Happy New Year!

Another year is passed, the 5th year for Dirty River. Again, this was another year of growth for the league. This year consistently averaging nearly 40 players per game. Hopefully the ideas that we had at the beginning of 2007 will come to fruition in 2008.

In February, 5 of our players will be playing in tournaments of various buy-ins, including, potentially, a WSOP tournament. Then, throughout the year, we will hopefully send more of our players to Heartland Poker Tour, or other local events, in hopes they can build something of a 'roll to play even more tournaments.

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the past year, if there was anything someone had as a concern, please let us know and we can address it.

Here's to a happy, healthy, and wealthy 2008!

All Qualifiers set ...

The top 30 are set for the 2007 season. Turned out on Sunday that there was no change due to the tournament, only minor changes in the top 12 positions. For those who don't know or forgot, following are the chip stacks for the February 10th Points Championship.

1st: $25,000
2nd: $23,000
3rd: $21,000
4th: $19,000
5th: $18,000
6th: $17,000
$1,000 less to ---
12th: $11,000
13th-16th: $10,000

The tournament will have a very slow structure, play will last nearly the whole day, leaving someone very happy around 11:00 Sunday night with their ticket being punched to a $2,500 tournament.

Suggestions are always welcome ... we will look at what we can do to improve everyone's experience and continue to give people opportunities to play in bigger tournaments. Most of us truly believe that this is one of the best home leagues in the area - by far, and it has shown this past year by the results that our player's have had in bigger tournaments that they have been able to play. We have no doubt that the rest of the group could have equal success given the opportunity as well.

See everybody on January 13th!

Running Around

I'm sure the regulars have noticed I haven't updated the blog. And it seems they've stopped caring, because nobody mentioned it to me!

Obviously I haven't updated since the last tournament. Quick synopsis of that is as follows:

31 people showed up to play. I decided to introduce antes into the tournament mix and I feel they went pretty well, and we'll discuss the possibility of implementing them in tournaments next year.

Play seemed to be tight early, then there lots of bustouts before the final table, which turned into a major grindfest. Eventually Cpt Fission burst and headed home in 10th, opening the door for more bustouts. Except the short stacks - including Bin2win and Lefty - we're winning their races.

Big hand for Lefty came on a 3-way all in when he was holding 22 vs A2 and AK. This was about the only big hand he played until heads up. He ended heads up with Bin after his 22 ran down Ruby's 99. KK vs KJ - Lefty vs Bin2win - has one of the big hands that allowed Lefty to comeback from a 10-1 chip deficit to win his 2nd tournament of the year.

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Other happenings

The final tournament of the year is on the 16th of this month, with just a few things to wrap up and decide before we begin our playoffs. January 13th is the date of the qualifier and 1st tournament of 2008 - put it on your calendar! Qualifier will begin on January 13th as soon as all 18 players are available to play. There will be some leniency allowed, but it's requested that every available player be there no later than 4:00 or provide me with a phone number to reach them at to keep them updated on a start time. Top 4 will move on to the Main Event on February 10th. Good luck to everybody!

I will be contacting players who were regulars this year to discuss upcoming options to next year's format. From what I can tell from the grapevine, most everything will stay the same in the coming year. I am going to push for 20 dates, each of the 5 dates will have a promotion attached to them. HPT qualifiers, DPT seats, local seats, casino seats, Vegas trip for WSOP, are some options for these 4 tournaments. This should help with interest during anytime of the year to give any players something significant to play for.
Buy-ins, dates, times, chip stacks, etc., will also be on the agenda to discuss. Even if you are not one of the 'regulars' please provide any input to myself or anybody who you know who is a regular. Thank you,

We're always interested in hosts for the tournaments. This year, we needed room for 4 tables everytime, with an option for the 5th table. Next year, we may have to consider a regular 5th table. Anybody who can help with hosting duties, contact me ...