Canterberry Poker League · Tournament #81

Steve McLean Opens the Season, Mike McEvoy Runs Second Again

Three consecutive runner-up finishes for a man who has never won one, and he made no knockouts in this one at all.

Steve McLean opened the 2016-17 season with four knockouts and his third Canterberry Poker League win — four hours and fifty-one minutes, $80, and a sixteen-minute heads-up match to close it.

The man across the table has been there before. Mike McEvoy finished second for $45, which is where he finished in March and in April as well. Three tournaments in a row he has reached the last two; thirty league tournaments in, he has still never won one. On Friday he did it without knocking anybody out.

Lee Ugarte was third and Eric Denny fourth, both for $30 and both with three knockouts. Jeff Holderman completed the money in fifth for $25 with two, in the first league tournament he has ever played.

Where the money went

The undercard

Paul Coffman, the reigning League Champion, bubbled in sixth. Angela Denhof also played her first league tournament and came twelfth — she is Eric Denny’s sister, and the winner put her out.

Jeff Schliem was the first player out after thirty-seven minutes, and Lance Cain followed ten minutes later. Mandy Denny made two knockouts and finished ninth.

The bigger picture

One tournament down, and the standings again count each player’s best five scores — the second season running under that rule, which last year handed the title to a man who played eight tournaments out of ten.

Steve McLean leads on 26 points. He has now won three league tournaments and two of them have come in the last seven months, after a gap of three years between the first and the second.

Canterberry Poker League #81 — Friday, June 10, 2016. 16 entrants, five paid from a $210 prize pool. First tournament of the 2016-17 season; standings count each player’s best five scores.