Eight Deuce · Tournament #46

Justin Vaughn Wins His Third, and Eric Denny Is Second for the Second Month

Six tournaments, six different winners — the league has never opened a season this way.

Justin Vaughn made four knockouts, beat Eric Denny heads-up in nineteen minutes and won $470 from a tournament that ran five hours and twenty-two minutes. It is his third Eight Deuce win, fourteen months after his second, and all three of his career wins have come in this league.

Eric took $305. He won last month and has now been in the last two of both, having made three knockouts on Friday to go with the six of four weeks ago.

Juan Lopez rebought and took third and $210, his first cash in over a year, and Steve McLean was fourth for $155.

Where the money went

The undercard

Andrew Shier rebought and bubbled in fifth, matching the fifth place he took on his return in February. Sean Denny made two knockouts and finished ninth in his third tournament.

Rick Mazza was the first player out after fifty-one minutes, the second-quickest exit in the league’s history — and the quickest, forty-one minutes in February 2021, was also his.

The bigger picture

Six tournaments and six different winners. No season has done that before — 2021 and 2022 both reached five before repeating, and 2023 had a repeat winner by the fourth.

Sixteen players and five rebuys made $1,140, a sixth straight tournament over $1,100. The season stands at $7,500, which is already more than the whole of 2024 produced by August.

Lee Ugarte leads on 238.71 without playing on Friday, eight ahead of Eric Denny and fifteen ahead of Justin Vaughn.

Eight Deuce #46 — Friday, June 20, 2025. 16 entrants, 5 rebuys, four paid from a $1,140 prize pool. Player of the Year counts each player’s best eight scores.