Pitchford Does Double With English Online Title

Pitchford: APAT English Online Champion 2009

Sutton in Ashfield’s Paul Pitchford won his second APAT Championship title within three weeks when capturing the sixth online event of APAT’s third season; the English Online Championship, at Blue Square Poker.

Pitchford; who took the Omaha Championship at the recent APAT World Championship of Amateur Poker festival held at Dusk Till Dawn, achieved victory in six hours and walked away with the English Online Championship Title, Gold Medal and a seat at the prestigious GUKPT Champion of Champions event in December, courtesy of tour sponsor Blue Square Poker.

Competitors started the event with a 10,000 chip deepstack and 15 minute blinds, but despite the generous structure ‘spudgun007fizzle’ became the first player to exit within 25 minutes.

The final table was reached after five hours of play, with UK Amateur Champion and current National Rankings leader Steve ‘amrn’ Redfern sitting comfortably as chipleader, following the exit in 11th of ‘panchowin’.

This final table line up was as follows:

Seat 1 – walwyn1 – 41k
Seat 2 – amrn – 144k (chipleader)
Seat 3 – idrivetractors – 107k
Seat 4 – pables – 85k
Seat 5 – igetthere – 113k
Seat 6 – sirperceval – 47k
Seat 7 – swinebag22 – 63k
Seat 8 – cashman0 – 57k
Seat 9 – zzzzzzzzrope – 93k
Seat 10 – scandicrusher – 128k

The blinds were at 2,500 / 5,000 as play started on the final table and aggression was the order of the day. Redfern lost a 145k pot early on to Pitchford, who was playing as ‘igetthere’, when he found his second pair on the flop considerably behind the recently crowned WCOAP Horse Champion’s trip Queens.

With the action fast and furious it wasn’t long until the exits started to arrive. ‘Walwyn1’ exited in 10th when his Jacks lost out to the pocket Queens of ‘pables’. ‘Cashman0’ went in 9th when his Ace Queen failed to connect and beat ‘scandicrusher’s’ pocket Jacks. ‘Scandicrusher’ himself went in 8th, when his pocket 10’s failed to hold against ‘igetthere’s’ Ace King – the Ace coming on the flop.

Meanwhile, Scottish Team Captain Stuart ‘sirperceval’ Oliver doubled up when catching a Jack on the turn to overturn his opponent’s lead. Big online winner Rob ‘swinebag22’ Swindells went in 7th when his pocket Sixes fell behind on the turn to ‘igetthere’s’ trip Kings. Redfern went in 6th despite taking the lead on the turn against ‘zzzzzzzzrope’, but the recently crowned European Online Champion improved on the river to send ‘amrn’ to the rail.

Stuart Oliver went in 5th when four diamonds delivered the second nut flush for his opponent ‘zzzzzzzzrope’, and a sizeable watching contingent began to wonder whether Ayreshire’s Grant Cook could become the first APAT member in over three years to win back to back online titles.

At this point the short stacked ‘idrivetractors’ started raising and re-raising with authority; most notably when his pocket Aces took a 279k pot against Cook’s pocket 9’s, to push himself back into contention for the title.

It was ‘pables’ who eventually exited medal-less when his King Queen lost to the Ace Ten of ‘igetthere’. Grant Cook eventually failed in his bid to secure back to back online titles going in 3rd for the Bronze Medal, when his Ace Jack failed to improve against ‘idrivetractors’ pocket 2’s.

Simon ‘idrivetractors’ Alcock took the first hand of heads up but ultimately lost the battle a short while later when holding a King Queen. A promising looking flop brought a Five, Queen and Six and when the chips found their way into the middle Alcock could hardly believe his luck when Paul Pitchford revealed a pocket Six and Five for the flopped two pair. A Ten and a Nine didn’t help Alcock and it was a sensational result for Pitchford, who becomes only the second player ever to win APAT Live and Online Championship titles.

The final prize allocation was as follows:-

1st – igetthere – $1,335 – Gold Medal – GUKPT Champions Seat
2nd – idrivetractors – $890 – Silver Medal
3rd – zzzzzzzzrope – $556 – Bronze Medal
4th – pables – $422
5th – sirperceval – $334
6th – amrn – $267
7th – swinebag22 – $223
8th – scandicrusher – $178
9th – cashman0 – $134
10th – walwyn1 – $111

The top 18 players received Online Championship ranking points. The top three players also received an option to enter the English Amateur Poker Championship in Bolton in October.

The top three players were Paul Pitchford (‘igetthere’), Simon Alcock (‘idrivetractors’) and Grant Cook (‘ZZZZZZZZROPE’). They will be presented with their Medals at the English Amateur Poker Championship on October 24th & 25th.