Die Hard Poker League

We are a mere one week away from the WSOP events. At last check I know of the following people coming down or likely coming down to Vegas next weekend:

Player	Arrive	Depart	Hotel	Events
Darren Kennedy	Thu 6pm	Tues 6am	Rio Room 1	#3, Friday and #4A Saturday	425-894-4030
Pat Woelk	Fri 10:20pm	Tues 11am	Rio Room 1	#4A Saturday
Brant Taylor	Fri 10:20pm	Wed 7:40pm	Rio Room 2	#4A Saturday
Harry Aujla	Fri 10:20pm	Wed 7:40pm	Rio Room 2	#4A Saturday
Jason Nadeau	Wed or Thu	Mid-July	Condo 1		559-341-8686
Larry Williams + wife	Fri 7:30pm	Wed pm	Condo 2	#4A Saturday	778-228-5246
Jeff Scott + Marie	Sat 7pm	Tues 7pm	Rio Room 3	#4B Sunday
TJ Johnston + wife	Sat 7pm	Tues 11am	Condo near Rio	#4B Sunday
Guy Bottin	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Unknown	#4 unknown day

Graham Spence	Unknown	Unknown		#4 unknown day
Roger Grosset	Thu 10:20pm	Tue 11am	Excalibur
Chad McGlynn	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Excalibur
Jay Peturrsen	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Excalibur
Mike Mittermuller	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Excalibur
Mike Bigelow	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Excalibur
Mike Reimer	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Excalibur
Peter Jensen	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Excalibur
Rob Wright	Thu 10:20pm	Sat June 6^th	Excalibur

Those after the gap I believe are coming but quite possibly not playing any events or are unconfirmed by me at this time. If you have any more info or want me to update your info please let me know the details. If you want your flight info posted or phone number up here let me know, if you want me to remove info please let me know that as well. For those interested in updates I will be tweeting them via twitter (likely every hour) and will try and update my facebook page as often as possible (2-3 times per day). I don’t want to text specific people so if you care for an update log into facebook (Darren Kennedy) or Twitter (DarrenDieHard) to get updates. My cell phone is 425-894-4030 for those that are trying to get ahold of me.

I am super-stoked about the tourney and looking forward to seeing you all down there. One week to go!!!

May 22, 2009 – The League Final Recap - Finally

OK, so I am over a month late, but it is time to finally write about the various drama that occurred during the league final. There were dramatic hands, suckouts and a crazy 2 hour window late in the tourney where no one would bust.

So first off lets set the stage. We had 20 contenders looking for one of the 5 seats available to the big show in Vegas. We would play down from two 10-handed tables until only 5 remained.

Table 1 contained in order: Jordi Muckle, Darren Corea, Everett Wicklund, Guy Bottin, Rob Wright, Larry Williams, Mike Bigelow, Jeff Scott, Adrian Nelson and Mo Pannun

Table 2 contained in order: Harry Aujla, Darryl Nicholson, TJ Johnston, Brant Taylor, Darren Kennedy, Ray Rohrback, Andrew Krywaniuk, Mike Leis, Jon Pingol, Josh Hughes

We setup the Canucks game on Brants laptop and got underway.

Level 1: 100-200:

It was a fairly tentative start as could be expected. We did have AA dealt 3 times on Table 1 in the first level. We also had a sizeable pot between Andrew and Ray on a board of AT872 with Andrew showing AJ to Ray’s 87 and 8000 chips changing hands.

Level 2: 200-400:

Nothing of importance to note with everyone still in. Guy and Ray began to build up decent sized stacks.

Level 3: 300-600:

In this level we would have some significant hands including two back toback ones for myself.

Hand 1: Darren K TT vs Jon P with AA

Preflop 1800 from Jon P, Darren call

Flop: Txx, Darren Check, Jon bets 3,000 Darren call

Turn: Txxx, Darren Check, Jon bets 5,000, Darren all in for another 6,000

River Txxxx, Darren wins hand

Hand 2: Darren K, 44, vs Ray QQ and Mike L AcQc

Preflop: Mike Leis limps, Ray 1,800, Darren calls, Mike calls

Flop: 23c5c: Ray bets 2,000, both others call.

Turn: 23c5cA: chk, chk, Ray bets 2,000, Darren raises to 7,000, Mike L calls and Ray calls.

River: 23c5cA7: Darren 3,000, Mike calls

Level 4: 400-800:

Hand 3: Everett vs Guy on a board of AA68, Guy check raised turn with 65. River was a 6 and Guy moved allin and Everett folded. Nice river for Guy.

Hand 4: Everett (AhTh) vs Larry (AQ) saw a flop of JhT6h. All the money got in on the flop and the turn and river came QA leaving Everett as our first casualty going out in 20^th.

Hand 5: A short-stacked Rob Wright got all his chips in good preflop with KK and was called in two spots by Guy AhJh and Jeff AdTd. On a flop of 9d64d Guybe out 3,200 into the side and was called by Jeff. Turn and river were 8dQd and Jeff would KO Rob in 19^th place with the nut flush.

Hand 6: A short-stacked Mike Leis pushed 5,100 with 66 and was called by Harry holding AdTd. An Ace on the flop sent Mike out in 18^th.

Level 5: 600-1,200:

Hand 7: Harry led out for 3,600, Darryl called and TJ bumped it up another 7,000. Darryl then moved all in for an additional 2,700 and turned up AcJ vs TJ’s 66. The flop gave Darryl more outs with flush draw, but it also gave TJ the set. A final board of Kc8c6c3A sent Darryl out in 17^th place.

Hand 8: A big pot between Adrian and Ray on a board of 6JT2A saw Adrian move all in on the river with A9 only to get called by Ray with KJ.

Hand 9: After being badly hurt by Adrian in the previous hand, Ray moved all in for 10k on the BB with A3 and was called by Guy on the SB with A8. The board helped no one and Ray went out in 16^th place.

Hand 10: Darren Corea moved all in preflop with AA vs TJ’s TT for 15,000. The board came 96989 and Darren doubled up.

Level 6: 800-1,600:

Hand 11: Jon Pingol would be the next to fall. Brant led out 4,500 UTG with QhQ and Jon moved all in for 7,000 with KJ. The flop came Kh8h7h56h and Brant won with a 4-flush leaving Jon as our 15^th place finisher.

Hand 12: A shortstacked Andrew saw a flop of QJ3 get checked around while holding J2 and bet the turn QJ38 into 4 other players. Unfortunately Harry held T9 and the meaningless 4 on the river changed nothing. Andrew was out in 14^th.

Hand 13: Adrian and Jeff got into a big confrontation with a pre-flop bet of 5,700 and call. The flop came Th53h. Jeff checked and Adrian bet 12,000. Jeff then check-raised all in for an additional 25,000. Adrian tanked and eventually folded what he would later say was AK.

Level 7: 1,000-2,000:

Hand 14: Darren K bet 6,000 pre flop from the SB and Josh moved all in on the BB for another 10,000. Darren made the call with 66 vs Josh’s Ad5d. The board came 86599 and Josh was our 13^th place finisher.

Hand 15: Jordi moved all in with KJ and was called by A8. Jordi hit the K and doubled up.

Hand 16: Adrian moved all in on a flop of JTx with QT and was called by Mike Bigelow holding KQ. The Ace came on the river and Adrian was crippled to just 1,500.

Hand 17: Adrian moved all in with AK vs Guys 33. A promising flop of QJ5 looked good, but nothing more for Adrian on 4^th and 5^th streets sent him home as our 12^th place finisher.

Hand 18: Darren Corea made a catastrophic error when he limped with AA. Larry happened to limp with 2d4d and on a flop of 5d6dKd all the money got in. Running 77 did nothing to change things and Corea was our 11^th place fininsher and we had our final 10 players.

Level 8: 1,500-3,000:

Hand 19: The most critical hand for Darren K occurred when holding AQ on the BB. Larry led out for 7,500 in mid-position and Darren just called. A flop of Kh8hx went chk/chk. Turn came 4 and Darren bet 9,000, Larry eventually called. River J and Darren bet 13,000. Larry tanked but eventually made the big call and won the pot.

Hand 20: Larry held KsTs vs Brants QQ. A bet preflop by Brant and call by Larry. The board came 27T98 and all the chips got in on the flop doubling Brant up.

Level 9: 2,000-4,000:

Hand 21: Mo, Jordi and Darren got involved in a hand where Jordi had AdKd, Darren AA. The board came xxdxxdA and Darren survived.

Level 10: 3,000-6,000:

There was full 2 hour period when we combined to one table where no one would go broke. But once one player went, the floodgates were opened.

Hand 22: Brant got it all in against Larry A8 vs AQ and Larrys AQ held on a board of K9K2K busting Brant out in 10^th place.

Hand 23: Darren and Jordi Round 2 saw Darren holding TT to Jordis AQ. It looked good for Darren on the flop but the river brought a Q and Jordi doubled up on 5325Q.

Hand 24: Mike Bigelow moved all in with A6 for 20,000 on the button and a shortstacked Darren K called all in for 10,500 with JQ on the SB. The board ran out Q557Q and Darren doubled up.

Hand 25: Guy raised preflop and Darren pushed all in with QQ only to be coolered by Guy’s AA. The board bricked out and Darren was our 9^th place finisher.

Hand 26: Mo moved all in preflop with 88 vs Harry’s AK. Looked good for Mo until the brutal K on the river sent Mo out as our 8^th place finisher. 6792K board.

Hand 27: Saw Jordi move all in with QQ against Larry’s who had already raised and decided to call with A8. The flop was a very cruel 88K and the turn river 59 did nothing to help Jordi who went out one short of the bubble in 7^th place.

At this point we ended level 10 and we had some very large disparities in chips with Jeff having 209,500, Mike B only 5,500 and TJ also quite short with just 26,500. But with the blinds moving to 5,000/10,000 if Mike won a hand he could possibly outlast TJ.

Level 11: 5,000-10,000:

Hand 28: Mike B moved in UTG with Q5 and was called by Larry and Guy. Lrry hit his 7 holding T7 and we had our final 5. Although there was money differences for the final 5 spots, everyone quickly came to a deal where TJ who was super short stacked accepted $900 cash and the other 4 all took $1050.

The table below shows bustouts and chip-counts along the way.

Place

Player

Starting Stack

Lvl 1

100-200

Lvl 2

200-400

Lvl 3

300-600

Lvl 4

400-800

Lvl 5

600-1.2k

Lvl 6

800-1.6k

Lvl 7

1k-2k

Lvl 8

1.5k–3k

Lvl 9

2k-4k

Lvl 10

3k-6k

Lvl 11

5k-10k

TJ Johnston

37,200

37,500

43,600

54,500

59,500

26,500

5^th

Guy Bottin

36,000

45,400

36,300

42,800

41,500

109,000

2^nd

Mike Leis

28,000

26,300

18^th

Adrian Nelson

28,000

32,300

25,000

28,600

12^th

Harry Aujla

26,800

27,800

38,300

66,000

78,500

84,000

3^rd

Ray Rohrback

26,400

42,600

33,300

16^th

Brant Taylor

24,000

18,100

21,900

17,400

24,000

10^th

Rob Wright

22,800

20,100

19^th

Darryl Nicholson

22,800

16,900

17,500

17^th

Mike Bigelow

22,000

15,100

15,500

24,200

49,000

5,500

6^th

Larry Williams

22,000

20,800

25,300

24,300

92,500

209,500

1^st

Jon Pingol

21,600

25,300

11,800

15^th

Darren Corea

21,200

21,100

15,600

28,400

11^th

Darren Kennedy

21,200

13,500

41,600

45,900

16,000

9^th

Jeff Scott

21,200

14,800

49,600

69,000

75,500

51,500

4^th

Josh Hughes

21,200

29,000

27,200

14,700

13^th

Mo Pannun

20,800

19,800

24,300

33,300

22,000

8^th

Everett Wicklund

20,800

22,900

20^th

Andrew Krywaniuk

20,000

12,200

15,800

14^th

Jordi Muckle

19,600

22,100

42,800

30,500

25,500

7^th

Players Remaining

Big Stack

37,200

45,400

49,600

69,000

92,500

209,500

Short Stack

19,600

12,200

11,800

14,700

16,000

5,500

Average Stack

24,180

28,450

37,200

483,600

80,600

April 13, 2009 – Structure Updated, Position Draw to happen at 7:45pm

The structure has been changed. We will use the same level structure initially proposed but we will make ALL levels 40 minutes in duration until level 13 which will be unlimited. This has been changed in the structure chart below. Please be sure to arrive 15 minutes prior to the tournament start or your position will be drawn for you. The cards will be in the air exactly at 8pm.

April 6, 2009 – A Look at the League Final

The League Final will consist of two full tables of 10 and we will combine to one table when there are 10 players remaining. We will play down to the final 5 where the prizes begin. All of the top 5 finishers will be given cash and a seat in the WSOP. The prizes will be:

· 1st overall: $1000 US seat plus $1300 CDN cash – Winner – Pat Woelk

· 1st Final: $1000 US seat plus $1300 CDN cash

· 2nd Final: $1000 US seat plus $1100 CDN cash

· 3rd Final: $1000 US seat plus $1000 CDN cash

· 4th Final: $1000 US seat plus $900 CDN cash

· 5th Final: $1000 US seat plus $800 CDN cash

The final event is interesting in that all players start with differing stacks based on their points obtained throughout the year. The big stack will be TJ Johnston with 37,200 and the shortstack will be Jordi Muckle with 19,600. The rest are all in the middle with a bulk of players holding between 20,000 and 24,000 chips (13 players). Essentially we have 2 big stacks (TJ and Guy), 4 moderate stacks (Adrian, Mike L, Harry and Ray) and everyone else is basically even with a little below average stacks. There will be 483,600 chips in play, with the average stack officially at 24,180 chips.

Seating will be randomized and instead of using the computer we will allow players to draw a card to determine their position and table. Clearly position this early in a tourney in a tournament is never more important than now. As for the other important aspect, blinds structure, we will look at using the same structure as last year with one modification being that all levels will now be 40 minutes in duration instead of 30 minutes since we have slightly lower chip average in play (24,180 vs 27,800). This is to allow for lots of play time. Also please note that the breaks will be every 80 minutes. If anyone has any concerns with the schedule below please let me know. This is not yet set in stone. Note that last year the Final Table went to Level 11 and lasted a total of 6 hours finishing just after 2am. I don’t mind putting that back to 3am which is what I think my modifications to the structure this year will cause.

Final Tournament Structure:As for the final, the blinds structures will be as follows with 40 minute levels until Level 13:

Final Tournament Structure

Level #	Minutes	Small Blind	Big Blind
1	40	100	200
2	40	200	400
10 Minute Break
3	40	300	600
4	40	400	800
10 Minute Break
5	40	600	1200
6	40	800	1600
5 Minute Break
7	40	1000	2000
8	40	1500	3000
5 Minute Break
9	40	2000	4000
10	40	3000	6000
5 Minute Break
11	40	5000	10000
12	40	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.

All winners will be required to sign a contract stating that half of any monies they win during the WSOP will be given back to the league to be dispersed among its members.

One more note that there will be no drinks brought by myself for the league so please come with whatever you need.

April 4, 2009 – Event 10 – Matt Janzen wins, TJ Johnston gets the point win and Darren Kennedy sneaks into the Final.

Matt Janzen and TJ Johnston made a deal heads up to chop first place and then Matt hung on to get the win in a must perform tourney where several players sat on the bubble.

Tough break for Greg who tied for 21st but lost on money won and Chris Hebert who missed by a mere 400 poits. A big woohoo for two 3 outers and one 2 outer for me last night. That's what it took to get me where I needed to be, being the only guy to come from outside the top 21 and make it to the final table. Time to pull the horseshoe out of my butt ;-)

Also a super-clutch performance from Jeff Scott who needed points to secure his League Final spot and delivered with 2000 points. Jordi Muckle ties with Darren Kennedy in the horseshoe department as he hung on for 21^st place when Greg Herman tied him but lost in the tiebreaker of money earned ($250 to $200)

The following players finished 1-10 respectively: Matt Janzen ($720 non-league), TJ Johnston ($720), Adrian Nelson ($380), Ray Rohrback ($280), Mike Reimer ($210 non-league ), Darren Kennedy, Greg Herman, Mike Schubert, Jeff Scott, Dean Hilts, Rob Sims, Josh Hughes.

March 20, 2009 – Event 9 goes to Ray Rohrback.

Top two finishers this week got the points they desperately needed and locked up berths in the league final. Congrats to Ray Rohrback and Mo Pannun. Jeff Scott and Jordi Muckle also picked up some much needed points to put themselves barely in the top 21 going into the final event. With 21^st sitting at 19,200 and two more people at 19,200 and 19,600 it looks like you really will need a full 20,000 points to get into that final event. I will try and post some more up later in the week but for now be happy that I updated the standings page. And in the battle for the guaranteed seat, Guy put a little pressure on Pat by getting within 8,800 points of him. Guy would need a first place finish in the last event AND Pat to go out 9^th or worse in points for him to win the auto-seat.

I left when the tourney was still 9-handed so I don’t have any great final table hands to report, but I do have a couple of noteworthy hands for you. The one was a massive suckout by myself when there were 24 players remaining, I got it all in UTG with A7 sitting on about 2.2 BBs. I got called by Jeff Scott, re-raised all in by TJ with AK and then Jeremiah tanked before laying down AQ. The flop came Kx7x7. Wohoo I survived and then fell short of the points anyway.

The other hands were incredible laydowns not necessarily good laydowns, but definitely incredible. Facing a single standard 3 BB raise while sitting on less than 10 BB’s, Mike Bigelow folded JJ to Jamie Hucal who showed 99 as he raked in the pot. Another monster laydown came at the final table. Roger limped, Randy pushed all in and action folded around to Guy who had AKs and Randy covered about 2-to-1. He deliberated and eventually folded. Roger called with AQ to face off against Randy’s bluff with J6. The 6 fell on the flop and although I don’t like the fold, Guy saved a bunch of chips by electing not to play the 4^th most powerful hand in holdem.

A quick update on likelihood of where the top 21 will fall. I ran the simulations for the final event and also did a mathematical analysis. Mathematically the only safe people are those with 21,200 points and up plus Ray and Andrew who won an event. However realistically 20,000 is still a very safe place to be as you can see from the following numbers:

99.94% (99.9%) - 20,400

99.86% (99.6%) - 20,000

80.48% (95.1%) - 19,600

46.82% (85.5%) - 19,200

The following players finished 1-12 respectively: Ray Rohrback ($1000), Mo Pannun ($580), Blake Vails ($400 - non-league), Randy Butson ($300 – non-league), Guy Bottin ($220), Colin Woelk ($150 – non-league, playing for Pat Woelk), Harry Aujla ($100), Jeff Scott, Roger Grosset, Josh Hughes, Jordi Muckle, Mike Bigelow.

March 20, 2009 – Change in plans for Vegas and the World Series.

We have decided that entering the $1000 Event #4 “stimulus” tournament is a better option for league winners. As such we expect the prizes will now look something like this:

Hey guys, one more thing to think about before this Friday night. I have a new proposal.

I was thinking about how the exchange rate is really going to prevent us from sending 6 players with $500 cash each to a $1500 event and I was wondering if mayebe we should be looking at going to the $1000 buyin event instead. So question out there for the league. What do you think about playig the $1000 buy in instead of a $1500 event this year? The $1000 event is supposed to get 5-6000 players and goes from Sat May 30 - Tues June 2.

I was thinking that the prizes will be comparable to any $1500 event (they get around 2400 runners), cashing in either event will be equally as easy/difficult as both events will pay top 10% and then we can afford to send 6 guys AND the top placers will get much more cash. Its also being billed as likely to be the 3rd largest field to ever play a live poker tournament, so that's kinda neat in and of itself.

We could go something like this (Saturday May 30th or Sunday May 31st):

1st overall: $1000 US seat plus $1300 CDN cash

1st Final: $1000 US seat plus $1300 CDN cash

2nd Final: $1000 US seat plus $1100 CDN cash

3rd Final: $1000 US seat plus $1000 CDN cash

4th Final: $1000 US seat plus $800 CDN cash

5th Final: $1000 US seat plus $700 CDN cash

So the overall value of the prizes will not change in value much, but be weighted more to cash.

The alternative is sticking to the gameplan (Thursday June 11th or Saturday June 13th) and it will look something like this:

1st overall: $1500 US seat plus $500 CDN cash

1st Final: $1500 US seat plus $500 CDN cash

2nd Final: $1500 US seat plus $500 CDN cash

3rd Final: $1500 US seat plus $500 CDN cash

4th Final: $1500 US seat plus $500 CDN cash

5th Final: $1500 US seat plus $0 CDN cash

This event takes place two weeks earlier than the proposed event so on top of the change in buyin amount please check your schedules and see if that is a workable alternative.

Just a thought and I would be interested in hearing feedback from any and all.

Note that we have had feedback from 12 people so far and if you include my vote as well, so far we are 13-0 in favour of the $1000 buyin event. Unless something changes tonight, this is what we will go with.

March 2, 2009 – Mike Leis wins Event #8

In an event where 6 of the top 8 league finishers locked up a seat in the final and the bar was raised for those still on the bubble, Mike Leis came out on top and jumped to 2^nd all-time in league cash won behind only Pat Woelk. Mike’s victory was mostly due to a monster pot while 7-handed when he picked up Aces and went up against Harry’s 77 and Greg Herman’s KQ. Earlier Greg had accumulated a lot of chips when his AA went up against the AK of Jordi Muckle and 88 of Scott Brynen. Jasnon Nadeau and Darryl Nicholson completed back-to-back top 4 finishes, a fairly impressive feat considering the 50+ fields we are getting. A little controversy early in the night whne thinking everyone had folded Larry turned up his JJ. Ryan M was still to act and the ruling made was that the hand be played face up. Ryan decided to call on the BB and attempted to bluff Larry off the hand at the end. Larry called him down and took a substantial pot. I did look up some rules as per discussions with Rob W and Ryan M. The cards intentionally turned up rule is the same as the WSOP uses. Essentially if the floor determines it was done in good faith and not an intentional angling, the cards play face up no matter how many opponents are left to act. As for players being moved into the button, they ARE allowed to take a hand in the WSOP, in fact the only spot you are not allowed to take a hand is between the button and the SB. Which means a player moving into the SB is allowed to take a hand as per 2008 WSOP rules. I guess I learn something new everyday eh?

I also re-ran the random tournament generator and the new numbers did change a fair amount thanks to most of the points going to those in the middle of the pack.

The percentage is the likelihood of the following point total being enough to crack the top 21 and send you to the league final. In brackets is what it was prior to Event #8.

99.9% (100%) - 20,400

99.6% (99.8%) - 20,000

92.5% (95.1%) - 19,600

76.9% (85.5%) - 19,200

52.9% (69.6%) - 18,800

28.8% (60.0%) - 18,400

8.7% (33.4%) - 18,000

4.6% (12.5%) - 17,600

0.5% (2.0%) - 17,200

0.3% (1.1%) - 16,800

0.0% (0.1%) - 16,400

The following players finished 1-12 respectively: Mike Leis ($920), Rob Wright ($560), Jason Nadeau ($380 - non-league), Darryl Nicholson ($260), Steve Nixon ($180 –non-league), Greg Herman, Harry Aujla, Josh Hughes, Scott Brynen, Jordi Muckle, Ed Sue, Danny Tolusso.

February 16, 2009 – Trevor Heberts WPT Final Table at Turks and Caicos

Here are a couple of links so you guys can watch Trevor Hebert’s WPT Final Table. Trevor played a couple of our DHPL events and for those of you who played in Roger’s Ferrari Poker Tour, you will have likely played many times against him.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Now if we can just get an actual league member to final table a WSOP or WPT event.

February 11, 2009 – So what will it take to crack the top 21?

I know many of you have asked me what it will take to crack the top 21 and my standard answer has always been 20,000. But now that we’ve completed 7 of 10 tourneys, I thought I would look at what it would take knowing what point standings are currently. So I plugged the standings into my random tourney generator and simulated the remaining 3 tourneys and possible point combinations 5000 times and found the following results:

The percentage is the likelihood of the following point total being enough to crack the top 21 and send you to the league final.

100% - 20,400

99.8% - 20,000

95.1% - 19,600

85.5% - 19,200

69.6% - 18,800

60.0% - 18,400

33.4% - 18,000

12.5% - 17,600

2.0% - 17,200

1.1% - 16,800

0.1% - 16,400

So quite clearly 20,000 is the safe spot, but what these numbers also tell us is that if you get 18,400 points you have a better than average chance of staying in the top 21 by end of event 10. A more noticeable number is the 19,200 point total which is 85.5% likely to be enough. Just an interesting experiement that I will continue to update after each tourney.

For what it’s worth 21^st place last year came in at 17,600 points.

February 10, 2009 – Darren Corea Goes Wire to Wire for Victory.

Friday saw a player go basically wire-to-wire with the chip lead for the first time in a long, long time. After gaining a bunch of chips early thanks to a few big hands including quads, Darren Corea continued to remain either the chip leader or in the top 3 throughout the night as he rolled on to victory. The action was a lot faster than usual with only 11 of 55 people still having their re-buy chips at end of the second break. This number is usually around 20-25. There was a lot of hooting and hollering in the first two hours as big hands collided and major suck-outs occurred.

Only 3 weeks to our next battle on the green felt.

The following players finished 1-11 respectively: Darren Corea ($960), Rick Rohrback ($570), Darryl Nicholson ($380), Jason Nadeau ($280 - non-league), Harry Aujla ($210), Josh Hughes ($150), Mo Pannun ($100), Larry Williams, Rob Holmberg, Greg Herman, Matt Janzen (non-league), Dean Hilts.

February 2, 2009 – Andrew Krywaniuk and Marie Hilts cash in Surrey Golf Club Tourney!

Surrey Golf Club had there quarterly $100 buy-in tourney last weekend and they were able to draw 123 players. There were a lot of familiar faces in the crowd. DHPL members & ex-members must have made up at least 30% of the field. The spotlight table began with Andrew Krywaniuk and Dean & Marie Hilts, and this proved to be prophetic as two of the three rode their starting seats right to the end. Marie built up a large stack early with a few big hands. Whereas Andrew waited patiently, then at one point pushed all-in 4 hands in a row to accumulate a sizeable stack. The first 3 of these were folded around; the 4th ran into Guy Bottin's kings, but the predictable ace on the river was there to knock Guy out.

The final table was a tense affair. After Marie was knocked out in 7th ($600?), play continued 6-handed for more than an hour as the short stacks kept surviving. The original monster stack dwindled down to the point where he couldn't even post his small blind, but he was saved when the board made a wheel for a chop. With the last 6 players unable to negotiate a chop, we entered bingo mode with the blinds at 10k/20k. Unfortunately, Andrew was the first victim, finishing in 6th ($800) as he pushed with 79s in the small blind, only to run into AK.

The side games were also interesting with 3 full tables and wait lists of $1/$2 being played. One table was definitely more active than the others thanks to John Gushue and his rounds of shots. It played for several hours as a $1-$2-$5 table with most preflop raises going to $20. Guy Bottin and Mike Bigelow profited quite nicely I believe.

January 10, 2009 – Former leaguer Neil Holbeche wins biggest prize to date of $1080 and Andrew Krywaniuk records the Point Victory!

We tied for our largest ever turnout last night and Neil Holbreche waded through the massive field to be the last man standing. There were some interesting hands all night including suckouts on the river. Some notables ones include:

1) While 8 handed at the final table shortstack Rich on the button moved all in for about 16k with A5, SB TJ went all in over the top for $48k with AKh and Andrew on the BB called with QQ. The flop held an Ace and the river came 5 to prevent anyone from being KO’d

2) Later at the final table Cory Breland pushed with 88 to get called by TJ holding AsT. The flop came Ts8sJs giving Cory a set, but TJ a flush draw, the turn was a T giving Cory a full house and the super cruel river came A giving TJ a bigger full house in a hand that most people would only expect to see on the internet.

The following players finished 1-13 respectively: Neil Holbreche ($1080 - non-league), Andrew Krywaniuk ($620), Mike Leis ($430), TJ Johnston ($300), Cory Breland ($220 - non-league), Rich Wardroper ($150 – non-league), Dylan Ruocco, Darren Kennedy, Ryan McDonald, David Slater, Chris Herbert, Mike Bigelow, Brant Taylor

December 14, 2008 – Pat Woelk rolls on!

Pat Woelk took down Event #4 and has solidified himself atop every all-time leader-board stat along with this years standings. He now leads in most cash earned, most points obtained and most points earned.

We only had 50 players show up making it the smallest turn-out of the year so far. The final table was a particularly spirited affair with several players moving from short-stack to big-stack and back again. Mike Mittermuller at one point had $11k with the blinds at $5k/$10k. He put it all on the line with K8 and flopped to Kings to 5-times up to $55k. The very next hand he flopped three kings again with K3 and got paid off by Jon when Jon paired his Ace on the river and just like that Mike had over $100k. Mike had taking a bad-beat earlier in the final table to get to that point. There were many bad beats in the final table and contrary to Guy’s opinion he did lay one of them on an opponent when his Q5 sucked out on the river. He also paired his kicker against another opponents bigger Ace. Guy, like Pat continues however to prove what an amazing poker player he is with 4 final tables in the first 5 events now.

The final hand at blinds of $10k/$20k saw Jon call from the SB and Pat raise an additional $40k which Jon also called. The flop came AKT with 2 clubs.Pat pushed all in with 78o and Jon called with 83c for a flush draw. The club didn’t come and neither did a 3 or any card above 7 which would have resulted in a chop leaving Pat as our winner.

The following players finished 1-11 respectively: Pat Woelk ($920), Jon Pingol ($560), Mike Mittermuller ($380), Guy Bottin ($260), Brant Taylor ($180), Josh Hughes ($100), Ed Sue, Darren Callaghan, TJ Johnston, Greg Herman.

November 26, 2008 – Scheduling conflict with Event #6.

Just a quick email to let you guys know that we have a scheduling conflict with the Jan 16th date (Event #6). Apparently the room was double booked and we are getting bounced from that date. I am currently looking into moving it to Jan 9th and wanted to give everyone as much of a heads up as possible. I will send another email out once it has been confirmed.

November 25, 2008 – In Event #4, Pat Woelk and Thanh Nguyen chop for First, Pat Records 2^nd Point Victory of Season.

In a tourney short on regulars with only 35 of 50 league members showing up, another heated battle with some crazy twists and some unreal final table beats laid down by Pat saw Pats A8 suck out on Guy Bottin after Guy’s flopped set of 9’s went down to runner-runner flush. A few hands later while 3-handed, Pat again sucked out this time cracking Chris Herberts Aces while holding TT. Another runner-runner, this time a ten high straight, sent Chris home early. A good heads up battle started and then ended as non-leaguer Thanh Nguyen playing in his first Die Hard tourney chopped the first place money with Pat.

Looking at the standings now we are getting a lot of repeat performers at our final tables. We now have 8 players already home and cooled for the end of year Final, with Pat, Guy, Mike B., Everett, TJ, Brant, Adrian and Larry all safely at 20,000+ points. But don’t fret as there are still 12 other spots for the taking for the rest of us.

The following players finished 1-11 respectively: Thanh Nguyen ($740 – non-league), Pat Woelk ($740), Chris Herbert ($380), Guy Bottin ($280), Rick Moffatt ($210), Larry Williams ($150), James Walker ($100 - non-league playing for Everett Wicklund), Scott Brynen, Mike Mittermuller, Ryan McDonald, Rob Holmberg.

November 24, 2008 – BCPC Results: Harry Aujla Wins Event #2 for $42,000+ and cashes in Event #3.

Darren Kennedy and former leaguer Ryan Ruocco both cash in Main Event.

The BCPC rolled into town with tones of fanfare and our leaguers once again showed they can compete with the best poker players on the planet. Harry Aujla played and won Event #2 - $550 Mixed Holdem beating a field of 354 players to take a $42,571 prize. And showing that it was no fluke, Harry came right back the next day and cashed in the $1100 NLH Event #3, placing 44^th of 600 runners to cash another $2,506.

Darren Kennedy and Ryan Ruocco had very deep runs in the Event #4, $2700 NLH ending in both of them cashing for $10,143. Darren finished 24^th, while Ryan finished 19^th.

A full recount of Darrens Tournament follows:

I ended up with a decent run finishing 24th in the ME. The play in the tourney was very, very solid. Much better than the WSOP events I've played in the past. And the structure was amazing for a $2700 buy-in. In Daniel Negreanu's own words the structure was better than most $10k WPT events. Lots and lots of play allowing more time for skill to prevail.

I had a tonne of interesting hands throughout my 3 days of play but the two most dangerous ones were when holding AA on SB sitting on about 35k and blinds of 200-400, a middle position stack of about 33k opened to 1600. I was out of position and wanted to take it down so I made it 6600 to go. He tanked and it looked like he might move all-in, but instead just flatted it. The flop was all over his range with KJ5. I checked and he looked eager to bet but eventually checked. On the turn I checked again and he opened for 7400. I tanked and eventually laid it down showing the two seat (former CPT player of the year Jody Trainer) who seemed to agree that I would have went broke if I had played it out not of course that that really means much but it is what it is. I put villain on KK 80%, QQ 10%, AA 5%, AK 5% as he was no donkey. I think my biggest mistake here was the re-raise pre-flop. I should have just kept the pot small and I probably would have gotten to see his cards on the river for that additional 5000 I put in pre-flop. I dunno, tough one. Another hand I held AJ on a Jxx flop out of position against table chip leader. Blinds 300-600. I had about 20k. Preflop bet was 3x. On flop I led out for 1500 and he put me all in. I actually think I laid down the winner there and I was just getting muscled as he held 80k in chips, but I just didn’t want to put my tournament on the line with top pair. A few hands later I was at 15k and went on my heater. I had 88 on the button and hit a KT8 flop against a player who hit top 2. The set held and I doubled up. This was the only hand on which I was all in on Day 1. A few hands later I called a raise UTG with AJ on the button. The flop came AJx and the raiser open-shoved for 18k. I was now at 30k prior to that hand and was a little worried she had JJ or AA, but obviously made the call and she showed AQ and missed on turn and river. The hand after that I had AKs and bet and a player re-raised all in for 12k. I thought a bit and called to see I was facing AJ. AK held. Next hand was JJ which took down blinds and antes and all of a sudden I was at end of day 1 with $57,000 in chips.

I had some decent luck late on day 1 to end the day with $57k which was good for 38th of 308 (690 total entries) entering Day 2. Day 2 I spent all day with Daniel and was card dead the whole way. Of the 9 players starting on Day 2 on my table only Daniel and I survived the Day. I took a few hands from Daniel but he got the best of me and the hand that brought me down to next to nothing was A7h vs T8 on a 379 flop. I went from 55k to 30k on that hand and really put me near binary (blinds 600-1200) for the first time in the tourney. Daniel's small-ball rubbed off on the table which allowed me to stay alive and avoid the all-in fests that affected some of the other tables. I was relatively card dead all day and really thankful that Daniel was on my table to keep pots small and me alive. On Day 2 I was at risk all in for my tourney only twice, once with a set against top pair and once with JJ vs 77 while short. Day 3 was to be a different story.

I squeaked into Day 3 with just $50k (ave $130k) which meant I was 64th of 72 players. Only 63 got paid so I shut down for first 30 minutes to make the money and then opened up (63^rd was $5900). I doubled holding AQs vs AJ from 27k to 65k and then the next hand had JJ with bet and re-raise in front of me from button and SB. I called (SB's re-raise was 70k and I only had 65k). and my JJ faced his 68s. The flop came A42 with two spades, turn was an 8 and I sweated the river which blanked out. At that point I jumped to around $200k and came off the binary poker and was able to actually play. I focused on my game and made a few steals and a couple of re-steals with really no hands. I got lucky on a button raise to 16k and BB re-pushed for additional 26k all-in. He had KK and I rivered an Ace. I had a really good player to my right who constantly pressured my blinds and I had no chips or cards to push back with. When I looked up we had jumped up payscales (every nine players dropped) and eventually we were down to 3 tables and my table broke. I ended back on Daniel's table with about $160k with blinds $6k-$12k and $1,500 ante. Daniel was 3 ahead of me and from cutoff he pounded my big blind 2 straight times. On the 3rd lap he again led out $27k from cutoff. I looked down at ducks and decided to re-push with $118k figuring there was some fold equity there (Daniel had about $380k only) and likley I was ahead if I got called. He was way stronger than I thought and snap-called with AK. The flop came 458 with 2 clubs, turn K clubs, giving Daniel the lead but me a flush draw. However river blanked and I was done. I guess if I have to lose it might as well be to Daniel. $10,143 consolation but it felt like a major loss when I was that close to an FT.

Anyways had a great time and totally recommend it to any considering it for next year. Lots of names on hand including Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips who came 30th in his first major tourney since the WSOP ME, Tiffany Michelle (yes the infamous one), Liz Lieu, Gabe Kaplan, Lacey Jones, Gavin Smith, Brad Booth, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Gabe Kaplan, Greg Mueller, Maria Ho, Marc Karam, Robert Cheung, and a tonne of lesser known pros. I found the tables I sat at to be very solid with only 3-4 players I sat down with of the 70-80 I played against over 3 days to be awful players. The structure was phenomenal and Daryl and crew did a great job running the show.

Daniel ended up taking down the tournament for $371k which is great because it means he will likely return again next year and I had a lot of fun talking hockey with him. He wore a Canucks Luongo jersey on Day 1 and on Day 2 a Chicago Seabrook jersey. Chicago is his favourite team atm mainly due to Kane and Toews apparently. I had fun, but busting 24^th so close to the real money still feels like a kick in the nuts.

I played Event 3 ($1100 buyin) as well but didn’t play well busting with AA on an 862 flop to a set of 6’s while I sat on 100 BBs. Horrible play which I attribute to not being mentally ready to play. I flew back from Los Angeles Monday night to Seattle getting home at midnight after playing allnight Sunday at Commerce and taking the kids to Disneyland on Monday. Went to bed around 1:30am and got up at 6:45am with the wife and kids to drive up to Vancouver and buy in. Tourney started at noon so I really wasn’t focused. Still horrible play though, tired or not, I didn’t control the pot sizes well. The good news was I got into the cash game a hell of a lot faster and I ended up winning $4k in about 6 hours. It was an extremely juicy game. I took all of Wednesday off to sleep and spend some time with the family before starting the ME on Thursday and I think it really paid dividends in my play.

Anyways, $10,143 for 24^th out of 690 players was a nice cash and weird that I beat precisely a devilish 666 players. As was my usual I went deep without busting many players, just keeping it small. I think I busted just 4 players (2 each on Days 1 and 3) over 21 hours of play and 3 days.

October 29^th, 2008 – In Event #3, TJ Johnston and Mike Bigelow chop for First, TJ takes the 10,000 points.

Another healthy turnout of 59 players meant another solid battle to the finish. Many players have really adjusted there game well to the final two tables and the talent level of the league is improving event by event making it tougher and tougher to break the coveted point and cash bubbles. That being said we had 3 players posting their second point placing of the year with Harry Aujla, Guy Bottin and Mike Bigelow. With Event #3 in the books wee also now have a real top 20 with 3 players who have earned points sitting on the outside of that bubble. This weeks event saw 4 non-leaguers in the top 14 but only one of them reached the final table and he would go out in 8^th place on the money bubble.

Not a lot of hands were committed to memory, but one hand stands out where Mike Mittermuller should have been sitting on a monster stack and in safety mode with 25 players left instead of knocked back to average stack when holding AA and getting Darren Kennedy (QQ) and another player (AK) all in pre-flop only to watch in horror as the Queen came down on the flop.

The following players finished 1-11 respectively: TJ Johnston ($825), Mike Bigelow ($825), Larry Williams ($430), Rob Wright ($300), Jon Pingol ($220), Darren Kennedy ($150), Guy Bottin ($100), Jonathan Moorre (non-league), Harry Aujla, Rick Moffatt, Graham Spence.

October 8^th, 2008 – In Event #2, Pat Woelk and Jay Peturssen chop for first in biggest tournament to date.

With 60 runners the DHPL continues to set records, though with the top 2 players chopping the pot we did not have a four-figure first prize this event. We did however have two players take over $800 each. We also upped our league membership to 50 with 3 more players joining the fold. We also only had one league player not able to show up making it the single hardest event ever to get points in with 10 of 49 leaguers getting points.

The final table had 3 repeat customers as Adrian, Jordi and Ryan all successfully made their second final table of this young season. A return of sorts with Jason Nadeau one of our original leaguers and a player who recently cashed in the 2008 WSOP Main Event. Events 3 is coming soon so be ready to go.

The following players finished 1-13 respectively: Pat Woelk ($860), Jay Peturssen ($840 – non-league), Adrian Nelson ($430), Cory Grant ($300 – non-league), Jeff Scott ($220), Jordi Muckle ($150), Harry Aujla, ($100), Mike Bigelow, Ryan McDonald, Darren Corea, Birgitte Sopiak (non-league), Lance Murdoch, Rik Rohrback.

September 8^th, 2008 – Dave Ramsey takes down Event #1 with Brant Taylor taking the 10,000 points for top league spot.

Wow! So glad to see everyone back for another year. We had a tremendous turnout and it will only get bigger.

Ok so the word of the day was hot. As in damn hot. With 58 players bucking up, including 47 joining the league, and the weather being quite warm, the Elks hall was stifling and had most of us sweating by the first hour of play. We took a bit to get going with the cards not getting in the air until 8:30pm, but given that it was sign up day I think that wasn’t too bad. As always the events after the first get going faster. I appreciate the fact that a good portion of you showed up at 7:30pm and I hope to see that trend continue so that we can kick off relatively on time.

The new rules came into effect and a good 50% of the field started with their full 12,000 stack, as most players opted to cash in their re-buy chip right off the get go. Having 2 decks on every table was a big hit with the only real complaints coming with who should shuffle. Some tables opted for the guy behind the button, while other tables used the small blind. In any case all tables got in way more hands than we have in previous sessions. We will definitely continue this trend.

The game was solid and we had much action early, but failed to KO too many players early on. But the KO’s did come and eventually we made it down to the nitty-gritty. Brant Taylor entered heads-up play with a 2-to-1 chip lead over Dave Ramsey, but an all in with AK for Brant vs 44 for Dave where the 4’s held reversed that position and Dave sealed the deal when all the chips got in on the flop with Dave holding a set of 8’s and Brant holding top parir of Kings and an openender which failed to connect on the turn and river. With that we have the first 4-digit purse in DHPL history going to Dave Ramsey on his first DHPL event.

The following players finished 1-11 respectively: Dave Ramsey ($1000 – non-league), Brant Taylor ($600), Everett Wicklund ($430), Guy Bottin ($300), Marie Hilts ($220), Darren Callaghan ($150), Jordi Muckle ($100), Adrian Nelson, Ryan McDonald, Kerry Sweeney, Jeff Puhl ($150, non-league, playing for Josh Hughes).

September 1^st, 2008 – Event #1 in 4 Days!

Ok lads and lasses. It’s damn near time to Shuffle Up and Deal! This Friday marks the start of Season 4 of the Die Hard Poker League and I personally just can’t wait. Please do your best to show up early this week as the first week takes a bit of time to sign everyone in. I would love to see people there at 7:30pm. I will make sure to be there by 7:15pm.

The rule changes going into effect this year will be:

1) One of the biggest ones is that if we have over 40 league players, which I expect we will, then we will be taking the top 20 players to the league final, instead of just the top 10.

2) Another big change is that we are once again bumping up the cash portion of the tourney. It will now be $50 entry for league and non-league members alike. The league fee will remain at $30 per event. The reasoning behind bumping up the buyin is that we were pushing against our max capacity for the last 4 tourneys and there’s obviously enough interest to do this and two is that if I’m driving 2 hours to play I want that first prize to be bigger. ;-)

3) The rebuy chip will remain but there will no longer be a difference in how much you get for it. All rebuy chips are worth 7000 chips regardless of whether you cash it in immediately or wait until you lose your first 5000 or wait until end of level 6.

August 30^th, 2008 – Rebuy chip removal or keep decision

There was lots of interest and feedback on the possibility of removing the rebuy chip and starting everyone with more chips.

Some of the feedback I got included:

· Get rid of it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then those donkeys can start the kiddie table early

· Although the rebuy chip and trying to not use it is fun and I'd say go with 10k no rebuy

· I don't get to rebuy in Vegas baby

· I’m all for removing it and starting with a deeper stack .. because it allows u to play a bit more poker early on in the levels with a biger stack, and yeah the wsop event is a deepstack event so it makes a lot of sense. so my vote is to X the rebuy.

· It makes no difference to me although I do lean towards the no rebuy.

· I say keep the rebuy chip. It's not like our private tournaments are a particularly good simulation of the WSOP anyway (no antes, no pressure, no pros). I'd rather have the security of not driving all the way out to Cloverdale to get knocked out in the first 5 minutes.

· I like the re-buy for the reasons mentioned.... and one additional...

· There are no super monster stacks early, the the game play is moderated a little bit without a 1000 kg gorilla pushing a table around... You're right about the drive time... it would suck to play for 5 minutes and be gone.... and I really think it serves the purpose of a pressure release valve for bad beats.

· I am always in favor of starting the kiddie table early………..The weeks I don’t win that is

· It makes sense, ditch the re-buy. DHPL is great poker why not make even better

· I did like collecting the donkeys first 5k cause they blast it off knowing they have protection ..... but I'm easy either way. I would really be pissed if I had kings or aces cracked in 5 min and drove all the way out from Maple Ridge :P. You would have it even worse. Although this deep stack right away would cater to my play style, I think I am still in favour of the rebuy.

· To get rid of it is a good thing, cuz it we won’t have people tightening up before the break to get extra chips, which could then knock off an hour of tourny time. Think it should go.

· How about a happy medium, No rebuy chip, but we start with 11000 or 12000 in chips.

· I like the current format. The beginning is a time to have a few beers and a few laughs. The current format allows to hang around a bit longer. I've always thought the tourney starts at the break (where you cash in the re-buy). The time until makes this league unique and you can have a few beers/laughs under less pressure. Coming in from Vancouver, I would be rattled to have to leave in under an hour. To change it would be like a casino tourney, which I can go to any day of the week. My two cents.

· Just got back from holidays...reading your discussion on the rebuy chip. I vote to keep it...if it works don’t fix it

In summation the biggest “problem” I wanted to address is the extreme tightening up of play before the rebuy period ends to try and hang on for the extra 2000 chips. The rest of the concerns have validities but either not enough at this time or with too many people with an opposing view to make any other changes.

In the end then I decided to keep the chip with a small change. The rebuy chip will remain but there will no longer be a difference in how much you get for it. All rebuy chips are worth 7000 chips regardless of whether you cash it in immediately or wait until you lose your first 5000 or wait until end of level 6. This will hopefully satisfy some of you and I think with this change most of us will likely just start with a full stack of 12000.

August 24^th, 2008 – People are signing up

The following are who has and has not signed up so far for the league this coming season. Impressively we already have 45 players committed and there are still 9 league players from last year I have not yet heard from. It looks like we will be having some good turnouts again this year.

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

	Returning Players from Last Season	New Players	Not Returning from Last Season	Unconfirmed from Last Season
1	Adrian Nelson	Dan Green	Al DeLeon	Chad McGlynn
2	Andrew Krywaniuk	Darren Callaghan	Clayton Zabba	Gary Dueck
3	Brant Taylor	Everett Wicklund	Grant Oltmann	George Santo
4	Chris Herbert	Fritz Vant’hullenuar	Jesse Reshetylo	Jesse Low
5	Danny Tolusso	Greg Herman	Pete Stancato	Jordi Muckle
6	Darren Corea	Jeff Scott	Randy Butson	Marco Bruni
7	Darren Kennedy	Larry Williams	Ryan Ruocco	Mario Baptista
8	David Slater	Marie Hilts	Shawn Harrison	Matt Tolley
9	Dean Hilts	Mark Hemmings	Sonia Tolusso	Mike Reimer
10	Dean Kilback	Mike Bigelow
11	Dean Kotopski	Mohammed Pannun
12	Doug Crone	Rick Moffatt
13	Dylan Ruocco	Rob Holmberg
14	Ed Sue
15	Guy Bottin
16	Harry Aujla
17	Jon Pingol
18	Josh Hughes
19	Kerry Sweeney
20	Lance Murdoch
21	Mike Mittermuller
22	Mike Schubert
23	Pat Woelk
24	Ray Rohrback
25	Rik Rohrback
26	Rob Wright
27	Robin Scory
28	Roger Grosset
29	Roland Calapiz
30	Ryan McDonald
31	Scott Brynen
32	TJ Johnston
33
34
35

August 9^th, 2008 – Getting Ready for another year of the DHPL

Well another year is gone and we are fast approaching September. Time to get our poker hats on again. We will run a 4^th edition of the Die Hard Poker League out of the Cloverdale Elks Hall. Yes I now live in Redmond, WA (Seattle), but don’t think a 2 hour drive is going to keep me from coming back to take all you guys money. The show must go on!

We are getting ready to kick off soon. There will be a couple of changes this year.

4) One of the biggest ones is that if we have over 40 league players, which I expect we will, then we will be taking the top 20 players to the league final, instead of just the top 10.

5) Another big change is that we are once again bumping up the cash portion of the tourney. It will now be $50 entry for league and non-league members alike. The league fee will remain at $30 per event. The reasoning behind bumping up the buyin is that we were pushing against our max capacity for the last 4 tourneys and there’s obviously enough interest to do this and two is that if I’m driving 2 hours to play I want that first prize to be bigger. ;-)

Any other changes people are interested in looking at please let me know. Also if you have questions /concerns about the above rule changes, fire them my way.

Proposed dates are above. Once again I tried to avoid any major holidays. If you see any major conflicts please let me know. If I get 3-4 people having issues with a date I will likely move it. Note that we do NOT move dates once the season begins. So please take a good look at the dates and let me know.

Please let me know ahead of time if you are planning on joining the league. We will take people who just show up for Event 1, but it makes my life a hell of a lot easier if I know names ahead of time.

Note that for Event #1 you will be required to bring $140 to cover the $50 entry fee, plus $30 league fee and two extra league fees (covering Event #9, 10). After that you will be required to bring $80 per event for events #2-8 and $50 for Events #9, 10. If you don’t show for an event you are still on the hook for the $30 league but obviously not the $50 event fee.

July 12th, 2008 – Jason Nadeau cashes in WSOP Main Event!

Congrats to Jason who came 575^th and won $23,160 in the World Series of Poker Main Event. He beat out over 6000 players in 3 long days of poker to cash in the pen-ultimate poker tournament. The concentration, discipline, skill, and yes luck to go that deep against that skill level of field is incredible to say the least. Jason’s venture was followed closely by his friends and none closer than myself who sweated him on the virtual rail thru text messages and phone calls all tournament long.

Some notable hands and situations over those three days of poker in Jasons own words, starting with 20,000 in chips:

1) Level 1: First break, up 700, was up 2700.

2) Level 2: I just felted a guy with a set of jacks. I’m at 32,000 from 20,000 start. He called with J and flush draw. I had nuts all the way.

3) Level 4: At 36,500, Esfiandari is in 15^th place with 70,000 at the moment, so happy with my stack.

4) Level 5: Missed a flop with AKs vs JJ. Minimized the damage.

5) Level 5: On to Day 2, 31,675. No cards for the last hour. Got pushed off 2,500 bet by short stack allin for 10,000, with 10 mins to go.

6) Day 2:

7) Level 6: End Level 6. Down to 26,500. Card dead. Stole 3-4 blinds. Got reraised allin 1 time. Best hand was 66. Still ok shape, but not great.

8) Level 7: 17,400 at end 2^nd level today. 4 hours and no cards. I had JJ first position and guy reraised me allin, had to fold. Blinds now 400/800 with 100 antes. Must double up allin asap or…

9) Level 8: 3 BB, down to 11,000.

10) Level 8: Was down to 9,000. Two allins w AJ and stole blinds for 4,000. Allin with AKs called by AQs. Double to 33,000. Big sigh of relief. Can play now…

11) Level 9: At 19,000. 90 min dinner break. I fucked up. Dropped 10,000 last hand with pocket 10’s. Dude bluffed me off 8,000 flop bet with 30,000 allin holding K6 on a board of 446. Ouch. Still alive though.

12) Level 10: Final break. 2 hours to go. Blinds at 600/1200 and 200 ante; 3600 per lap. I have 21,200 in chips, 8 laps to go. I need 1 double. Double just recently by guy with 83o vs TT. Donkey!

13) Level 10: Near end of Day 2. Allin 18,000 with 44, BB had QQ. I spiked 4 on the river. At 35,000 with 70 minutes to go in Day 2. Need 60,000 minimum to play regular poker.

14) I grinded my way to Day 3! 24,000 chips. I did not see AA, KK, QQ in my 13 hours of play so far. I’m just happy to be here. 1500 people left, 834 more till the money.

15) Noon on Day 3. Here we go. Day 3. It could be real short.

16) I doubled up to 52,000 with QQ vs AJ. I hit a set but he still had straight draw. I can breath a bit now.

17) End Level 11. At 48,200 with blinds at 1000/2000 with 200 ante. 5k a round now per 9 hands. I have 2-3 laps to get it in.

18) On to Level 2. 37,000 left. 875 players left of 6800+ original runners.

19) 852 players left.

20) 60,000 chips. Everyone is scared and tight. Pushing will work until I hit vs a real hand. 792 left.

21) End Level 12. Dinner break. Approx 80 people more need to bust to reach money. I have 57,500, blinds will cost 8100 a lap. 4 more hours 2 go. Thanks for all the good wishes.

22) 695 people left. 666 is the magic number. Down to 40,000.

23) Down to 15 before end. 42 minutes left in Level 14.

24) 9 to go. We are now playing hand for hand. All 90+ tables play 1 hand then wait for all tables to be done, then deal the next hand. I’m down to 34,000. Can wait 30 hands before I blind out.

25) 5 players to go to money. Each hand is taking 20+ mins to complete. Going to keep grinding it out.

26) 1 to go!

27) In the money soon.

28) Woohoo! I made the money! $21,000! I still have 25,000 in chips after the break.

29) U were right (referring to me saying people would bust extremely fast after bubble burst and you may want to fold a few more hands and move up $2k in pay). 599 left and I’m at $23k. 60 more players to get to $25k. But I need to double up.

30) I’m out with 77 vs A2 who went runner runner 22. 575^th overall. I cashed out at $23,160.

July 7th, 2008 – Jason Nadeau reaches Day 2 of WSOP Main Event!

A huge congratulations to original Die Hard Poker League member and good friend Jason Nadeau who qualified at the 11^th hour to enter the WSOP Main Event ($10,000 NLH) by winning a Mega Satellite at the Rio and played in Day 1D on July 6th. He made it through Day 1 and will get some much needed sleep (he’s on a 35 hour poker shift) and prepare for Wednesdays Day 2B. A total of 6844 players have entered the event and around 3600 remain. Jason is sitting on 31,675 chips which is just below the average which is in the neighbourhood of 37,500. Top 666 get paid and Jay will need to get well into Day 3 to reach the money. Keep it up Jay, we’ll be watching on the net.

Contact Info

Darren Kennedy

DarrenKennedyDK@gmail.com

425-894-4030

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