Canterberry Poker League · Tournament #98
Eight Tournaments, Eight Winners — and Lee Ugarte Knocks Out Half the Field
No season had ever gone past seven without a repeat. This one has.
Fourteen players had to be eliminated and Lee Ugarte eliminated seven of them — exactly half — on the way to his seventh Canterberry Poker League win, twenty-two months after his sixth. Three hours and fifty-four minutes, $115.
It also makes this season the most open in the league’s history. Eight tournaments have produced eight different winners; the previous best was seven, reached in 2011-12 and again in 2012-13, and neither of those made it to eight.
Rick Mazza was second for $80 with three knockouts after a twenty-one-minute heads-up match, three months after ending his own fifty-three-month wait for a win.
Jeff Reichwein took third and $55, and Paul Coffman completed the money in fourth for $30 without making a knockout.
Where the money went
| Player | Prize | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lee Ugarte | $115 |
| 2 | Rick Mazza | $80 |
| 3 | Jeff Reichwein | $55 |
| 4 | Paul Coffman | $30 |
The undercard
Greg Howell bubbled in fifth with two knockouts. Duane Barone was the first player out after an hour and twenty-four minutes, four weeks after winning — and by his own standards that counts as a long night.
Eric Denny came fourteenth of fifteen, one of the seven the winner put out.
The bigger picture
Eight winners from eight, and between them they hold forty-three league wins — though twenty-two of those belong to two men, and two of the eight are on a single career win apiece.
Charlie Drotar still leads on 87 points without having played on Friday. He has been top of the table for three tournaments now, and he has not won one since April 2013. Lee is second on 83, Eric Denny third on 81. Two remain.
| League standings — after #98 | Points | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Charlie Drotar | 87 |
| 2 | Lee Ugarte | 83 |
| 3 | Eric Denny | 81 |
| 4 | David Doole | 80 |
| 5 | Andrew Shier | 77 |
Canterberry Poker League #98 — Friday, February 9, 2018. 15 entrants, four paid from a $280 prize pool. Points shown are the league standings after eight tournaments of the 2017-18 season, best five scores counting.