Tournament of Champions · 2022
Steve McLean Takes the Tournament of Champions
He won the tournament that opened the season and the one that closed the year.
The season’s seven tournament winners came back on Sunday, joined by Josh Reel and Eric Denny, and Steve McLean beat the lot of them. Five knockouts, four hours and twelve minutes, and $445.
Mac won the January opener and has now won the last event of the year, ten months apart, with nothing in between. It is his second trophy of 2022; he played the first Tournament of Champions last December and went sixth.
Juan Lopez was second for $260 after eighteen minutes heads-up, five weeks after winning the season finale. Justin Vaughn made three knockouts and took third and $175.
Where the money went
| Player | Prize | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steve McLean | $445 |
| 2 | Juan Lopez | $260 |
| 3 | Justin Vaughn | $175 |
The undercard
Lance Cain bubbled in fourth in a field where three of nine were paid. Lee Ugarte, the Player of the Year with four wins to his name this season, went sixth.
Josh Reel, eight days after winning his third Annual, finished eighth. Shawn Miller was the first player out after eighty-four minutes.
The bigger picture
Nine players, $880, and three places paid — a bigger pool than last year’s eight-man edition, with the same shape. Steve McLean, Juan Lopez, Justin Vaughn, Lance Cain, Eric Denny, Lee Ugarte, Paul Coffman, Josh Reel and Shawn Miller made up the field.
That closes 2022: twenty tournaments played in the league’s two years, seven different men winning something this season, and one of them — Lee Ugarte — winning four.
The 2022 Tournament of Champions — Sunday, November 20, 2022. 9 entrants, 2 rebuys, three paid from an $880 prize pool. The field is built from the season’s tournament winners; the event is separate from the Eight Deuce season and does not count toward the Player of the Year.