Season Review · 2026
The Joe Johnson Season
A record Player of the Year, the biggest field the league has ever had, Juan Lopez at the Tournament of Champions and Warren Mervin at the twentieth Annual.
Joe Johnson had never won an Eight Deuce tournament when 2026 began. He won the first three, added a fourth in September, and finished the year with 595.30 points, the highest Player of the Year total in Eight Deuce history, by the widest margin it has ever been won.
The champion
January, February, March: three wins in a row to open the season. Nobody in Eight Deuce had won more than two straight before. His 130 points at #52 are the most any player has scored in a single regular-season tournament, and the 125 he took at #51 are next on that list.
The fourth win came at #59 in September and settled the race with a tournament to spare. Four wins in a season ties Lee Ugarte’s 2022 for the league record, and the final margin of 252.85 points more than doubled the old mark of 112.04, also Lee’s, from that same year. He led the season in prize money, with $2,380, in knockouts, with 22, and in cashes, with six.
It is his first season title. He already had three Annual wins, from 2008, 2009 and 2016.
Ten tournaments, seven winners
| Winner | Date | Field | First prize | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #51 | Joe Johnson | January 9 | 20 | $440 |
| #52 | Joe Johnson | February 13 | 21 | $605 |
| #53 | Joe Johnson | March 13 | 19 | $495 |
| #54 | Steve McLean | April 10 | 15 | $405 |
| #55 | Eric Denny | May 15 | 15 | $460 |
| #56 | Shawn Miller | June 19 | 19 | $580 |
| #57 | Juan Lopez | July 10 | 18 | $445 |
| #58 | Warren Mervin | August 14 | 18 | $480 |
| #59 | Joe Johnson | September 18 | 13 | $370 |
| #60 | Jeff Ferguson | October 9 | 14 | $405 |
After Joe’s opening run, the next six tournaments went to six different players: Steve McLean, Eric Denny, Shawn Miller, Juan Lopez, Warren Mervin and, in the finale, Jeff Ferguson.
The final standings
| Player of the Year — 2026 final | Played | Points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Johnson | 8 | 595.30 |
| 2 | Jeff Ferguson | 8 | 342.45 |
| 3 | Shawn Miller | 8 | 311.82 |
| 4 | Warren Mervin | 9 | 302.54 |
| 5 | Eric Denny | 10 | 281.92 |
| 6 | Brian Connolly | 9 | 279.55 |
| 7 | Andrew Shier | 10 | 274.45 |
| 8 | Justin Vaughn | 9 | 237.76 |
| 9 | Juan Lopez | 7 | 223.10 |
| 10 | Josh Reel | 6 | 220.90 |
The stories of the season
The biggest night. Twenty-one players sat down for #52 in February, the largest field Eight Deuce has had. They built a $1,460 prize pool, a regular-season record, and Joe’s $605 for winning it is the biggest first prize any regular-season night has paid. Across the year the league paid out $11,660, an Eight Deuce record, from 172 entries, the most in any Eight Deuce season.
Second, second, first. Jeff Ferguson was runner-up at #53 in March and again at #58 in August. In the finale he got to heads-up a third time, against the Player of the Year, and won it, handing Joe the first second-place finish of his career. Jeff finished the year second in the standings.
Fourth, five times. Sean Denny played five tournaments, #56 through #60, and finished fourth in every one of them. Five starts, five cashes, sixteen knockouts.
Twice at the last hand. Brian Connolly reached heads-up at #52, in the biggest field of the year, and again at #57 in July. He finished second both times, and sixth in the standings.
Every night, and then some. Eric and Andrew Shier were the only two players at all ten tournaments. Andrew didn’t win one, but he was second in January, and in the autumn he finished third in the Tournament of Champions and third again in the Annual — the only player in the money at both.
The Tournament of Champions
Nine players met on October 30. Joe Johnson, the Player of the Year, did not play, and under the by-laws his seat was not filled. Juan Lopez, the #57 winner, knocked out five of the other eight and beat Shawn Miller in an eight-minute heads-up. On the last hand his ace of clubs paired the ace on the flop and held. It paid $505. Shawn took $275 for second and Andrew $80 for third.
The Annual
The twentieth Annual, on November 14, drew nineteen players and twelve rebuys, building a record $2,860 prize pool. Warren Mervin, playing it for the seventeenth time, won it for the first time: five knockouts, including the last three players left, and ace-king holding up against Josh Reel’s king-ten on the final hand. His $1,185 is the biggest first prize in Annual history.
Josh, one of the event’s two three-time winners, was second for $750. Andrew was third for $525. And the other three-time winner, Joe Johnson, back at the Annual for the first time since 2018, finished fourth for $400, one more cash to close out his year.
With the Tournament of Champions and the Annual, 2026 paid out $15,380. The seventh season begins with #61 on January 8, 2027.
2026 — the sixth Eight Deuce season. 10 tournaments, 24 players, $11,660 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.