Noticeboard & Leaderboard
🏆 It's Championship Time! 🏆
The 2026 Dog Days Championship takes place Sunday, September 13 at Brown Barrel, and Championship Day is almost here!
All invitations have now been sent. If you’re unsure whether you qualified, check the updated qualifier lists for the Dog Days Championship, Stay & Play Championship and New Players Championship. If your name appears only on a waiting list, you do not currently have a seat unless I have personally contacted you as a replacement.
Congratulations as well to Wildcard winners Jin Zhao and Scott Simpson, who earned their seats through the season-ending Wildcard events!
CHAMPIONSHIP DAY TIMES
Stay & Play Championship / New Players Championship
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Arrive: 11:45 AM
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Start: 12:00 PM sharp
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Players arriving late will be blinded out for up to 30 minutes. At 12:30 PM, remaining stacks will be removed.
Dog Days Championship
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Arrive: 1:30 PM
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Take seats: 1:50 PM
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Start: 2:00 PM sharp
The official tournament clock determines the time.
If you have not arrived by 2:00 PM and have not contacted me beforehand, your Championship seat may be forfeited to a standby player. This deadline still applies even if the earlier Championships cause the main event itself to start late.
If you have contacted me to say you’re running late, your stack will be blinded out until 2:30 PM. After that, your seat may be given away.
If you’re running late, call or text Marty (his number is on the front of the reward cards). Please don’t rely on email.
WAITING LIST & STANDBY
Cancellations received through Saturday, September 12 will continue to be filled from the appropriate waiting lists.
For the main Championship only, waiting-list players may also come to Brown Barrel on Championship Day as standbys.
Arrive before 1:30 PM and your existing waiting-list position will be preserved. Anyone arriving after 1:30 will be added behind those already present, in arrival order.
Any unclaimed seats at 2:00 PM, or late-player seats released at 2:30 PM, will be offered to eligible standby players.
There is no same-day standby procedure for the Stay & Play or New Players Championships.
PRIZES & DINNER
The main Championship will feature close to $2,000 in final-table prizes. Including the Stay & Play Championship, New Players Championship and seasonal awards, approximately $3,000 in prizes will be awarded throughout the day.
The Stay & Play Championship awards prizes to the top two finishers, while the New Players Championship winner and their referring player will both receive prizes.
Dinner orders will be taken during the 4:50 PM break, with a full 60-minute dinner break beginning at 6:10 PM.
Seasonal awards, draws and the Stay & Play and New Players Championship presentations will also take place during the dinner break.
Once the main Championship reaches the final table, there will be a short break for the traditional final-table photo.
NO CHOPS
There will be NO chopping of Championship prizes.
Prizes will be awarded as players are eliminated, and play will continue until one player remains to become the 2026 Dog Days Champion.
And yes... Cowboy Marty returns. 🤠
The cowboy outfit will be back, complete with the new black cowboy hat making its Championship debut.
The Harvest Moon Showdown is already underway, so every regular game between now and Championship Day is already building points toward the next Championship.
Four months of Dog Days poker have brought us here.
Now it’s time to find out who takes home the trophy. 🏆
🌺 Hawaiian Luau Nights! 🌴🥥
A huge thank you to everyone who came out for our Hawaiian Luau Nights this week! They turned into two of the busiest nights we've ever had at Dead Man's Hand Poker, and the participation in the theme absolutely blew me away.
And as I mentioned earlier, Hamilton's Luau Night absolutely smashed our records with 82 total entries! Apparently all it takes to set attendance records around here is convincing grown adults to wear leis and coconut bras. Who knew? 😂🥥
BURLINGTON: 51 players, 15 rebuys
🌺 Leis: 39 (76%)
🌴 Double Cards: 27 (53%)
🥥 Triple Cards: 9 (18%)
🚫 No participation: 8 (16%)
HAMILTON: 60 PLAYERS, 22 REBUYS — BOTH NEW RECORDS!
🌺 Leis: 58 (97%)
🌴 Double Cards: 31 (52%)
🥥 Triple Cards: 13 (22%)
🚫 No participation: 2 (3%)
With 58 of 60 wearing leis, Hamilton wins the coconut trophy! 🥥🏆 A huge mahalo to Olivia Divinski for bringing a box of leis!
Seeing so many Hawaiian shirts, leis, grass skirts and coconut bras around the room genuinely warmed my heart. And I can't even take credit for the idea! Bev Terceira originally came up with Hawaiian Luau Night when she and Dave were running poker for me. Bev was all for it, but once Dave realized how much work was going to be involved, his response was basically, “No way!” 😂 Well Bev, we finally did it... and I'd say your idea was a pretty huge success! 🌺
Thank you to everyone who came out, dressed up, got into the spirit and helped make these two nights so memorable.
We'll definitely have to do something like this again! 🤠🌴
Supporting Karen & Steven During A Difficult Time
Hello everyone,
I’m reaching out with some very sad news concerning members of our poker family. Many of you know Karen Rossignol and her brother Steven Sudar, who have both been part of our league for some time.
Karen’s daughter, Rochelle, has recently passed away after a battle with breast cancer at just 51 years old. It’s an incredibly difficult loss, and our thoughts are with Karen, Steven, and their entire family during this time.
As you can imagine, this sudden loss—combined with the short timeline to relocate the children from their current home—has created a very challenging and urgent situation for the family.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help support the children and ease the burden on Karen as she navigates the road ahead. If you’re in a position to help, any contribution—big or small—would go a long way.
GoFundMe:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraiser-for-the-children-of-rochelle-reaney?lang=en_CA&ts=1776015459
For those who would like more information or are considering paying their respects, here is the obituary, which includes funeral details:
https://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-ca/obituaries/hamilton-on/rochelle-reaney-12828779
I will be attending the funeral, along with Smiley, to show our support on behalf of the league.
I understand that not everyone may have known Rochelle personally, but Karen and Steven are part of our community, and this is an opportunity for us to come together and support them in a meaningful way.
Thank you all for taking the time to read this, and for any support you’re able to offer—whether that’s a donation, attending the events, or simply keeping the family in your thoughts.
Sincerely,
Marty
2026 Dog Days Champion: Shivang Raichura
Scoring
PLACE - POINTS
1st – 500
2nd – 300
3rd – 250
4th – 200
5th – 175
6th – 150
7th – 125
8th – 100
Placement points will be scaled to # of entries (turnout + rebuys)
+1% will be added for every entry over 8
PLACE - POINTS
9th – 75 (33+ entries)
10th – 50 (37+ entries)
11th – 40 (41+ entries)
12th – 35 (45+ entries)
13th – 30 (49+ entries)
14th – 30 (53+ entries)
15th – 30 (57+ entries)
16th – 30 (61+ entries)
ATTENDANCE
30 POINTS
BOUNTIES
30 POINTS
Only top 30 performances overall count (Place + Attendance + Bounties)
*YOU MUST PLAY AT LEAST 8 TIMES TO QUALIFY FOR THE CHAMPIONSHIP
STAY AND PLAY POINTS
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
60 45 30 15
Only top 2 nightly and top 30 overall Stay and Play performances count
*Stay & Play points count towards both the main and the S&P standings!
2026 Dog Days
Stay & Play Champion:
Allen Botelho
2026 Dog Days
New Players Champion:
Ozzy Sousa
