 10). The league continues to grow and with an expected 55-60 players in the league this year and a bump up to $400 per person we will have approximately $22,000-$24,000 in prize money. First place at the league final will get a seat in the Main Event and we should have enough money left to award 4 or 5 more traditional prizes of a $1500 buy into a preliminary event.

What this changes is that the league leader in points this year will not get an automatic berth into the league final. They will take their chips and play it out just like everyone else. Depending on how many people we end up with in the league we will qualify either 20 or 24 people for the league final. The key is that I have bumped up the costs by $100 per person and I need to make sure everyone realizes this as early as possible.

Who knows, one of our league members may end up on ESPN next year!

Grand Prizes:

WSOP Main Event Package - $12,800 Cdn package including a $10,000 US seat in World Series of Poker (WSOP), plus ~$1500 Cdn cash to help cover airfare and hotel in Vegas. Actual amount of cash depends on number US exchange rate, but we will guarantee at least $1000 Cdn.

WSOP Preliminary Event Package - $2000 Cdn package consisting of either $1000 US or $1500 US seat in World Series of Poker (WSOP), plus cash.

32 players at $40/event for 10 events is enough to handle one $12,800 Cdn WSOP Main Event Package.

5 players at $40/event for 10 events is enough to handle one $2,000 Cdn WSOP Preliminary Event Package.

We will provide one WSOP Main Event Package plus one WSOP Preliminary Event Package for every 5 league members above 32 that we have.

Season 5 – 2009/10 Changes to Rules:

1) If we have over 50 league players, we will be taking the top 24 players to the league final, instead of just the top 20.

2) The league leader in points at end of 10 events will be guaranteed a WSOP Preliminary Event Package and get a chance to play in the League Final for a shot at the WSOP Main Event Package.

3) The top prize is now a seat in the WSOP Main Event worth $12,800 Cdn. Secondary prizes will be $2000 Cdn prizes covering a seat in a $1500 US or $1000 US preliminary event and remaining cash.

4) The league fees for the year have been raised from $300 to $400.

August 27, 2009 – 51 Leagues Spots Taken, 6 players still not heard from.

Still over a month away from the start date we already have 51 players confirmed, with 6 league members from last season still unconfirmed. Note that there WILL be a hard cap of 63 players as a league members. While I don’t think we will hit that number I believe we will be in the mid-50’s, so if you or someone you know wants in get them to let me know soon.

August 4, 2009 – First draft of schedule is up.

These dates are not set in stone yet as I am giving it a few days to see if anyone spots any major problems with the proposed dates. As for rule changes I am considering removing the any money won by a player in Vegas goes 50% back to the league. Willing to take any and all feedback on that. Additionally operationally we will be letting players draw seat cards as they buy in instead of randomly assigning seats via the computer to speed up the start of tournaments as this will allow players to begin sitting in their assigned seats as soon as they arrive.

July 23, 2009 – Moving first date to Sept 18^th due to personal conflicts

As the title states. Also I will look into dates for the rest of the season shortly and once again try to avoid holidays and keep it from getting too close to Xmas.

July 16, 2009 – Time to Look Towards Season 5

Well once again our league’s best were unable to do any real damage down at the WSOP, but it should be noted that Vancouver players took 4 of the 57 bracelets awarded with Greg Mueller taking 2, Zach Fellows 1 and Jeff Ahmadi the other.

Anyways it is time to start signing people up for Season 6. Below is a list of players who have confirmed with me, those from last year that are returning and those I haven’t heard from yet. Please let me know your status via email (DarrenKennedyDK@gmail.com)

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