The Annual · 13th Denny Poker Tournament

Greg Howell Knocks Out Eight and Wins $1,040

The biggest first prize this tournament has paid, and Brig Coupe reached the last two for the third year running.

Greg Howell knocked out eight of the twenty-one players in the 13th Annual Denny Poker Tournament — equalling the most anybody has managed here, set by Scott Dishong in 2013 — and won $1,040, which is more than this event has ever paid a winner.

It took nine and a half hours, and the finish took three and a half minutes. Brig Coupe lost it and took $580 for second, which means he has now reached the final two of this tournament three years in a row: second in 2017, first in 2018, second again.

The knockouts are becoming Greg’s signature. Five times in league play he has made four knockouts or more in a night, and four of those were wins; here he made twice that.

Charlie Drotar was third for $440, Rick Mickaliger fourth for $320 with three knockouts, and Duane Barone completed the money in fifth for $180.

Where the money went

The undercard

Jeff Reichwein bubbled in sixth. David Doole was the first player out and it took five hours and twenty-eight minutes to get him — one of Greg’s eight, as were the men who finished eighth, ninth, twelfth and seventeenth.

Dale Ellicott, three weeks into being League Champion, came sixteenth. Eight rebuys went in across the field.

The bigger picture

Thirteen Annuals, nine different winners. Joe Johnson has three, Josh Reel and Brian Albers two apiece, and six others one each — Greg the newest of them.

The money has settled at a new level. The last four Annuals have paid out $2,520, $2,865, $1,950 and $2,560; before 2016 this tournament had never put up more than $1,050 in total, and now it has paid a four-figure first prize twice in three years.

The 13th Annual Denny Poker Tournament — Saturday, May 11, 2019. 21 entrants, 8 rebuys, five paid from a $2,560 prize pool.