Canterberry Poker League · Tournament #18

Dawn Wins It, and the League Has a New Kind of Winner

Eighteen tournaments, twelve winners, and the first of them who is not a man.

Dawn Buzbee knocked out two, played three hours and fifty-three minutes and came through a twelve-and-three-quarter-minute heads-up match to take $125 — her first Canterberry Poker League win, and the first this league has handed to a woman in eighteen tournaments.

She has been building to it since November 2008. A runner-up finish on the last night of the first season, a fourth in July, a sixth in October — and now the top of the page.

The man she outlasted was Eric Denny, second for $70, whose run of three wins in four ends one place short. Josh Reel took third and $40.

And fourth, for $25, went to Rick Mickaliger, who made six knockouts — half the field, three times the winner’s tally, and the most anybody has managed in this league without winning. In two league tournaments he has now made eleven.

Where the money went

The undercard

Mike Conner bubbled in fifth. The bottom of the field emptied fast: Rick Mazza went out twelfth in forty-eight minutes and Lee Ugarte was gone in thirty-seven, the quickest exit this league has recorded.

The bigger picture

Eight tournaments, five different winners, and the leader is still Eric on 102 points — twenty-two clear of Josh, and the first man in this league to pass a hundred in a season.

Two nights left. Behind Josh there are three men within seven points of second place, so the race for the places is a good deal livelier than the race for the title.

Canterberry Poker League #18 — Friday, February 12, 2010. 13 entrants, four paid from a $260 prize pool. Points shown are the league standings after eight tournaments of the 2009-10 season.