Eight Deuce · Tournament #8

Eric Denny Does It Again, and Jeff Holderman Finishes Second for the Fourth Time

Seven knockouts, a two-minute-fifty-three heads-up match, and the league’s first back-to-back winner.

A month after knocking out eight players and winning, Eric Denny knocked out seven and won again — exactly half the night’s eliminations, three hours and forty-six minutes, and $370. Nobody had won two Eight Deuce tournaments in a row before.

The end came fast. Jeff Holderman got heads-up and lasted two minutes and fifty-three seconds, the quickest finish the league has staged, and collected $220 for a fourth second-place. In seven tournaments he has one win, four runner-up finishes, a third and a thirteenth.

Eric now has two wins here and sixteen across both leagues.

Justin Vaughn was third for $150 and Rick Mazza fourth for $120, which keeps Mazza in the money for the third time in eight.

Where the money went

The undercard

Mike McEvoy bubbled in fifth, his best finish since joining in February. Warren Mervin was the first player out for the second time this season, after an hour and fifty minutes.

Josh Reel, who won in May, went tenth, and Shawn Miller eleventh — both of them beaten by players they have been finishing ahead of all year.

The bigger picture

Eight tournaments, six winners, and the two men doing the winning lately are the two chasing each other in the standings from opposite directions. Jeff Holderman leads on 325.98 with seven starts; Eric Denny is second on 274.96 off eight, having spent the first six months of the season nowhere near the top.

Two tournaments remain. Because the title counts a player’s best eight scores and Holderman has played only seven, every remaining night is pure upside for him.

Eight Deuce #8 — Friday, August 13, 2021. 14 entrants, 1 rebuy, four paid from an $860 prize pool. Player of the Year counts each player’s best eight scores.