Die Hard Poker League Season 3: 2007/08

Updated: August 2nd, 2008

 

Next Event: 2008 WSOP NLH $1500 Event at Rio in Las Vegas

Date Time:

Event #32, Tuesday June 19th,, Noon

Event #36, Thursday June 19th,, Noon

Event #39, Saturday June 21st, Noon

Location: Elks Hall in Cloverdale at Unit 412, 17665-66A Ave, Surrey, BC

 

Tourney Dates (all start times are 8pm)

  1. xFriday, September 7th
  2. xFriday, September 28th
  3. xFriday, October 26th
  4. xFriday, November 16th
  5. xFriday December 14th
  1. xFriday, January 11th
  2. xFriday, February 1st
  3. xFriday, February 29th
  4. xFriday, March 14th
  5. xFriday, April 4th

xLEAGUE FINAL (players 2-10 plus event winners) Friday, April 11th

 

2008 WSOP NLH $1500 Event at Rio in Las Vegas

(Event #36, Thursday June 19th,, Event #39, Saturday June 21st)

League members require $70 per event ($40 cash and $30 league) and non-league members need to bring $40.

 

June 23rd, 2008 – WSOP Event #39 Chris Herbert and Dean Kotopski shoot blanks.

The league will have to wait yet another year for one of its members to cash as Dean Kotopski went out in Round 2 and Chris Herbert last a little longer deep into Level 5 but was also unable to make the dinner break. The league went 0 for 6 on the year. Unfortunately I have no memory of the details but perhaps Chris or Dean can fill me in on the dirty details.

 

June 20th, 2008 – WSOP Event #36 Pat Woelk, Lance Murdoch and Darren Kennedy come up short.

Another short update. The league is now 0 for 4 on the year. The event had 2447 players and paid top 198. Pat made it until near the end of Level 2 (about 1600 remaining) when, short-stacked he pushed with AQ and ran into KK. A King on the flop and it was over. Lance last until Level 5 (850 remaining) when he pushed and for 2.5 times the blinds with 33 and the BB made the call with 65o and proceeded to hit a full house. Darren made it a little deeper and bowed out in Level 6 (550 remaining) just minutes before the dinner break. Having a little over 3000 chips with blinds 200-400 and having action folded to him on the button, he pushed. The SB went allin over the top and the BB called! SB had AQh and the BB had KK. And that was it. Brant was alive still and on a big stack at the dinner break so we stayed around the Rio to sweat him, but unfortunately he went out near the end of Level 8 with 330 players remaining, still 2 hours from the bubble at 198.

 

So the leagues hopes are now down to Dean and Chris (who replaces Doug) to bring some cash home for the DHPL. Wish them luck.

 

On a side note I had the pleasure of playing at the same table as Freddy Deb for most of the tournament which was a lot of fun. Never got into any pots with him but enjoyed the banter.

 

June 18th, 2008 – WSOP Event #32 Roland Calapiz no dice.

A short update. A few of us arrived in Las Vegas on Monday to begin our quest for a 2008 World Series of Poker bracelet. Roland Calapiz entered Event #32 yesterday and was unsuccessful in his attempt to cash. Also entering the event on his own bill was Darren Kennedy who went out in Level 4 when he open-pushed with 66 and was called by AT. The board came KJJ7A and it was over. Brant Taylor also played the event and lasted the longest going out in Level 5 when he got all his chips in preflop with AQ vs 89s and his opponent hit a straight flush. No luck so far though Roland got his picture taken with Jennifer Tilly and Darren got a chance to chat with Hurley from Lost.

 

Tomorrow we try again as playing for the league will be Pat Woelk, Darren Kennedy and Lance Murdoch. Brant Taylor will also give it another go on his own bill.

 

June 11th, 2008 – DHPL Player Prepare to Head to Vegas and the World Series of Poker

A quick update to let everyone know what is happening and who is planning on playing which events at the WSOP. First and foremost one of our winners, Doug Crone, has had to drop out as he could not make it down to Vegas and as such the bubble boy, Chris Herbert is being sent in his place. Players in bold are playing for the league. Note that I will be playing in all 3 events but that the event that matters for the league will be the Thursday event. The other 2 will be on my own bill.

 

Event #32, Tuesday, June 17th - Roland Calapiz

Event #36, Thursday June 19th - Darren Kennedy, Lance Murdoch, Pat Woelk

Event #39, Saturday June 21st - Dean Kotopski, Chris Herbert

 

In addition to above players playing thru their DHPL won seat, Brant Taylor plans on playing all 3 of the tournies and I myself will likely play all 3 as well. I also believe Marco Bruni will be coming down but I am not sure that he is planning on playing in any events.

 

You can watch for results at www.worldseriesofpoker.com. The tournies start at noon and the day usually ends around 2am with players left after day 1 usually already in the money. So check the web site the next morning and see if any of our players are listed as still alive. Day 2 begins the next day at 2pm should we have anyone fortunate enough to get that far.

 

For those coming down on the trip and wanting to hook up at the Rio you can contact me on my cell phone: Darren - 425-894-4030.

I am staying in a rented house with a bunch of the above guys. Pat, Roland, Dean and Marco are staying elsewhere.

 

Current plan for the players themselves as I know it:

Darren: Monday – Sunday

Roland: Monday – Sunday (meet me at Rio at midnight Monday to buy in to Tuesday tourney)

Brant: Monday - Sunday

Lance: Tuesday – Sunday

Pat: Wednesday – Sunday (meet me at Rio at midnight Wednesday to buy in to Thursday tourney)

Dean: Thursday – Sunday

Chris: Friday - Sunday

 

April 14th, 2008 – League Final Details

My apologies for the delay on reporting all the sordid details of the League Final, but well its been a busy week for me. Anyway to our story. We began the year with 50 people vying for a coveted seat at the World Series of Poker and we entered the league final with one of those seats given to Roland Calapiz and 12 other players battling for one of the remaining 5 seats.

 

Starting chips and seating assignments looked like this:

Seat 1: 34,000 Pat Woelk

Seat 2: 29,600 Doug Crone

Seat 3: 36,000 Darren Kennedy

Seat 4: 33,200 Rik Rohrback

Seat 5: 20,000 Chris Herbert

Seat 6: 30,800 Mike Schubert

Seat 7: 24,000 Mike Reimer

Seat 8: 24,800 Marco Bruni

Seat 9: 27,200 Roger Grosset

Seat 10: 20,000 Dean Kotopski

Seat 11: 24,800 Lance Murdoch

Seat 12: 29,200 Josh Hughes

 

Level 1 (100-200) and 2 (200-400):

The feeling was we would see some tentative action this year as nearly half the players would get a seat. But this tourney started off fast and furious with the following hands:

Hand #3: Marco bets out for 300 preflop and Dean calls. The flop comes down AsQdXd, Dean raises to 800, Marco re-raises to 2000 total and Dean re-re-raises to 7000 total. The turn comes AsQdXdJs. Marco bets out 5000, Dean pushes all-in and Marco calls. Three hands in and we have an allin! Dean had KdTd for the straight and the flush draw while Marco had AdJd for two pair and the nut flush draw. The river came 2h changing nothing and Dean doubled up, leaving Marco crippled with just 4800 chips. The Jack on the turn was Dean’s only 3 outs after the flop other than some fancy runner-runners. Much discussion revolved around this hand the rest of the night and we all agreed there wasn’t much getting away from it for either player on the turn.

 

Hand #4: Darren gets dealt AA vs. Dougs AK. The flop comes xxQ and Darren bets, Doug calls. The turn is a King. Doug checks, Darren bets 3000 and Doug calls. Doug checks the turn and Darren bets 4000 and Doug calls. Doug played this extremely well, losing the minimum from the turn on.

 

Hand #5: with 6 players to the flop for 400 chips, the flop comes Kc8cx. Roger bets 2000 and both Darren and Rick call. The turn is a low card non-club. Roger checks, Darren bets 3,400 and Rick calls. At this point Roger check-raises to 10,000 total. Darren lays down his KQ and Rick thinks a while before calling. River is a non-club Queen and both players check. Roger shows AK and Rick shows Ac3c for a busted club draw. Darren made a solid laydown but would have rivered two-pair and taken down a large pot.

 

Another hand saw short-stacked Marco push all in pre-flop with 88 and get called by Dean with ducks. The board bricked out and Marco doubled up to a more respectable 7600 chips.

 

At the end of Level 2 we had the following chip stacks:

Seat 1: 39,000 Pat Woelk (+5k)

Seat 2: 15,600 Doug Crone (-14k)

Seat 3: 40,000 Darren Kennedy (+4k)

Seat 4: 20,000 Rik Rohrback (-13.2k)

Seat 5: 25,100 Chris Herbert (+5.1k)

Seat 6: 31,800 Mike Schubert (+1k)

Seat 7: 19,400 Mike Reimer (-4.6k)

Seat 8: 7,600 Marco Bruni (-17.2k)

Seat 9: 48,600 Roger Grosset (+21.4k)

Seat 10: 33,000 Dean Kotopski (+13k)

Seat 11: 23,000 Lance Murdoch (-1.8k)

Seat 12: 30,600 Josh Hughes (+1.4k)

 

Level 3 (300-600) and 4 (400-800):

Level 3 was very tentative as players settled down after some early action in the first two levels. With no remarkable hands to report, we moved to Level 4 with the following hand. Marco moved all in for his last 4000 chips and was called by Pat who held 55. Marco flipped over KJ and the race was on. The flop ended Marco’s chances quickly when Pat flopped not a set but quads! The board showed 25578 and Marco was the first player eliminated. Marco then proceeded to be our dealer for the rest of the night and for that the rest of us thank you.

 

A monster 40,000 chip pot developed shortly thereafter between Darren and Roger. After a bet and call pre-flop with Darren being the initiator, Roger bet out the flop of 2x9s8s and Darren re-raised. Roger called. On the turn 5s, Roger checked, Darren fired 7000 into the pot and Roger check-raised all in. At this point Darren went into the tank for a good 3-4 minutes before eventually folding. Roger said he hit the straight, while Darren said he laid down pocket jacks. But since no cards were shown and we are talking about poker players here, who knows what they had.

 

We end Level 4 with one KO and a clear chip-leader in Roger who seemed to take down pot after pot after pot. Pat was firmly entrenched in second. A nice comeback by Doug saw him double his stack in the two levels, while the big losers were Darren and Josh who saw their respective stacks reduced by double digits. The 11 remaining stacks were as follows:

Seat 1: 47,700 Pat Woelk (+8.7k)

Seat 2: 36,100 Doug Crone (+20.5k)

Seat 3: 28,700 Darren Kennedy (-11.3k)

Seat 4: 16,100 Rik Rohrback (-3.9k)

Seat 5: 26,600 Chris Herbert (+1.5k)

Seat 6: 29,800 Mike Schubert (-2k)

Seat 7: 14,500 Mike Reimer (-4.9k)

Seat 8: OUT Marco Bruni (-7.6k)

Seat 9: 58,400 Roger Grosset (+9.8k)

Seat 10: 35,000 Dean Kotopski (+2k)

Seat 11: 24,600 Lance Murdoch (+1.6k)

Seat 12: 14,100 Josh Hughes (-14.5k)

 

Level 5(600-1200) and 6 (800-1600):

A big hand between Mike S and Dean saw both players put in 10,000 pre-flop before both checking a flop of KQ7. The turn 5 prompted Mike to bet out 8000 and take down the healthy pot.

 

Shortly after the above hand in a battle of the blinds between Josh and Pat, the flop came 665, Josh bet out 4500 chips and Pat moved all in. Josh made a quick call for about another 8000 and tabled 85 but was way behind Pats trips of 62. The board showed 665A4 and Josh became our second elimination going out in 11th place, while Pat moved up the chip count closing in on Roger.

 

Also in Level 5 Darren raised to 5000 on the button with 88 and Rick from the SB moved all in for another 7600. Darren insta-called and Rick tabled QJ. Rick flopped a Queen to take the lead and the turn and river bricked to double Rick up.

 

Pat and Lance made huge gains over these two level, with Darren, Roger and Josh taking the big hits. Darren and Mike R became clear short stacks with only 6 times the BB.

 

The 10 remaining stacks were:

Seat 1: 65,800 Pat Woelk (+18.1k)

Seat 2: 32,000 Doug Crone (-4.1k)

Seat 3: 11,900 Darren Kennedy (-16.8k)

Seat 4: 25,000 Rik Rohrback (+8.9k)

Seat 5: 25,600 Chris Herbert (-1k)

Seat 6: 36,200 Mike Schubert (+6.4k)

Seat 7: 11,900 Mike Reimer (-2.6k)

Seat 9: 41,800 Roger Grosset (-16.6k)

Seat 10: 28,300 Dean Kotopski (-6.7k)

Seat 11: 54,100 Lance Murdoch (+29.5k)

Seat 12: OUT Josh Hughes (-14.1k)

 

Level 7 (1000-2000):

Early in Level 7 Roger bet out 6000 and Darren went into the tank before pushing all in with 88, Roger called with AQ and the race was on. The flop came xJQ crushing Darren who threw his remaining chips into the pot and stood up, but sat down quickly when the miracle 8 spiked the turn, allowing Darren to double up to around 29,000.

 

Level 8 (1500-3000):

Early in Level 8 Roger who had been bleeding chips mostly to Lance who seemed to have his number, pushed all in UTG with 7d8d. It was folded around to Mike R on the BB who as a short stack called with KQ. The board bricked and King high won leaving Roger with 6.5k.

 

On the next hand, with Roger half in on the BB for 3k Pat opened for 10,000 and Doug re-raised all in for 37,500. Roger though long and hard but folded in what looked like a priced-in spot. Pat also folded 88 face up and Doug showed pocket queens as he raked in the uncontested pot.

 

On the very next hand Doug called 3k, Rick called 3k, Roger moved all in for 3.5k from the SB, Dean called extra 500 from BB and Doug and Rick called going 4-handed to the flop. The board came AT487 and was checked down. Roger showed 69 for the rivered straight which beat the KT, QJ and 34 of the other players allowing Roger to quadruple up to 14,000.

 

Still in level 8 with bet-call pre-flop the board came JT2. Mike R. pushed all in and Pat thought for a bit before calling KQ for two overs and a open-ender vs Mike R.’s AJ for top-pair, top kicker. The turn came K and the river blanked giving Pat the pot and his 3rd KO of the night, sending Mike Reimer home as our 10th place finisher.

 

There was a clear shift in power over these two levels as Roger lost most of his chips and Rick came into a tonne of them. Pat continued his steady growth and Mike S and Chris took hits while Darren reached desperation levels having only 1.5 BBs remaining.

 

At the end of level 8 are chip stacks were:

Seat 1: 82,100 Pat Woelk (+16.3k)

Seat 2: 40,000 Doug Crone (+8k)

Seat 3: 6,300 Darren Kennedy (-5.6k)

Seat 4: 64,000 Rik Rohrback (+39k)

Seat 5: 15,100 Chris Herbert (-10.5k)

Seat 6: 21,700 Mike Schubert (-14.5k)

Seat 7: OUT Mike Reimer (-11.9k)

Seat 9: 15,500 Roger Grosset (-26.3k)

Seat 10: 37,000 Dean Kotopski (+8.7k)

Seat 11: 51,100 Lance Murdoch (-3k)

 

Level 9 (2000-4000):

The very first hand in level 9 saw Pat raise and Mike S move all in over the top. Pat looked at his good friend and said “I have a very big hand” before calling and tabling Kings, much to Mikes chagrin who had only the Hooks. The board bricked and Mike S became our 9th place finisher. Pat had personally sent each of the first 4 players home.

 

Shortly thereafter Darren was on the BB for 4000 with only 2300 behind. Pat moved all in from the button forcing Doug to abandon his 78. Darren had to call with the Doyle Brunson T2 and sit back and watch. The board came 356J4, the miracle 4 giving Darren a straight and keeping his hopes alive.

 

The next hand it was folded around to Darren who raised all in on the SB with KJ and Rick folded, bringing Darren up to 18,300 and a playable stack.

 

Roger getting short stacked moved all in from the cutoff with A7. Pat from the BB called the additional 9.5k with just T5. The flop came 9TJ and Pat took the lead, but Roger turned a straight when the 8 fell and the river Jack changed nothing as Roger doubled up to 29,000.

 

Level 10 (3000-6000):

A crazy pot developed early in level 10 when on the cutoff, Doug opened for 16000 and Rick called from the SB. The flop came TT6 and Doug quickly moved all in out of turn for 15,000. A quick ruling that the bet would stand left the pressure on Rick who eventually called with KJ versus Doug’s A7. The board ended TT6TA and Doug won a very healthy pot and could start to breath a sigh of relief.

 

A monster pot, the biggest of the night developed between our chip leaders when from the button Dean led out for 20,000. Lance folded and Pat re-raised all in. This put Dean into the tank. He thought for 5-6 minutes before making the call for his last 31,500 and flipping up 77. Pat turned over AJ and the race was on. The board came KT628 and Dean doubled up to the chip lead with 106,600 and made a large dint in Pats stack. Many of us couldn’t believe the strong call made by Dean who could  have folded that hand there and still been 3rd in chips.

 

Still in level 10, Roger would become the 8th place finisher when from the mid-position he pushed all in for 20,000 with 67 only to run into Lance holding Queens. The board came 6J3xx and Roger was sent home.

 

Doug raised all in from the button and Darren on the SB with only 6000 left called with K6 to go up against Dougs AQ. The board came KKT6x and Darren survived again with a remarkable full house.

 

The pattern in the last 3 levels was one of the short stacks getting all in and surviving time and time again. But that trend would soon end as we moved into Level 11.

 

The stacks after 10 levels of play:

Seat 1: 61,200 Pat Woelk (-20.9k)

Seat 2: 37,400 Doug Crone (+2.6k)

Seat 3: 28,200 Darren Kennedy (+21.9k)

Seat 4: 20,000 Rik Rohrback (-44k)

Seat 5: 15,100 Chris Herbert (even)

Seat 6: OUT Mike Schubert (-21.7k)

Seat 9: OUT Roger Grosset (-15.5k)

Seat 10: 118,600 Dean Kotopski (+79.6k)

Seat 11: 53,100 Lance Murdoch (+2k)

 

Level 11 (5000-10000):

First hand in Level 11 saw Rick in early position push all in for 20,000. Pat made the call and everyone else folded. Pat held AQ to Ricks AJ. The board came Q6KKJ and Rick became our 7th place finished and Pat had his 5th KO of the first 6 ousted players. This hand also brought us to the bubble with 5 of the remaining 6 players getting seats to the WSOP in Vegas.

 

The next hand was a walk for Darren.

 

The next hand was folded around to the SB where Darren pushed all in with K3. Chris was in for 10,000 already and held 5,100 behind. Having no choice but to call and table 68. The board bricked out with 99452 and Chris became the bubble boy going out in 6th place. The remaining 5 players celebrated with a beer and sat down to play out for the $300 difference in money prizes.

 

Very shortly thereafter Doug pushed all in with KT and ran into Lances AK. The board came xxxxA and Doug went out 5th collecting a seat and $500 in cash.

 

The next KO came when Darren pushed all in with A9 and was called by Pat with AK. A 9 on the flop and no help sent Pat home in 4th with a seat and $600.

 

It stayed 3-handed for a long time with all players taking down pots before Lance eliminated Dean with KJ vs K2 on a board of 2xKJx in which they both ended up with two pair. Dean finished 3rd and collected a seat and $600.

 

Heads up action lasted only one hand. Lance who entered heads up play with a 3 to 1 chip lead, limped in and Darren pushed all in with A7. Lance’s trap worked and he insta-called with JJ. The board was meaningless and Lance took down the title. Darren collected $700 and his seat while Lance received the first place prize of a seat and $800.

 

Congratulations to all winners as you outlasted a very tough field of players. Hopefully one or more of you can find a way to cash down in Vegas and bring some extra money home to the Die Hard Poker League!

 

April 14th, 2008 – League Final Winners are: Lance Murdoch, Darren Kennedy, Dean Kotopski, Pat Woelk & Doug Crone

The above players join Roland Calapiz as our league representatives traveling down to Las Vegas to play in a $1500 NLH event at the World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel in June.

 

The League Final was a crazy night of cards that started out with a bang before tightening up considerably for several hours. It was a night where the short-stacks wouldn’t die, and a night where it took until almost 4am to declare a winner.

 

More details to follow tomorrow when I update a whole bunch of hand scenarios.

 

March 18th, 2008 – Marco Bruni Pulls off the 10,000 points, Roland Wins the League Title and Drop-In Mike Leis Win the Tourney and a Record $860

We broke our record for turnout with 59 players last night, and also a record 6 women players. Marco Bruni who was one of 19 players that needed a points win to make the final table did just that, outlasting all 37 league players that were there before going out in 3rd. A huge congratulations to Roland Calapiz who locked up first overall and a trip to Vegas when Darren Kennedy was KO’s early in the tourney.

 

Mike Schubert came through with a huge 6th place finish and 6,400 points to lock up his final seat and give him a bigger stack for next week, meaning that everyone that was in position to be in the League Final before Event #10 began stayed in and only Marco Bruni joined to make it a 12 person final. Other big chip gainers of note for that League Final were Rik Rohrback who picked up an additional 8,000 chips to play with and Pat Woelk who added 4,800 to his stack.

 

Event #10 saw 4 players who we haven’t seen much of since Season #1 return as Paria Noorkami, Mehran Azimi, Dave MacDonald and Etienne Aquart all joined us with the husband wife team of Paria and Mehran showing the new leaguers that they can play with the best of them finishing 2nd and 4th respectively. Great showing!

 

Remembered hands from the night included:

1. Scott Brynen losing to Roger Grosset while holding KJ against 55 on a board that came KJ55x to allow Roger to quad up.

2. Darren Kennedy was dealt KK 3 times and QQ once in first two hours but lost twice on the KK to get KO’d pre-rebuys.

3. A tough beat by Adrian Nelson when he pushed all in pre-flop against KQ and 89 and the 89 hit the straight on the river.

4. An interesting hand in the final 7 or 8 when Marco raised to 45,000 with blinds 10,000-20,000. One caller and then Paria looked at 22. She elected to fold to the min-raise. The board came 2xx and Marco pushed with AT and won. Had Paria called that raise, Marco would not be at the League Final.

5. Two ladies went at it at the Final Table when the board came AKx. Paria was allin with JT and Kerry Sweeney had A8. The turn came A and the cruel river was a Q ending Kerry’s hopes to make the League Final and setting Paria up for a deep run to 2nd place.

6. Josh Hughes got all in against Kevin Grierson only to find Kevin holding AA and Josh was sent to rebuy. No problem he think as he picks up another solid hand and gets it all in again against Kevin who was this time holding KK. And Josh is done for the night.

 

The following players finished 1-14 respectively: Mike Leis (non-league $860), Paria Noorkami (non-league ($500), Marco Bruni ($340), Mehran Azimi ($220), Rick Rohrback ($160), Mike Schubert ($120), Pat Woelk ($80), Ray Rohrback, Guy Bottin, Kerry Sweeney, Dylan Ruocco, Mike Vietorisi (non-league), Ed Sue, Harry Aujla.

 

The League Final will start 12 handed next week at 8pm with the following players:

36,000 Darren Kennedy

34,000 Pat Woelk

33,200 Rik Rohrback

30,800 Mike Schubert

29,600 Doug Crone

29,200 Josh Hughes

27,200 Roger Grosset

24,800 Lance Murdoch

24,800 Marco Bruni

24,000 Mike Reimer

20,000 Dean Kotopski

20,000 Chris Herbert

 

Five of these players will become winners and join Roland Calapiz down in Vegas to compete in a $1,500 World Series of Poker Event.

 

There are a total of 333,600 chips in play making the average stack 27,800 chips.

 

We will go with just one table (yes I know 12 handed is a lot, but I don’t want to go 6-handed this early in a tourney). The drawing of seats will occur at exactly 8pm. Please note that all chips will be in play whether a player shows up or not. Also there are obviously no substitutes for the League Final in case that wasn’t clear.

 

Final Tournament Structure:

As for the final, the blinds structures will be as follows with half hour levels until Level 11:

Final Tournament  Structure

Level #

Minutes

Small Blind

Big Blind

1

30

100

200

2

30

200

400

10 Minute Break

3

30

300

600

4

30

400

800

10 Minute Break

5

30

600

1200

6

30

800

1600

5 Minute Break

7

30

1000

2000

8

30

1500

3000

5 Minute Break

9

30

2000

4000

10

30

3000

6000

5 Minute Break

11

60

5000

10000

12

60

8000

15000

5 Minute Break

13

Unlimited

10000

20000

Last level continues until end of tournament.
Note that there will be no Rebuys in the Final.

 

March 18th, 2008 – Prepping for Event #10, How Do I Make the Final Table?

Ok the big day is coming this Friday. It’s your last chance to put up or shut up. Below I have broken down all the various scenarios in short to help players better understand how they can book their seat into the League Final. Most players are left with only one option: win Event #10. For more info read below.

 

The prizes on the line are as follows:

  1. 1st place in league - $1500 NLH Buy-in + $800 Cdn
  2. 1st place at Final Table - $1500 NLH Buy-in + $800 Cdn
  3. 2nd place at Final Table - $1500 NLH Buy-in + $700 Cdn
  4. 3rd place at Final Table - $1500 NLH Buy-in + $600 Cdn
  5. 4th place at Final Table - $1500 NLH Buy-in + $600 Cdn
  6. 5th place at Final Table - $1500 NLH Buy-in + $500 Cdn

 

And how do you get to the final table? One of two ways:

2nd- 10th - seat at the final table.

Single Event winners – seat at the final table.

 

And where do people stand for the two big bubbles?

 

First Overall and the Automatic Berth to Vegas (Buy-in + $800 Cdn)

For the first overall spot and the automatic berth to Vegas it is officially down to just two players: Roland Calapiz and Darren Kennedy. For Darren to win I would need at least a 3rd place finish in this final. A 3rd with Roland 8th or worse, a 2nd with Roland 6th or worse or a 1st with Roland 4th or worse is the only possibility for knocking Roland off of his high horse.

 

Final Table Berth

First let’s take a look at what is required points-wise to make it to the Final Table. Based on random simulations the following are likelihoods of a certain point total being enough to crack the top 10:

28,400 is enough: (100%)

27,600 is enough: (99.99%)

27,200 is enough: (99.95%)

26,800 is enough: (99.41%)

26,400 is enough: (99.08%)

26,000 is enough: (98.18%)

25,600 is enough: (97.45%)

24,800 is enough: (84.1%)

24,400 is enough: (52.76%)

 

Given that information we can see that 7 players are guaranteed to make the final table via being an Event Winner. They are:

Roland Calapiz

Pat Woelk

Rik Rohrback

Lance Murdoch

Mike Reimer

Dean Kotopski

Chris Herbert

 

In addition we have 3 more players with enough points to lock in a seat at the final table as well. Those being:

Darren Kennedy

Doug Crone

Josh Hughes

 

Not mathematically in yet but a virtual lock for the final table given his 27,200 points is 99.95% chance of being good enough:

Roger Grosset

 

Note also that one of Roland Calapiz and Darren Kennedy will finish first and thus not actually participate in the final table leaving basically 10 spots locked up currently. The above players are therefore only left battling for extra chips to improve their starting position at the final table.

 

Putting those players to one side the rest of you are fighting to get to at least 24,400 points to give yourself a 50% chance at making it or needing to win the event to get in as the last Event winner to qualify.

 

The Longshots:

A Win and Only a Win: There are 19 players needing an outright win to qualify, meaning that only one of those 19 players can make the final table. This includes any player with 14,800 points or less.

Second Place Minimum: There are another 5 players (Jon Pingol, Scott Brynen, Mario Baptista, Matt Tolley, Danny Tolusso) that would need at least a top 2 finish to qualify and even then would need a little help.

Third Place Minimum: 3 players sit in this position (George Santo, Kerry Sweeney, Guy Bottin)

 

The Hopefuls:

Fifth Place Minimum: 2 players sit in this spot (Dean Kilback, TJ Johnston) and unfortunately Dean can not make it this week and is thus already eliminated.

Sixth Place Minimum: 1 player Andrew Krywaniuk is this boat.

Seventh Place Minimum: 1 player Jordi Muckle is in this boat.

 

The Incumbent:

Mike Schubert is the man currently holding onto a seat with 24,400 points that would love to add some points to lock up his position, but even if he melts down and does not point still has a 50-50 chance that his current total will hold.

 

The Virtually Assured:

Roger Grosset is sitting pretty, but given some of the bizarre stuff that happened in Event #10’s in the past (anyone remember season 1 where BOTH Doug and Adrian had to finish in the top 3 to knock me out of the top 10 and they DID?) he would do well to get a few points and assure himself that seat in the final.

 

We could have anywhere from 10 to 14 players at the final table but likely we will end up with 12.

 

So hold onto your hats and get ready for what could end up being a tense affair for all those around the bubble. See you guys Friday night.

 

 

March 18th, 2008 – Event #9 Results in Chris Herbert Getting His First Point Placing… a Win!

So what happened? Well with about 20 people needing a win to move on, two players with no points to their name made it down to the final 3 along with Pat Woelk who was desperately trying to shut-out both Jon Pingol and Chris Herbert. After two or three chances to finish Chris off in cluding a small raise all in to which Pat folded 76 and allowed Jon to take him on alone… Pat would have won with a 7-high straight, Chris was eventually able to outlast the other two players when on the final hand Chris won with A9 vs Pats 88 when the river spiked a 9. Chris had a much smoother ride than in recent events having by his own recount never had an AA or KK the whole season, yet picking up AA twice prior to this final table and a full 3 times at the final table. Getting the cards can obviously help. He also mentioned that he flopped a set 3 times during the night..

 

A big hand occurred with 3 players remaining when Pat limped on the button with 15k/30k blinds. Jon limped from the SB and Chris took the free flop. Chris held 45h and watched a gorgeous 367 offsuit flop. Jon and Chris checked, giving Pat the green light to throw in an even 100k into a 90k pot. With a smart-ass “Let me just confirm that I do indeed have the nuts before I call you", Chris moved in for his last 115k. Pat made the call and the 320k pot set Chris up.

 

Earlier with about 12 people left ... Chris had 60k , raised to 20k total in early position with AQ clubs, only to have someone re-raise to 40k 2 spots down the line. Knowing he had to win outright ... and taking what he thought might be a race against JJ as not too bad and a chance to double his stack to 120k and most likely be the chip leader, he still eventually decided to throw the hand away face up , which no one could believe he let go. I guess it worked out in the end.

 

Some other hands included:

  1. Table 1 having AA vs KK preflop twice in Level 1 and somehow no one being sent to rebuy.
  2. In Level 1 Rob Wright hitting a straight flush with 3d4d against Dougs trip 6’s A6 on a board of 56867.
  3. In Level 3 Rob and Andrew getting all in on a flop of A5K with Rob holding 23 for a gutshot and Andrew A5 for two pair. A cruel river 4 gave Rob the win.
  4. In Level 10 Trina Volkaert who had been steamrolling along winning all sorts of pots clashed with Pat Woelk who had her covered barely with about 21 players remaining and both of them in the blinds and #1 and #2 in the tourney in chips. All the chips got in pre-flop with Pat holding QQ and Trina AK. An xxxQ5 flop KO’d Trina and left Pat sitting pretty.
  5. In Level 12 at the final table, Mike Schubert QQ, Ed Sue A6s, and Jeff Puhl QT got all in. Schuby won the main and Ed ended up with a single 500 chip setting up an interesting experiment in survival. He would last a few hands but eventually go out in 8th. Both Ed and TJ Johnston held tight trying to sneak into the money, with TJ folding a JJ preflop to let Ed bust out.
  6. There were 3 flops of trip Aces on the night.

 

The following players finished 1-12 respectively: Chris Herbert ($740), Pat Woelk ($440), Jon Pingol ($300), Mike Schubert ($200), Darren Callaghan ($160, non-league), Lance Murdoch  ($120), TJ Johnston ($80), Ed Sue, Jeff Puhl (non-league for Josh Hughes), Rick Moffatt (non-league), Darren Kennedy, Guy Bottin.

 

March 16th, 2008 – Event #9 Standings Updated … More to Come Soon!

The standings page has been updated. Will add more later in the week.

 

For those that care, I ran a simulation of the likelihood of where the point bubble will fall given the standings after Event #9. After 10,000 random events the percentages looked like this:

28,400 is enough: 10000 (100%)

28,000 is enough: 9999 (99.99%)

27,600 is enough: 9999 (99.99%)

27,200 is enough: 9995 (99.95%)

26,800 is enough: 9941 (99.41%)

26,400 is enough: 9908 (99.08%)

26,000 is enough: 9818 (98.18%)

25,600 is enough: 9745 (97.45%)

24,800 is enough: 8410 (84.1%)

24,400 is enough: 5276 (52.76%)

24,000 is enough: 1793 (17.93%)

23,600 is enough: 0 (0%)

So while 24,400, is good half the time. 25,600 though looks like the real don’t sweat it spot, and 28,400 is the mathematical certainty.

 

March 1st, 2008 – Event #8 Completes with 2 Non-League Members Going 1-2 and Lance Murdoch Locking in a Seat in the Final.

Darren Callaghan officially won the tourney after agreeing to a $600 chop with Jeff Scott and playing out for the remaining $20 to complete the first ever 1-2 punch by non-leaguers.

 

We had 54 players show up for another barnstormer in Cloverdale. This was an interesting event that saw the two points leaders go out in the first 5 players. We also had no changes in the top 7 positions. But there was some critical jostling in the 8-12 spots as Jordi Muckle and Andrew Krywaniuk slipped into the top 10 at the expense of Dean Kilback. We also now have 2 players (Lance Murdoch and Dean Kotopski) sitting outside the top 10 but with guaranteed Final Table berths. As such if the League Final were to occur today we would have Roland with the bye to Vegas and an 11 person final. Note that this year we will play the League Final out to a winner and have slightly different prizes for each position. As it stands right now the 6 prizes will be a seat at the WSOP plus cash divided up as follows: League Leader (does not play in Final) - $800, 1st in League Final - $800, 2nd League Final - $700, 3rd League Final - $600, 4th League Final - $600, 5th League Final - $500. Depending on last bit of cash influx, these prizes could still go higher.

 

I don’t have many interesting hands to tell you as I was KO’d from the tournament in the first hour and was thus not around to see many interesting hands. However I do have a few hands that I saw or were relayed to me:

1) In Level 5 Rob Wright was unfortunate to flop a set of 8’s with Andrew flopping the Queen high straight on a board of T98. Rob didn’t fill up.

2) In Level 6 Rob moved all in pre-flop with Mike Reimer holding KJ hearts. If it was a smaller bet Mike would have hit a royal flush.

 

Actually that’s about it… I guess I really wasn’t paying that much attention to the tourney after I got KO’d early.

 

The final table saw only one new-comer as Rob Wright pointed in 5th for his first 3600 points. Danny Tolusso made it back-to-back FT’s as he placed 6th, good for 4,800 points and puts him in striking distance of the top 10. George Santo’s 8,000 points moves him from obscurity to contender as well. The biggest moves however were from Jordi Muckle who’s second time pointing was another 3rd good enough to move into the top 10 and Lance Murdoch whose 10,000 points gives him an automatic birth in the final. The final table was interesting in that the 3rd place finisher ended up with a guaranteed seat at the final table since #1 and #2 were both non-leaguers. Three-handed play saw Lance Murdoch, Darren Callaghan and Jeff Scott all even-stacked a deal was offered by Lance to split 3 ways at $500 a piece. The other two players wanted to play it out however and shortly thereafter Lance lost when his A7 went up against a Kx of Jeffs and Jeff hit a King. Lance was consoled by the fact that there were no league players remaining guaranteeing him a coveted spot at the League Final. Heads up play lasted 10 minutes until the two decided to split the remaining dough and play out one hand all in for the $20 remaining. Darren won the hand and was ultimately our winner.

 

The following players finished 1-12 respectively: Darren Callaghan ($620, non-league), Jeff Scott ($600, non-league), Lance Murdoch  ($300), George Santo ($200), Jordi Muckle ($160), Danny Tolusso ($120), Rob Wright ($80), Mario Baptista, Andrew Krywaniuk, Mike Reimer, Doug Crone, Dean Kilback.

 

February 9th, 2008 – Final moved to April 11th , WSOP Events Chosen and Number of Seats is Confirmed at 6.

We have a couple players who are likely to make the final table that have scheduling issues with the original April 18th date. As such I am going ahead and moving the date up a week to April 11th. If anyone out there has a concern with this date change, please let me know ASAP.

 

Also we have made a decision on the WSOP Events. We will be entering our players in either Event #36 (Thursday, June 19th) or Event #39 (Saturday, June 21st) at the Rio in Las Vegas. These dates were chosen for various reasons including the facts that there are two $1500 NL tourneys close together allowing players flexibility of events to enter, The $50,000 Horse event starts on the Sunday ensuring that we’ll be able to see all the big names, and there are 3 other events that are $2,000 or less surrounding these events ($2000 PLH, $1500 Mixed, $1500 PLO8). If we end up with a player qualifying that can’t make these specified Events, we will accommodate them by letting them enter an earlier event.

 

Also with the monies collected from last event, combined with my already exchanging Canadian to US cash we can now guarantee 6 prizes of $1500 US buy-in plus a minimum of $500 Cdn to cover trip expenses. We will likely, use the remaining monies obtained to make the prizes top heavy. In other words first and second might get $800, third and fourth $700, fifth $600 and sixth $500 or something similar. But this is purely hypothetical at the moment until we have the final monies collected.

 

February 3rd, 2008 – Event #7 Complete Non-leaguer Erik Puharich wins, Pat Woelk clinches a seat at the Final.

This event had many story lines including a record 56 players, Erik Puharich on life support hanging on, Darren Kennedy up 4 consecutive top 4 placings, a return to form of long-term DHPLer Pat Woelk securing a seat at the final, TJ Johnston and Mike Schubert pushing hard to get to that very same final and enough suck-outs to make even the most experienced poker pro red. Eric Puharich put on a clinic on how to survive when he reached the final table as a one of the short stacks. Eric’s battle with Josh Hughes on the cash bubble was classic as both survived all ins on the big blind or under-the-gun multiple times. Josh did it with AA UTG one lap. But eventually Josh would bow out in 8th. Josh can console himself in the fact that he gained enough points to secure a spot at the final though. Erik held on again while super short by calling all-in with JT against Pat Woelk’s QQ. Two Jacks on board gave Erik a miracle survival. Danny Tolusso who went from moderately large stack to short stack was the next to fall and from there Jay Peturssen, playing for Gary Dueck hit some incredibly bad luck and went out in 6th.

 

5-handed lasted a while, but eventually Mike Schubert tried a steal from the SB and was caught, ending his run in 5th. The 4,800 points for Mike puts him knocking on the door for a final table spot. Darren Kennedy would be the next to fall against Erik who by this point had grown quite a chip stack. Darren has had an amazing run over the past 4 tourneys going 4th, 3rd, 4th and 4th to sit solidly in 2nd place in the overall standings and beginning to challenge Roland for first overall. So that left TJ Johnston, Eric Puharich and Pat Woelk to battle for the title. TJ would fall next, gaining his first points of the year a solid 8,000 which has TJ pushing hard to make the top 10. Another result like that would do the trick. So down to heads-up we had Pat who had maintained a dominant chip lead throughout the final table going tete-a-tete with the survivalist Erik who by all rights should have been KO’d in 6th or 7th spot. The heads up action never materialized as the two players decided to chop the pot and take $630 a piece. A final hand was played and Erik became the official winner.

 

Back-to-back defending title holder Roland Calapiz made another deep run but was stopped short of the final table, going out in 11th, though he did point for the 5th time in 6 tries with 800 points. Roland also cracked Dean Kilbacks Aces with 89 earlier in evening to send Dean to the rails. All the money got in on a flop of 776 and the river 5 gave Roland the win. A total 4 players pointed for the first time during the night.

 

An interesting cash game hand came when Jon Pingol moved all in blind for $27 pre-flop against 3 opponents. The cards came down 4 diamonds and the winner of the side pot showed King of diamonds. Jon who had not yet seen his cards turned over AA including the Ace of diamonds to take a $100+ main pot amongst many cheers from the table.

 

The following players finished 1-12 respectively: Erik Puharich ($630, non-league), Pat Woelk ($630), TJ Johnston ($320), Darren Kennedy ($220), Mike Schubert ($160), Jay Peturssen ($120 playing for Gary Dueck), Danny Tolusso ($80), Josh Hughes, Lance Murdoch, Mo Pannun, Roland Calapiz, Rik Rohrback.

 

January 13th, 2008 – Event #6 Roland puts together back-to-back titles!

Well, I honestly can say that this was discussed once we knew we had over 40 players and the bet was that we wouldn’t have anyone that would put together two wins this season, never mind back-to-back. But that’s just what Roland Calapiz did on Friday night and with the win he takes a nearly unassailable lead over 2nd place. Friday saw the return to the ring for Sonia who took the last two events off to uh… give birth. Congrats on the new baby girl! We had 38 league members show up, 4 more send replacement players and a total of 12 non-leaguers resulting in 50 players on the night. We also continued to kick off in a reasonable time, getting started at 8:09pm, so thank you especially to all those who show up at 7:30-7:40pm allowing me to process your entry fee and get things going faster.

 

Early in the tourney Gary Dueck hit a Ten-high straight flush but was unable to get much off his competition even when the board four-flushed. And Gary ran into some bad luck in Level 6 when Robin Scory pushed all in with 34s making an easy call for Gary with his AA, only to watch as Robin won the pot with a flush! Poker is a cruel game. Also in Level 6 Robin was up against Dean Hilts who also had AA and Dean flopped Quads! Not to be outdone, in Level 8 Lance Murdoch also flopped Quad Aces against Jordi Muckle. And was that enough quads for you? A couple levels later Darren Kennedy flopped Quad Kings against Rik Rohrback’s AQ.

 

The final table started off with only Andrew Krywaniuk having any really sizeable lead. Ed Sue would be the first to be bounced from the final table when he dealt himself Aces and Andrew QQ. With a “Go ahead, deal your death” from Darren, Ed went on to flop Andrew a Queen and was unable to catch back up. Doug Crone would go out next finally earning some of his own points, followed by Brant Taylor who pushed from the button and ran into AK with his A9. No help would send him to the rails. Ryan Ruocco also making his first final table would bow out next. Of note was that Andrew throughout the final table had a monster chip lead and kept complaining about the blinds not going up fast enough. But the next major hand was a 3-way all in with Kerry Sweeney pushing all in for about 20,000 with A5s, Guy Bottin calling with 55, and Javid pushing over the top with J9s for another 5000 and Guy making the call. The board would brick out and Guy would knock out both players much to short-stacked Darrens delight. We went 4 handed with Andrew, Guy and Roland all in the 165,000-180,000 chip range while Darren sat with 24,000. On the first hand Darren had TT, Guy AK and Roland 99. An xKxxx board gave Guy the pot and sent Darren out in 4th. Now three handed, Andrew would bet and call a re-raise pre-flop with A7 vs Roland’s AJc. A board of KcQc4, Andrew bluffed all in and Roland insta-called with the draw to the royal flush. The 2 clubs fell on the turn and it was over for Andrew as they both had EXACTLY the same amount of chips going into the hand.

 

Many cash deals were offered by Guy to Roland but Roland insisted on playing it out. Lots of lead changes occurred with the player getting in behind winning most times but finally in the end Roland won the tourney and the big first prize. Though Guy missed out on the guaranteed final table, the 8,000 points puts him in solid contention for one of those coveted seats.

 

With the results from this tourney we have Roland Calapiz, Rik Rohrback, Mike Reimer and Dean Kotopski with guaranteed seats at the final table and Darren Kennedy, Doug Crone, Roger Grosset and Josh Hughes likely with enough points to be in the safe zone.

 

The following players finished 1-10 respectively: Roland Calapiz ($740), Guy Bottin ($450), Andrew Krywaniuk ($300), Darren Kennedy ($200), Javid Patel ($150, non-league, playing for Harry Aujla), Kerry Sweeney ($80), Ryan Ruocco, Brant Taylor, Doug Crone, Ed Sue.

 

 

January 12th, 2008 – Event #6 Roland puts together back-to-back titles!

Event #6 completed. Stats are up including AllTime page. Full report coming soon.

 

January 3rd, 2008

Event #6 is coming soon. Also added in the average placing numbers onto the standings page.

 

December 25th, 2007

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good flop!

 

December 15th, 2007 – Event #5 Finishes with Roland Calapiz Victorious!

Well we hit the halfway point with 47 players currently in the league and 44 players battling for the $620 first place prize. Roland Calapiz won Event #5 to lock in a guaranteed seat in the final and jump past Roger in the points lead. And this was no wire-to-wire run for Roland who at one point in Level 6 with the blinds at 400-800 had just a single 500 chip. But as the Jack Strauss can attest, sometimes a chip and a chair is all you need.

 

The Final Table kicked off quickly when on the first hand, Roland raised UTG and Chad McGlynn, who came in as the short-stack pushed in with T9h. Peter Jensen went over-the-top all in with AK and Roland made the easy call with KK. The cowboys held and after one hand we were down to 8. Another interesting hand saw Dean raise with 8 remaining and Roland call. On a flop of AQx we got an all-in and a call with both players holding just QJ. Considering they were both in the top 4 stacks at the time it was an interesting play. John Carson has now played as a sub three different times and pointed in two of them, though I think Dean would gladly trade Doug the 400 for 8,000 points. And Doug has had two subs and obtained 18,000 points. Talk about betting on the right horse.

 

We got to 4 handed we had Nick Scott move in with 33 and get called down by Roland, who had open-raised, with K4s the flop came XsXs4XX and Roland’s pair of 4’s KO’d the first-timer. So then there were 3 of us. First hand with final troika and Darren moved all in with A5, John re-raised over the top with A9 and Roland thought before calling with A8. The flop contained an 8 and even though the river hit a 5 Roland’s A8 was able to KO both players.

 

The following players finished 1-12 respectively: Roland Calapiz ($620), John Carson (playing for Doug Crone) ($420), Darren Kennedy ($280), Nick Scott (non-league) ($160), Dean Kilback ($120), Mario Baptista ($80), Mike Mittermuller, Dylan Ruocco, Peter Jensen (non-league) Chad McGlynn, David Slater, Dean Hilts.

 

 

December 13th, 2007 – Event #7 Date Will Remain February 1st

Several people had requested looking at moving the February 1st date to February 8th or January 25th. But after talking with a lot of league members we had 2 people who had specifically arranged vacations for the weekend of the 8th to make sure they were around for Event #7 on the 1st. There is no way I will penalize these people. We also had 4 people including myself who could not make it on Jan 25th. So the date will hold firm and those that can’t make it will have to do what they always do, send replacement players or sit it out.

 

December 13th, 2007 – Harrahs Announces Date for 2008 World Series of Poker

Harrahs has announced the dates for the WSOP at the Rio in Vegas. The link is right here:

 

World Series of Poker 2008 Schedule

 

We are going to analyze all the events and see which $1500 NL event makes most sense for the league to attend. At first blush I’d say Event #36/39 looks best as, just like last year, they have $1500 NLH events on Thursday and Saturday with the $50k HORSE event on the Sunday. But these are things we need to look at. Also noticed they made Event #2, the first $1500 NLH event a 4 day event. Given that they had almost 3000 players for that event I understand the reasoning. The poker tent thank god is gone, so no sweltering in the heat this year.

 

December 2nd, 2007 – Event #7 Date Change Proposal

I’ve had 4-5 people talk to me about the Feb 1st date being a problem. Along with these concerns, it is Superbowl weekend and the Team1040 boys are doing their Friday night Surrey Golf Course tourney that weekend. As such I want to propose moving the date for event #7 from Feb 1 to Feb 8.

 

That being said I will NOT move any date if there are enough people with concerns. So if you can’t make a Feb 8th date and would rather leave it on the 1st. please let me know ASAP.

 

Thanks, DK

 

November 20th, 2007 – Rob Wright and Darren Kennedy cash in BC Poker Championships

Two players from our league cashed in yesterdays Event #2 $1100 NLH Event of the BC Poker Championships. From a field of 592 players that included CPT player of the year Jody Trainer, WPT Champion Scott Clements, Bracelet winner Robert Cheung, along with big names Greg Mueller and Brad Booth, both Darren Kennedy (45th) and Rob Wright (43rd) were able to cash for $1425. The top 55 were in the money. Congrats and good luck to those of you still entering Events #3 ($1100 PLH) or 4 ($2700 NLH). Also a fine effort from Kerry Sweeney who went deep in the Ladies event on Sunday and finished one table from the money.

 

A final note is that the all time stats page has now been updated.

 

November 19th, 2007 – Event #4 sees Rick Rohrback emerge victorious, while Roger Grosset maintains points lead

I’m off to the BC Poker Championships today so a full update will happen later in the week, but I did update the standings page so go take a look. Short notes: Kerry and Roger make their 3rd final table in 4 tries, Rick gets the guaranteed seat in the final, Josh has his second runner-up placing, 8 of 10 players at final table had already been there before this season with only Andrew and George making their first trip to the final table.

 

Intreresting hands include:

Level 1: Non-leaguer Pete Rainey promised me he’d be first out when he bought in.  A man of his word, Pete went out early in Level 1 playing only a half dozen hands.

Level 2: David Slater (AA), Kerry Sweeney (JJ), Pat Woelk (QQ) all in preflop and Kerry spiking a Jack to send both players to their rebuy chip.

Level 2: Same table as above saw Doug Crone holding Q8, Pat Woelk holding JJ and Ray holding 88, By the time the river was out these players were holding two sets and a 2 pair between them on a scary board of TKQJ8.

Level 11: With 16 players remaining the defining hand of the tournament occurred. The two big stacks on table 2 got into it. After 15,000 open bet and call, the flop came AK3 rainbow. Jon Pingol opened for 20,000 and Rick thought long and hard before pushing all in over-the-top for an additional 14,000. Jon had him covered by only 1,000 and made the crying call. Rick turned over KJ and Jon 77, both players shocking all at the table. Rick of course went on to win the tournament.

 

More hands to add later, along with update of All Time Stats.

 

The following players finished 1-10 respectively: Rick Rohrback ($660), Josh Hughes ($440), Roger Grosset ($300), Darren Kennedy ($200), Andrew Krywaniuk ($120), Mike Reimer ($80), Dean Kilback, George Santo, Kerry Sweeney, Brant Taylor.

 

November 3rd, 2007 – Event #3 ends with Dean Kotopski winning and Roger Grosset moving into the overall points lead

Another event another great turnout with 50 players competing for $1920 in prizes, coveted league points and of course the guaranteed seat at the final table. Dean Kotopski rose victorious at the end of the night on a day where I (Darren Kenney) myself went out an unceremonious 49th place. With 41 league members and 9 non-leaguers, none of the 9 could crack the top 10 showing our leaguers can carry their own on the felt battleground. This tournament had many battles not the least of which was two AA vs. KK preflop confrontations at the final table. Both times the Aces held up much to the dismay of Roger Grosset who fell in 6th place with his Cowboys. He would take some comfort however in the fact that he ended the night leading all 50 players in the points race. Adrian went out in 5th when is QJ ran into another big pp, this time Kings. A hand with two all ins both holding AQ and a 3rd caller having them both covered with AK looked to be a double knock out until one of the two remaining Queens hit the flop. Dean Kotopski the ultimate winner of the tourney I believe was one of the two holding AQ. From that hand Dean went on a tear and dominated the table for the next 20 minutes as his chips grew exponentially. After Adrian, Marco Bruni was the next to fall only 7 minutes later. Scott, Dean Kotopski and Roland Calapiz battled 3-handed for 20 minutes until Scott fell to the way side and the heads up affair began. Another 20 minutes passed before Dean finally emerged victorious.

 

An earlier hand with huge action only 30 minutes into play saw 5 people call 100 only to have John Cullen in the BB pop it up another 300 holding A8. Unperturbed 4 players made the additional call including Andrew K with 89, Mike Schubert holding T9 suited in spades and Darren Kennedy with Q3 also suited in spades. The flop came 8x8sAx giving Andrew and John huge hands. The flop was checked and the free turn card was the 6spades (board 8x8sAx6s). John checked, Andrew bet 1000 into the 1,650 pot and Mike called and Darren thought for a bit and also called. At this point John came over-the-top all in. Andrew insta-called, and Mike Schubert thought long and hard before laying down, Darren considered briefly and also laid down with both Mike and Darren saying the put John on Aces full. If Mike had made the donkey call there however he would have won a monster pot as the miracle one-outer 7spades hit the river which would have given him a 10-high straight flush. Instead John took home a monster and Andrew was left calling “rebuy”. A few hands later Andrew bounced right back when his Aces popped Darren out of the tourney however (I held AKs).

 

The cash game as always was lucrative, intense and very fun that night Andrew K was the big winner walking away up by my estimate around $400. Rob Wright also profited at the cash tables to make up for his early tourney exit. A host of characters including Mr. Poker 101, Robyn Scorry, myself, the aforementioned Rob Wright and Andrew “Kermit” Krywaniuk, and my own lack of poker etiquette for the evening made for some interesting poker.

 

Also a very big thanks to everyone for showing up early enough that we actually started only 3-4 minutes late. The next tourney is in only two weeks and lets get ready for some more poker.

 

The following players finished 1-10 respectively: Dean Kotopski ($740), Roland Calapiz ($450), Scott Brynen ($300), Marco Bruni ($200), Adrian Nelson ($150), Roger Grosset ($80), Kerry Sweeney, Pat Woelk, Ed Sue, John Carson (non-league playing for Dean Kilback).

 

November 2nd, 2007

Congratulations to current leaguer Rick Rohrback for taking home 4th place in the Surrey Golf Tourney and to former leaguer Rahim Lalani for coming in second. Our league members always seem to put on a good show at these tourneys with two firsts, one second, two thirds and a fourth over the history of the 5 event series.

 

October 21st, 2007

Getting ready for Round 3 of the DHPL Season 3. I’m going to ask that you please aim to be there at 7:30pm so we can get everybody signed up AND start on time. Having 20 people show up two minutes before we start makes it impossible to get going. So please be there a little earlier. Thanks DK.

 

October 4th, 2007

All time stats are now updated. Also standings page fixed.

 

September 30th, 2007 – Event #2 is complete, non-leaguer Corey Grant wins $740!

Event #2 is in the books and it was no surprise this time but we did set another record with 50 players vying for the $740 first place prize money. We had 4 new members join the league bringing the total to 50 leaguers. We also had 9 new leaguers get points meaning that only one player, Matt Tolley has gotten points in both of the first two events. It was a non-leaguer in town from Kelowna, Corey Grant who was playing for Doug Crone that took home first place and the $740. Doug was the beneficiary of the 10,000 points, but since he was not playing for himself there is no guaranteed seat in the final for Doug, thus only Mike Reimer who won event #1 is at this point is guaranteed a seat in the final.

 

The final table was a very balanced fight with no real monster stacks in play. During the final table however Matt T, garnished a lot of chips and, just like Dean in the previous tourney, watched the big chip lead leave him as he lost coin flip after coin flip. Two women made the final table of the 4 that started. A congrats goes out to Kerry who pointed and cashed on her birthday and to Emiko who cashed for the first time in 5-6 tries with us as a drop in player. The final hand saw Corey who at the time held a 3 to 1 chip led get all in pre flop with AQ vs 45. No help came and Corey won the tournament.

 

The change to the blinds structures appeared to work well as we finished the tournament one hour, twenty minutes earlier than the previous tournament, finishing at 2:30am. This is much better than a nearly 4am finish. Therefore we will stick with the blinds and keep them for next tourney.  Note that the standings have been updated, but the all time stats will be dealt with later in the week.

 

The following players finished 1-10 respectively: Corey Grant ($740, non-league for Doug Crone), Josh Hughes ($450), Matt Tolley ($300), Rick Rohrback ($200), Emiko Abe ($130, non-league), Kerry Sweeney ($80), Jesse Low, Roland Calapiz, Brant Taylor, Dylan Ruocco, Mario Baptista.

 

September 8th, 2007 – Event #1 is in the books, Mike Reimer takes down $660!

Event #1 blew my mind. We currently have 46 league members with Al, Shane and Neil supposedly joining for Event 2 which would put us at 49 leaguers. Considering we had 25 last year and 23 in our first season that is phenomenal. In fact we’ve never had more than 43 players out for a tourney before. Last night there were 47. I guess bumping up the cash entry was worth it. This turnout was unreal and I need to restructure the blinds to speed the tournament up some as we ended at 3:50am. Grant and I will review the structure and let you know the results.

 

Some big time poker was played and there were some classic moments like when on two separate tables quads were turned on back to back hands. A player that left with 22 players remaining was blinded out to 9th place and 800 points (Dean Hilts), some usual suspects in the final table with Mike Schuby, Roger and Darren K, three ladies showing up and going deep in the tourney finishing 7th, 11th and 14th and a big time win in a massive heads up battle by Mike Reimer over Roger. Mike earns a ticker to the league final and 10000 extra chips to take with him.

 

The following players finished 1-10 respectively: Mike R ($660), Roger G ($440), Jordi M ($300), Mike S ($200), Dean K ($120), Darren K ($80), Sonia T, Darren C, Dean H, Matt T

 

The tourney featured some big moves and a huge chip stack with 10 people remaining when at one point Dean held 60% of the chips in play.

 

A full standings update will occur in the next day or two, along with a rules update to explain the changes on winning the league prize.

 

September 4th, 2007 – 3 Days to kickoff!

Please do your best to get there at 7:30pm and have your $130 cash ready.

 

Quick update on players confirmed so far. I have had 34 players in total say they are in for the league. They include:

Returning Players (18 of 25): Adrian, Al, Andrew, Darren C, Darren K, Dean, Ed, Grant, Jesse, Jordi, Kerry, Lance, Mike, Pat, Ray, Robin, Roger and Scott

Returning From Season 1 (1): Doug

New Players (15): Chris H, Clayton Z, Danny T, Deena S, Dylan R, Harry A, Jesse L, Josh H, Mario B, Matt T, Pete S, Shawn H, Sonia T, Terry J and Vince S

 

Still haven’t heard from Rick Rohrback, Jay Peturssen, Shane Trowell or Neil Holbeche.

 

August 28th, 2007 – Season 3 Kicks off next Friday!

Get your game faces on, dust off your Swedish jersey, rub your little Buddha (god that sounds bad), dig out the oakleys, find your lucky card cover and whatever else you need to do to get ready for poker, because season 3 starts off with a bang next Friday.

 

So far 17 of our 25 leaguers from last year have said they are returning, 2 have opted out (Javid and Colin) and 6 I have not been able to contact yet. So if any of you out there can get ahold of Al DeLeon, Rick Rohrback, Jay Peturssen, Shane Trowell, Gary Hemlow or Neil Holbeche, let them know that we start next Friday and get them out. I left messages with Al and Rick but don’t have contact info for the other 4.

 

Along with 17 confirmed returning players (Adrian, Andrew, Darren C, Darren K, Dean, Ed, Grant, Jesse, Jordi, Kerry, Lance, Mike, Pat, Ray, Robin, Roger and Scott), I also have 10 other players (Danny T, Deena S, Doug Crone, Harry A, Jesse L, Pete S, Shawn H, Sonia T, Terry J and Vince S) who have said they are in for the league. So it looks really good so far with 27 people in. By comparison at this time last year we had about 13 people confirmed and ended up with 25. I think in all likelihood we should end up with 28-33 players in the league this year. If we end up with 30+ there will be 4 package prizes.

 

Keep talking to friends and get as many people out as possible. Even if they are only interested in the cash tourney.

 

Note that as the cash portion is $40 this year I need everyone to bring $130 for the first event ($40 for cash, $60 deposit WSOP drops fro Events 9 and 10) and $30 for WSOP drop for event 1). For those bringing out players just for the cash, it is $40 to play.

 

July 9th, 2007 – Time to Prepare for Season 3.

Well it is getting on middle of summer and that means September is not far away. September is the end of summer, the beginning of school, and you guessed it, time to get the next season of the Die Hard Poker league going. So with that in mind we need to look at dates and rule changes.

 

As usual we are going to do our best to avoid holidays and major events from league members. I am proposing the following dates for Season 3 of the Die Hard Poker League. Please review them and send me any concerns you might have. I’d like to finalize the dates by end of July so we can start getting players committing.

 

Proposed Season 3 Dates

Event 1: Sept 7

Event 2: Sept 28

Event 3: Oct 26

Event 4: Nov 16

Event 5: Dec 14

Event 6: Jan 11

Event 7: Feb 1

Event 8: Feb 29

Event 9: Mar 14

Event 10: Apr 4

League FINAL: Apr 18

 

Season 3 Changes:

Anything you want changed? We will accept any and all feedback. The following are two changes I plan on implementing:

  1. We will bump the cash portion of the tourney up to $40 while leaving the league fee portion untouched at $30. For league members that translates to an additional $10 per event, but has the much desired effect of upping the prize payouts.
  2. We will formalize the “late buyin” rule. Any player showing up late will be allowed to enter the tournament late even if they are non-league members so long s it is: a) in the first hour of the tourney and b) the player can join without us needing to add a new table or push existing tables over 10 people. If they arrive 0-20 minutes late they will have 150 chips removed from their stack prior to play, 20-40 minutes late and they will have 500 chips removed from their stack, 40-60 minutes will have 1000 chips removed. No one will be allowed to join the tournament after the first hour of play.

 

Hopefully these rules will help to add more enjoyment to the game.

 

July 9th, 2007 – Darren Kennedy Cashes in 2007 WSOP Event #35, Mike Burns Out and the League Goes 0-3

A DHPL Player cashes at the WSOP. Unfortunately for the rest of you it was Darren Kennedy who bought himself in to Event #35 that cashed and not one of our winners so no payback to the league. I finished 267th out of 2450 players to collect a $2947 payout. Only 270 players got paid so I really snuck in to the money. I was so short-stacked with 272 players I only had enough chips for 8 more hands and when dealt QQ under the gun, I folded it knowing that I only needed to fold 2-3 more hands to make the money. Can any of you say you’ve ever folded QQ without any action in front of you before? On that hand a player 2 behind me had AK so I was quite happy with the lay down. And sure enough 2 hands later we burst the bubble into the money. I then pushed an unraised pot with 55 only to run into AK and an AKx flop. But hey I cashed!

 

As for the league representatives, both Mike and Ed played Event #35 on Thursday, June 21st. Ed took a horrible beat when he got all his chips in the middle on a 952 flop while holding KK against 44. And would you believe it, the turn is a 4 and Ed is out only 1.5 hours into the event. I also started poorly losing 1000 of my 3000 chips on the very first hand when my two pair A2 got beat by rivered trips from a Q6 on an AQ25Q board. I was down to just a single 500 chip early in level 3 but I won 3 of 4 hands, at least doubling up each time to get to 7000 and the race was on.

 

What happened to Mike you say? He started very strongly building a healthy chip stack almost immediately and wielding it well until Level 4 when he just couldn’t defend against…. a god damn Rio waiter spilling scalding coffee on his lower back!!! With about 8600 chips when average stacks were around 5500, Mike burnt out. His lower back received 2nd degree burns over an area about the size of two hand prints. He tried valiantly to continue but could not and spent the next 5 hours in the hospital. Rio gave him the $1500 back and we figured he could re-enter in Event #38 on the Saturday with Roger. Harrahs however will has not yet heard the end of this though as Mike retained legal counsel and will hopefully get a nice settlement to ease his suffering as the guy couldn’t lie on his back and barely slept a wink that night. He also spent 4 hours a day at the hospital for the next 3 days before flying home. As such Mike was unable to enter Event #38 and with no time to fly Adrian, the #4 place finisher down in time for the event, we once again sent our 5th place finisher to play. That would be me.

 

So Roger and Darren K entered event #38. Roger would not last long bowing out only 30 minutes in when his AK ran into Aces on a King high flop. Darren would last a little longer grinding it out with two pro’s Arnold Spee and John Murphy at his table. After a couple of table moves I was sitting a table away from some big names in Rene Angelil, David Plastik, Vanessa Selbst, Chris Ferguson and others. I used KK to triple up and then KK again to double through another opponent up to as high as 9000 chips. But a horrid hand where I held KQ on a board that flopped QJ2 with me betting out and turned K, bet larger and the river came A only to have a donkey call me to the river with A2 for a rivered higher two pair (yes I was frustrated). That left me quite short-stacked and I was in survival mode. I cracked Aces with 35 on a board of T53 and stayed alive for a while. But with my stack shrinking I pushed UTG with KQ and ran into AQ. I finished about 600th out of 2778 players about 30 minutes prior to the dinner break and well off the money and our league is now 0-6 in WSOP attempts.

 

Season 2 - 2007

Season 1 - 2006

 

Contact Info

Darren Kennedy

DarrenKennedyDK@gmail.com

604-306-6267