The Annual · 14th Denny Poker Tournament

Rick Mazza Wins It at the Fourteenth Attempt

He has played every Annual since 2007 and never won one. Eight knockouts, $920, and the first trophy of his life.

Rick Mazza played the first Annual Denny Poker Tournament in 2007 and every one since. In thirteen attempts he had finished third once, fourth twice, and nothing else better than seventh. On Saturday, at the fourteenth, he knocked out eight of the nineteen players and won it for $920.

Eight equals the most anybody has ever made at this tournament — Scott Dishong managed it in 2013 and Greg Howell last year. Rick took out the four men who finished directly behind him, and the ninth, fifteenth and sixteenth as well.

The finish took four minutes, at the end of nine hours and twenty-one minutes. Jeff Reichwein lost it and took $520 for second — two months after finishing second in the league without winning a tournament all season.

Juan Lopez was third for $380, Eric Denny fourth for $300 with four knockouts, and Warren Mervin completed the money in fifth for $220.

Where the money went

The undercard

Steve McLean bubbled in sixth with two knockouts. Angela Cain was the first player out and it still took five hours and forty-six minutes to get her there.

Six rebuys went in. Lee Ugarte finished ninth without a knockout, and Mike McEvoy, who won the last league tournament eight weeks ago, came eighteenth.

The bigger picture

Fourteen Annuals, ten different winners. Joe Johnson has three, Josh Reel and Brian Albers two apiece, and seven others one each.

This is the first of these played with no Canterberry Poker League behind it. The league closed in April after twelve seasons and 120 tournaments; the Annual, which started a year before it and has always been its own event, carries on.

The 14th Annual Denny Poker Tournament — Saturday, June 13, 2020. 19 entrants, 6 rebuys, five paid from a $2,340 prize pool.