Eight Deuce · Tournament #53

Three For Three

Joe Johnson makes it a hat trick past midnight — and he did it with one knockout all night.

Stop me if you have heard this one. Joe won again. Three tournaments into the 2026 season, three wins. This one went past midnight — five hours and twenty minutes in the chair, the longest night of the young season — and it paid $495.

And here is the wild part: Joe did it with one knockout. One! He was not bulldozing anybody. He picked his spots, let the carnage happen around him, and was still sitting there when the chips ran out. That is a different way to win a poker tournament than he showed us in January, and it is the more impressive one.

The man doing the actual carnage was Jeff Ferguson, and folks, this was a performance. Eight knockouts. In a 19-player field, Jeff eliminated eight of the other eighteen players. He ran the table for four hours, dragged Joe to heads-up, and battled him for twenty minutes and twelve seconds before it finally ended. Ferguson takes $320, and he was one hand away from a night people would still be talking about in five years.

Third place and $220 went to Brian Connolly, who dug in with a rebuy and made it deep for the second straight month — second in February, third in March. Right behind him in fourth for $165 was Andrew Shier, who also rebought to stay alive and is putting together a season nobody can ignore: second in January, fourth here, and still hunting his first Eight Deuce win.

Where the money went

The undercard

Josh Maida was the bubble boy, going out fifth after four hours and change. Lee Ugarte made noise from seventh with three knockouts, and so did Eric Denny from ninth — both of them doing real damage without getting paid for it. Warren Mervin took sixth and Steve McLean eighth. Mike Conner drew the toughest seat of all, out first at just under an hour and fifty minutes, sent packing by Lee.

The bigger picture

Three tournaments, one winner, and a Player of the Year race that is starting to look lopsided. Joe has 365.00 points and a lead of more than 220 over Brian in second. Remember that only a player's best eight tournaments count toward the season, so there is a long way to go — but a man winning every time he shows up is not an easy thing to reel in.

The Tournament of Champions picture is the same story: still just one unique winner this season. With ten seats available and berths reserved for tournament winners, the rest of the field is currently playing for the at-large spots that go to the highest-rated top-ten players without a win. Somebody needs to break through.

Eight Deuce #53 — Friday, March 13, 2026. 19 entrants and 3 rebuys, four paid from a $1,200 prize pool. Chip counts settled at 12:24 a.m. Points shown are the Player of the Year standings after three tournaments of the 2026 season.