Eight Deuce · Tournament #14

Seventy-Four Minutes Heads-Up, and Lee Ugarte Is Still Standing

The last two players spent longer alone at the table than most tournaments take to reach one.

Two months ago the league’s longest heads-up match ran forty-seven minutes and looked like an outlier. On Friday Lee Ugarte and Eric Denny played for an hour and fourteen minutes after everyone else had gone home. Lee won it, and $430.

The whole thing took five hours and twenty-one minutes, the longest tournament the league has run. Lee made six knockouts and Eric five — eleven of the eighteen between the two who could not finish each other off. Eric took $295.

It is Lee’s second Eight Deuce win and the tenth of his career, and it comes almost exactly a year after his first. Paul Coffman was third for $205 and Jason Dailey fourth for $150, his second cash of the season.

Where the money went

The undercard

Steve McLean came into the night leading the Player of the Year race and finished sixteenth of sixteen, last out of the whole field. Josh Reel, who had cashed in each of the last two, went sixth.

Mike McEvoy bubbled in fifth without a knockout, and Jeff Holderman came tenth — four tournaments into his title defense and still without a cash.

The bigger picture

Four tournaments, four different winners. Lee Ugarte tops the standings on 218.34 with a win and two second places from four starts, and Mac holds second on 168.68 in spite of Friday.

Sixteen entries and three rebuys made $1,080, which ends a run of two straight record pools but still matches the best figure of all last season.

Eight Deuce #14 — Friday, April 8, 2022. 16 entrants, 3 rebuys, four paid from a $1,080 prize pool. Player of the Year counts each player’s best eight scores.