Tournament of Champions · 2021

Josh Reel Takes the Tournament of Champions, and Jeff Holderman Runs Second for the Sixth Time

Eight winners, one table, and the same man left standing at the wrong end of it.

The eight men who won a tournament in 2021 sat down together on Friday to close the year, and Josh Reel beat all of them. He knocked out three, took the last one in eleven minutes after four hours and nine minutes, and collected $400 and the trophy.

The last one was Jeff Holderman, which will surprise nobody who watched this season. He made four of the nine eliminations, more than anyone, and finished second for $240 — the sixth time in 2021 he has finished second in something. He won the Player of the Year in October and has won exactly one tournament since February.

Paul Coffman, four weeks after taking the Annual, was third for $160.

Where the money went

The undercard

David Doole bubbled in fourth, one place off the money in a field where three of eight were paid. Eric Denny, one of the two men who won twice this season, went fifth.

Lee Ugarte was the first player out after two and a half hours — put there by Eric, who followed him out three places later.

The bigger picture

The field was the whole point: Josh Reel, Jeff Holderman, Paul Coffman, David Doole, Eric Denny, Steve McLean, Rick Mazza and Lee Ugarte — every winner the season produced, eight of them from ten tournaments, playing for a pool of $800 with three places paid.

Josh finishes the year with a tournament win in May and this. The Tournament of Champions is its own trophy and does not add to a player’s Eight Deuce win total, but it is the last thing anyone plays for in a season, and he is the first man to have won one.

The 2021 Tournament of Champions — Friday, December 3, 2021. 8 entrants, 2 rebuys, three paid from an $800 prize pool. The field is made up of the season’s tournament winners; the event is separate from the Eight Deuce season and does not count toward the Player of the Year.