Tournament of Champions · 2025
Warren Mervin Takes the Richest Prize Outside the Annual
$620 for the winner, $80 for third, and the man who won everything else all year went out sixth.
Nine players and four rebuys made $1,040, and the payout was top-heavy: $620 for winning, $340 for second, $80 for third. Warren Mervin took the top one after five hours and thirty-seven minutes and a twenty-three-minute heads-up match.
Only the Annual has ever paid a bigger first prize, and this is Warren’s second trophy of the year after March’s tournament. He won the Player of the Year in 2024 and the Canterberry League Championship in 2008-09, so he now has a season title in each league and a Tournament of Champions on top.
Jeff Ferguson made three knockouts, more than anyone, and took $340 for second — his fourth runner-up finish in a marquee event, against the one win he finally got in September. Justin Vaughn was third for $80.
Where the money went
| Player | Prize | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Warren Mervin | $620 |
| 2 | Jeff Ferguson | $340 |
| 3 | Justin Vaughn | $80 |
The undercard
Brian Connolly rebought and bubbled in fourth. Lance Cain, who won the season finale five weeks ago, took fifth.
Eric Denny — Player of the Year, Annual champion, twice a tournament winner this season — went out sixth despite two knockouts. Jeff Holderman was the first player out.
The bigger picture
Warren Mervin, Jeff Ferguson, Justin Vaughn, Brian Connolly, Lance Cain, Eric Denny, Shawn Miller, Lee Ugarte and Jeff Holderman made up the field — eight of the season’s nine winners, with Shawn Miller alongside them.
That closes the league’s fifth year and its best one by every measure that can be counted: fifty tournaments played since January 2021, nine different winners in 2025 from ten tournaments, $11,560 in regular-season prize money, and twenty-five players through the door. Add the Annual and this and the year paid out $14,000.
The 2025 Tournament of Champions — Saturday, November 22, 2025. 9 entrants, 4 rebuys, three paid from a $1,040 prize pool. The field is built from the season’s tournament winners; the event is separate from the Eight Deuce season and does not count toward the Player of the Year.