The Annual · 3rd Denny Poker Tournament
Joe Defends It, and the Field Nearly Doubles
Sixteen players, nine hours, and the first man to win this tournament twice.
A year of league poker did this. The first two Annuals drew nine players each; this one drew sixteen, put $800 in the middle, paid five places and ran eight hours and fifty-seven minutes. Joe Johnson won it for the second year running — six knockouts, more than anyone in the room, and a nine-minute heads-up match to close. It pays $350, and he is the first man to hold this trophy twice.
The pattern at the top is becoming a habit. Joe was third in 2007 and won in 2008; the man he beat on Saturday, Dan Myers, won in 2007 and was third in 2008. Between them they have now taken every Annual there has been. Dan earns $200 for second.
Josh Reel played his first Annual and finished third for $125, in what is also his first season of league poker. Chris Johnson took fourth and $75 — runner-up here last year, and second in the league standings this season. Tom Buzbee completed the money in fifth for $50, three weeks after winning the league’s season finale.
Where the money went
| Player | Prize | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Johnson | $350 |
| 2 | Dan Myers | $200 |
| 3 | Josh Reel | $125 |
| 4 | Chris Johnson | $75 |
| 5 | Tom Buzbee | $50 |
The undercard
Eric Denny bubbled in sixth in his own house, a place outside the money for the third May in a row. Rick Mazza took eighth with two knockouts, the most by anybody who did not cash. Dave Grewe played his first Annual and was the first man out, after four hours and twenty-six minutes — which on a nine-hour night barely counts as leaving early.
The bigger picture
Three Annuals, two different winners, and one of them now has two.
This one arrives three weeks after the first Canterberry Poker League season was settled, and the man who won that is Warren Mervin. Ten months of league poker, ninety-eight points, three wins and the title — and then eleventh of sixteen on the night everybody turns up. That is the Annual for you: a longer, deeper Saturday in a much bigger room, and one that has so far paid no attention at all to what the standings say.
The 3rd Annual Denny Poker Tournament — Saturday, May 9, 2009. 16 entrants, no rebuys, five paid from an $800 prize pool.