The Annual · 11th Denny Poker Tournament

Josh Reel Wins $1,000 After an Hour Heads-Up

Ten hours and forty-three minutes, the longest this tournament has ever run, and a heads-up match that took nearly sixty minutes of it.

The eleventh Annual Denny Poker Tournament ran ten hours and forty-three minutes — an hour longer than any before it — and paid $1,000 to Josh Reel, the first four-figure prize this event has produced. He knocked out six of the twenty-one, as many as anyone managed.

It is his second Annual, after 2015. Only Joe Johnson, with three, has more.

The finish alone lasted fifty-nine minutes and forty-three seconds. No heads-up match at this tournament had previously gone past thirty-four. Brig Coupe was on the other end of it and took $710 for second — three weeks after winning a Canterberry Poker League tournament in only the third he had ever played.

Rick Mickaliger was third for $495 with six knockouts of his own, matching the winner. Warren Mervin took fourth and $360 with five, and Duane Barone completed the money in fifth for $285.

Where the money went

The undercard

Josh Martin bubbled in sixth. Lance Cain was the first player out and it still took five hours and three minutes — longer than most league tournaments run in total.

Fourteen rebuys went in, more than this tournament has ever taken. Lee Ugarte and Eric Denny bought back twice each and finished fifteenth and twentieth.

The bigger picture

Eleven Annuals, seven different winners. Joe Johnson has three, Josh Reel and Brian Albers two each, and four others one apiece.

The money has changed shape entirely. Through 2015 this tournament had never put up more than $1,050 in total; the last two have paid $2,520 and $2,850, and first place this year was worth almost as much as the entire 2011 pool.

The newly crowned League Champion, David Doole, finished seventh.

The 11th Annual Denny Poker Tournament — Saturday, May 6, 2017. 21 entrants, 14 rebuys, five paid from a $2,850 prize pool.