Eight Deuce · Tournament #12

Justin Vaughn Wins His First, After the Longest Heads-Up Match the League Has Had

Eighteen players, $1,160 on the table, and forty-seven minutes of two men refusing to finish.

Eighteen players and two rebuys made $1,160 on Friday, the most the league has ever assembled. Justin Vaughn took $460 of it after five knockouts and forty-seven minutes heads-up — ten minutes longer than any finish before it.

It is his first win. He had played fifteen tournaments across the two leagues without one, including two thirds here last year.

The man who would not go away was Josh Reel, who won the Tournament of Champions in December and made four knockouts on his way to $320.

Jason Dailey was third for $220, his second cash in eight, and Angela Cain fourth for $160 — her second in eleven, both of them fourth places.

Where the money went

The undercard

Juan Lopez bubbled in fifth, one place worse than last month and this time without the money. Eric Denny made four knockouts and came sixth.

Jeff Holderman went seventeenth of eighteen after an hour and twenty-six minutes. The reigning Player of the Year has now failed to cash in the season’s first two tournaments, having missed only twice in nine starts all last year.

Mike Conner was the first player out, at eighty minutes exactly.

The bigger picture

Everything about Friday was at or near a league record. Eighteen players matches the biggest field the league has drawn; $1,160 beats the previous best pool by eighty dollars; $460 equals the biggest first prize; and the heads-up match ran nearly a quarter of the tournament’s five hours and seven minutes.

Two tournaments, two winners. Justin Vaughn leads on 115.45, ten ahead of Steve McLean, and last season needed all ten nights to produce its eight champions.

Eight Deuce #12 — Friday, February 11, 2022. 18 entrants, 2 rebuys, four paid from a $1,160 prize pool. Player of the Year counts each player’s best eight scores.