Eight Deuce · Tournament #58

Warren Wins the Rematch

Nine months after the Tournament of Champions, the same two men got heads-up — and it was over in 157 seconds.

You could not have scripted it. The last time Warren Mervin and Jeff Ferguson were the last two men at a table, it was the 2025 Tournament of Champions and they went at it for twenty-three minutes. On Friday they did it again — and this time Warren needed two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. The fastest heads-up finish of the season, and $480 for the man who has now beaten Jeff to the finish twice.

It ends a long wait. This is Eight Deuce win number four for Warren and his first since March of last year — seventeen months of showing up without one — and it puts him on 15 career wins once his Canterberry Poker League record is counted. Add the 2025 Tournament of Champions on top of that and there is a very short list of players in this league with a better résumé.

Jeff has nothing to apologize for. Three knockouts, four and a half hours in the chair, and $310 for second — his third money finish of 2026 and the kind of night that keeps a man in the Player of the Year conversation. He just keeps running into the same guy at the end.

Third and $210 went to Joe Johnson, the runaway leader of this season, who added two knockouts and stretched his advantage at the top without ever really threatening the win. And fourth for $160: Sean Denny, who is quietly doing something remarkable. That is three fourth-place finishes in a row — June, July and now August — and on Friday he was the most dangerous man in the room, knocking out five players, more than anybody else at the table. He has yet to win one of these. It is coming.

Where the money went

The undercard

The cruelest seat belonged to David Doole, out fifth on the money bubble after four and a half hours and two knockouts of his own. Shawn Miller went out sixth, one place further back. Eric Denny took seventh and did real damage doing it, sending three players home including the first man out. Lance Cain was eighth. Joe Rottinghaus drew the short night, gone in an hour and twenty-nine minutes.

The bigger picture

Eight tournaments, six different winners, and Warren claims the sixth Tournament of Champions berth of 2026. Win one, you're in — four seats left, and two regular-season tournaments to go before the Annual.

Up top, though, the picture is getting harder to argue with. Johnson sits on 450.30 points from six tournaments and leads by more than 170. Warren's win lifts him to third at 273.06, just behind Eric on 276.04, with Brian Connolly and Andrew Shier packed in right behind. Second place is a genuine scrap. First place is starting to look like a formality.

Eight Deuce #58 — Friday, August 14, 2026. 18 entrants and 3 rebuys, four places paid from a $1,160 prize pool. Play ran from 7:05 p.m. to 11:58 p.m. Points shown are the Player of the Year standings after eight tournaments of the 2026 season.