Noticeboard & Leaderboard
🏆 Shivang Raichura Wins the 2026 Dog Days Championship 🏆
After a fantastic Championship Day at Brown Barrel, we have a new Champion.
Before we get to the Championship itself, I want to thank everyone who helped make the Dog Days such an incredible season.
Over the course of the season, 197 different players sat down in at least one Dead Man’s Hand Poker tournament, including 37 people who were brand new to the league.
That kind of growth still blows me away.
Whether you played once, showed up every week, brought a friend, helped deal, supported our venues or simply became part of the community, thank you.
Championship Day is really the culmination of all of that, and it only happens because so many of you keep showing up and making Dead Man’s Hand Poker what it is.
And after all of that, there could only be one Dog Days Champion.
Shivang Raichura is the 2026 Dog Days Champion!🏆🤠
And the final hand delivered about as much drama as you could ask for.
Shiv entered heads-up with a massive chip lead, but Scott Simpson suddenly had a real chance to make a contest out of it when the two got everything in pre-flop.
Scott held A-J against Shiv’s K-Q, putting Scott in excellent shape to double up.
Then an ace hit the turn.
That left Shiv with only four outs to end the tournament.
Naturally, because poker enjoys cruelty and theatre in equal measure, one of those four outs arrived on the river.
Shiv completed Broadway, Scott’s comeback was stopped one card short, and Shiv became the 2026 Dog Days Champion!
WTG SHIV!🏆
And Scott’s runner-up finish was a pretty remarkable story of its own.
Scott was a New Player this season, earned his seat through one of our Wildcard events, and then rode that Wildcard all the way to 2nd place in the Championship.
He also wasn’t the only New Player to reach the final table. Dolly Catherwood finished 8th, giving us two New Players at the Championship final table.
And here’s another stat I absolutely love: Shivang Raichura, Scott Simpson and Allen Botelho, the final three players remaining, all started the tournament together at Table 1.
Apparently Table 1 was where we accidentally stored the final three.😂
The Championship final table finished:
1st – Shivang Raichura
2nd – Scott Simpson
3rd – Allen Botelho
4th – Amit Jhamb
5th – Pat Butera
6th – Judy Webster
7th – Beverley Terceira
8th – Dolly Catherwood
9th – Chris Plested
10th – Gerry Cornell
And sitting just outside the final table in 11th place was Tony Nacev, making him the official winner of our brand-new Bubble Shirt.
The shirt entitles Tony to DOUBLE Reward Cards every time he wears it for the rest of the Harvest Moon Showdown season.
At least, it did for a few minutes.
Almost immediately, Amit Jhamb offered Tony $100 for the shirt, Tony accepted, and just like that we had our first-ever Bubble Shirt transaction.
So despite finishing 4th, Amit will be the one wearing the Bubble Shirt this fall.
And something tells me Amit is going to get a whole lot more mileage out of that thing than Tony ever would have anyway.😂
Earlier in the day, Allen Botelho captured the Stay & Play Championship.
Allen defeated Ron Haynes heads-up, and both players had already won this Championship before.
With the victory, Allen became the first player to earn a second Stay & Play Championship emoji beside his name in the standings.
And for a while, Allen was threatening to pull off the Championship double.
After winning the Stay & Play Championship, he made it all the way to 3rd place in the Main Championship, coming incredibly close to capping off an already historic Dog Days season by winning both tournaments he entered.
Although, hilariously, Allen has actually done slightly better than that before.
The first time he won the Stay & Play Championship, he went on to finish 2nd in the Main Championship.
So apparently winning the S&P and finishing 3rd in the Main is actually a step backwards by Allen standards.
Allen also made one of the nicest gestures of the day, donating his three-course dinner for four prize from The Kitchen Coach to Karen Rossignol.
And yes, he made that generous gesture before later eliminating Karen as the very first player out of the Main Championship.
Poker friendships remain a complicated business.
The New Players Championship belonged to Ozzy Sousa.
Ozzy entered Championship Day fresh off two wins during the opening week of the Harvest Moon Showdown, and after finishing the Dog Days at the top of the New Players standings, he backed it all up by winning the New Players Championship.
Glenn “Murph” Murphy finished runner-up.
Congratulations to Ozzy, our newest New Players Champion!
We also took some time during the dinner break to recognize the players who put together standout Dog Days seasons.
Tom Whattam – Tied for Most Wins: 4
Chris Higham – Tied for Most Wins: 4
Matt Clayman – Tied for Highest Attendance: 48 appearances
Lesli Gladstone – Tied for Highest Attendance: 48 appearances
Karen Rossignol – Special Stay & Play Award: 15 S&P wins and 1,575 points
Elizabeth Bencke – Highest Average Points with fewer than 30 appearances: 298.7
Scott Smith – Highest Final Table Percentage with fewer than 30 appearances: 41.7%
Chris Plested – Highest Average Bounties with fewer than 30 appearances: 1.9
Avi Saliba – Most Bounties Turned In for Reward Cards: 68
We also had prize draws won by Rob Gracie and Kerry Duggan.
And then there was Allen Botelho.
Allen finished the Dog Days with:
13,893 points
109 bounties
17 final tables
315.4 average points with 30+ appearances
That haul earned Allen $300 in gift cards.
And because apparently that wasn’t enough hardware for one day, Allen had already won the Stay & Play Championship earlier in the afternoon before collecting all of those awards at the dinner break.
Some people really do need to learn to leave a little something for everybody else.😂
Championship Day is a very long day, and there is absolutely no way I could pull one of these things off by myself.
First, a huge thank you to Owen, Rachele, Mel and the entire kitchen staff at Brown Barrel for hosting us and helping everything run as smoothly as it did.
Hosting a room full of poker players for an entire Championship Day is probably not listed in anyone’s job description, but they took great care of us from beginning to end.
Another enormous thank you goes to Rob Gracie, who once again spent the day doing double duty as both poker player and resident DMHP photographer.
Rob somehow managed to photograph the entire day for us while also making a pretty decent run himself, finishing 3rd in the Stay & Play Championship, and lasting til the final 3 tables of the main.
Click any of the photos in this section and it will take you directly to Rob’s full Championship gallery.
There’s a pretty good chance Rob caught a great action shot of you somewhere during the day.
He may have even caught a few spectators lurking mysteriously in the background.👀😂
A huge thank you as well to our prize donors: Shai Mohindra, Carrigan Arms and Brown Barrel.
And once again, thank you to Pat Butera and Matt Clayman for stepping in to deal.
Pat actually got to play the Main Championship this time, unlike last season when he came in just to help us out.
And Matt also improved dramatically on last season’s performance by managing not to be the first player eliminated after his dealing duties were finished.
Progress comes in many forms.😂
Thanks to everyone who contributed, we raised $425 toward Rachele’s Steel Town Heroes calendar.
That money will help Rachele create the calendar, which will then be used to raise even more money for Above & Beyond, the day program for adults with disabilities that we’ll also be supporting with our November 7th fundraiser tournament.
So the money raised on Championship Day isn’t the end of that story. It’s helping get another fundraiser off the ground that will ultimately put even more money toward a very worthwhile program.
And I have to give one more thank you to Lesley.
Championship Day is the visible part of all this, but there are a lot of hours, headaches, spreadsheets, messages, planning and general poker-league nonsense that happen long before everybody walks through the door.
Lesley puts up with all of it.
She listens when I’m excited about something, listens when I’m frustrated about something, helps when I need another set of hands, and somehow continues to support this thing even when Dead Man’s Hand Poker has completely taken over another corner of our lives.
She didn’t make the Championship run she would have wanted this time, but none of that changes how proud I am of her or how grateful I am to have her beside me through all of this.
Thank you for always having my back, sweetie. I love you.❤
And finally, thank you to everybody who qualified, played, dealt, helped, donated, took photos, bought draws, stuck around, cheered people on and helped make Championship Day what it was.
These events have become something I’m genuinely proud of, and that only happens because all of you keep showing up and making them worth doing.
Congratulations again to Shivang Raichura, Allen Botelho and Ozzy Sousa, our three newest Champions.🏆🤠
That officially closes the book on the 2026 Dog Days.
And judging by what has already happened during the first couple of weeks of the Harvest Moon Showdown...
I have a feeling the next Championship is going to get interesting.
🌺 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! 🤠🌴
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
