Eight Deuce · Tournament #7

Eric Denny Knocks Out Eight and Clears the Whole Final Table Himself

Every player who finished second through sixth was put out by the same man.

Eric Denny made eight of the fifteen eliminations on Friday — more than half of them, and more than anyone has managed in an Eight Deuce tournament — and won it in four hours and six minutes for $395.

The last stretch was entirely his work: the players who finished second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth were every one of them knocked out by Eric. Once the table got short, nobody else sent anyone home.

It is his first win in this league and the fifteenth of his career, and he had waited seven tournaments for it after cashing twice in February and March and then missing three in a row.

Jason Dailey lasted nine and a half minutes heads-up and took $235 for second, his first cash here in four attempts. Josh Reel was third for $165, and Lance Cain fourth for $125 — his first cash too, after seven tournaments of finishing between fifth and twelfth.

Where the money went

The undercard

Jeff Holderman, who leads the Player of the Year race and had finished in the top three in all five tournaments he had played, was the first player out this time, after an hour and twenty-one minutes. Rick Mazza did it to him, then went out tenth himself.

Warren Mervin bubbled in fifth. Angela Cain came eighth, four places behind her husband, a month after her first cash in this league.

The bigger picture

Seven tournaments have produced six winners; only Rick Mazza has two. Holderman’s bad night barely dented him — he still leads on 275.98, twenty-two ahead of Josh Reel, because a thirteenth-place score of 9.14 counts for very little and the title runs on a player’s best eight anyway.

With three tournaments to go, four players are within a hundred points of him.

Eight Deuce #7 — Friday, July 9, 2021. 13 entrants, 3 rebuys, four paid from a $920 prize pool. Player of the Year counts each player’s best eight scores.