Eight Deuce · Tournament #28

Josh Reel Wins His First Since 2021, and the Room Fills Back Up

Seventeen players — the biggest field in seventeen months — and the winner knocked out three of the other four who got paid.

Seventeen players turned up in August, the most since March of last year, and put $1,080 on the table after four straight months under $1,000. Josh Reel took $430 of it.

It is his second Eight Deuce win and his first since May 2021 — twenty-seven months and a great many second and third places ago. In between he won the Tournament of Champions and a third Annual, so he has hardly been idle; he simply had not won a Friday night. This is the thirteenth win of his career.

He made four knockouts and three of them were the men who finished second, third and fourth. Paul Coffman was second for $295 after five and a half minutes heads-up, his first cash since February.

Jeff Holderman took third and $205 with three knockouts, a fifth consecutive cash, and Angela Cain was fourth for $150 — her third cash of the season, all of them in the top four.

Where the money went

The undercard

Lee Ugarte made three knockouts and bubbled in fifth. Shawn Miller made three as well and finished seventh — six eliminations between two men who got nothing for them.

Steve McLean, who won in June, was the first player out after seventy-three minutes.

The bigger picture

Eight tournaments, seven winners, and Jeff Holderman is the only man with two. His lead is out to sixty-six on 300.39 and he has now cashed five times running; the two men closest to him, Josh Reel and Lee Ugarte, have played six and seven.

Two tournaments remain, and the format counts a player’s best eight scores — which means Holderman, who has played all eight, will start dropping his weakest results if he keeps turning up.

Eight Deuce #28 — Friday, August 11, 2023. 17 entrants, 2 rebuys, four paid from a $1,080 prize pool. Player of the Year counts each player’s best eight scores.