Season Review · 2023
Jeff Holderman Comes All the Way Back
A year after cashing in nothing, he took the season title, the Annual, and the most money anyone made.
In 2022 Jeff Holderman played seven Eight Deuce tournaments and did not cash in one of them, went out first in the Annual and finished last in the season finale. In 2023 he won the Player of the Year for a second time, won the Annual, and led the league in money and knockouts. Nobody else has won the season title twice.
The champion
Holderman played all ten. He won #22 in February, two years to the day after his only previous win, and #24 in April; he then cashed in five consecutive tournaments between June and August. He finished on 304.21, thirty-five clear of Mike McEvoy, with $1,120 and 21 knockouts, both the best in the league.
The Annual was the piece that made the year. He knocked out nine players — exactly as he had in 2021, when he lost heads-up — and this time won it.
Ten tournaments, eight winners
| Winner | Date | Field | First prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #21 | Lee Ugarte | January 13 | 16 | $430 |
| #22 | Jeff Holderman | February 10 | 15 | $340 |
| #23 | Mike McEvoy | March 10 | 14 | $440 |
| #24 | Jeff Holderman | April 14 | 13 | $310 |
| #25 | Juan Lopez | May 12 | 13 | $360 |
| #26 | Steve McLean | June 9 | 13 | $335 |
| #27 | Eric Denny | July 14 | 12 | $320 |
| #28 | Josh Reel | August 11 | 17 | $430 |
| #29 | Mike McEvoy | September 22 | 12 | $310 |
| #30 | David Doole | October 6 | 14 | $340 |
Eight different winners, matching 2021 and two better than 2022. Only Holderman and Mike McEvoy won twice, and four of the eight had gone well over a year without a win before taking one: Steve McLean seventeen months, Eric Denny twenty-three, David Doole twenty-five, Josh Reel twenty-seven.
Mike McEvoy’s year
Mike McEvoy played ten Eight Deuce tournaments in 2021 and 2022 and never once finished in the money. He cashed for the first time in February, won in March, won again in September with six knockouts out of twelve, finished second in the standings and then won the Tournament of Champions in December. Everything he has to show for four years in this league happened inside eleven months.
Angela Cain’s year
Angela Cain finished third in the Player of the Year standings on 246.62, comfortably her best season. She cashed four times from eight starts — third in January, third in March, fourth in August and third again in the finale — and she was fourth in the Annual the previous November, her first time in the money in that event.
The final standings
| Player of the Year — 2023 final | Played | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Holderman | 10 | 304.21 |
| 2 | Mike McEvoy | 8 | 269.16 |
| 3 | Angela Cain | 8 | 246.62 |
| 4 | Josh Reel | 7 | 246.13 |
| 5 | Lee Ugarte | 8 | 242.72 |
| 6 | Shawn Miller | 7 | 229.25 |
| 7 | David Doole | 7 | 227.61 |
| 8 | Eric Denny | 10 | 225.54 |
| 9 | Juan Lopez | 5 | 217.14 |
| 10 | Warren Mervin | 10 | 213.45 |
The Annual and the Tournament of Champions
Jeff Holderman won the seventeenth Annual on November 11 for $670, in a day that ran nine hours and fifty-two minutes. Fourteen players and four rebuys made $1,680, the smallest Annual pool since 2015. Paul Coffman was second, his third runner-up finish in the event, and Juan Lopez third for the third Annual in a row.
Mike McEvoy won the Tournament of Champions on December 1 for $485, the biggest prize that event has paid. Holderman was second there too.
What the year showed
The money slipped for the first time: $9,080 against $9,520 in 2022 and $9,200 in 2021. Seven of the ten tournaments came in under $1,000, where 2022 had five, and no field went above seventeen or below twelve — steadier than 2022, which swung from eighteen to ten, but smaller on average.
Eighteen players took part. Warren Mervin and Eric Denny played all ten alongside the champion. Warren’s season is worth its own line: four top-four finishes and $790, more money than all but three men made, and after twenty-eight Eight Deuce tournaments he has still never won one.
Add the Annual and the Tournament of Champions and 2023 paid out $11,710. The fourth season begins in January.
2023 — the third Eight Deuce season. 10 tournaments, 18 players, $9,080 in regular-season prize money. Player of the Year counts each player’s best eight scores. The Annual and the Tournament of Champions are separate events and do not count toward it.