Archive for Live Reports
Simon Auckland wins 2009 Welsh Amateur Poker Championship
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The APAT Welsh Amateur Poker Championships held at the Grosvenor Casino Cardiff was the second event of APAT’s third season, once again sponsored by Blue Square. Seats for the 160 player strong event sold out within minutes, confirming APAT’s popularity and highlighting the attraction of these events to a wide range of poker players.
Including alternates, 162 runners took part generating a prize pool of £12,150 and £3,200 to the winner. Included amongst the runners were last year’s winner Tim Magnus and Steve Redfern, winner of the UK Championships in Walsall that began Season Three.
Unlucky Dewi James was the first player to exit, on the second hand, when he flopped trip two’s. Unfortunately Michael Gale had flopped trip tens and turned quads. Meanwhile James Edwards limped with a pair of sevens and was rewarded when he flopped quads, to be paid with a full double-up when Alan Armitage turned the nut flush. By the dinner break previous event winner Steve Redfern was established as the chip leader, helped by beating Darren Shallis’ Aces with pocket Queens, rivering a straight, and busting Gerard Smyth’s Aces with Queen-Jack suited to knock him out.
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Steve Redfern Wins APAT UK Amateur Poker Championship
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The APAT UK Amateur Poker Championships held at the Grosvenor Casino Walsall was the first event of APAT’s third season and was once again sponsored by BlueSquare.com.
Seats for the 200 player strong event sold out within minutes confirming APAT’s popularity and highlighting the attraction of these events to a wide range of poker players.
The APAT buy in to National Championship events remains at £75 for Season Three, and all live events will remain registration free for the third consecutive season.
The structure of events has evolved to include antes in Season Three. Levels increase to 45 minutes and players once again start all main events with 10,000 chips.
Rich Offless Wins 2007 English Amateur Poker Championship
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The APAT Poker Association & Tour held the first event of its second season, the English Amateur Poker Championship in Walsall’s Grosvenor Casino, on 3rd-4th November. The event had 200 entries plus alternates, who qualified by high finishes in the first round of APAT Regional Events, online satellites and direct payment. The players were again offered a £75 freeze-out with 10,000 starting chips, a slow clock, £3,500 to the winner plus significant added value from new tour sponsors BlueSquare.com via the form of entry into a GUKPT event in 2008 in London worth $3,000 to the winner in addition to their cash prize, trophy, medal and Player of the Year ranking points.
Initial progress was slow with few exits and solid play seeming to be the order of the day. Post dinner several players began to emerge from the pack.
Amongst these were 18-year-old Jon Spinks from Devon, Darren Shallis, Steve Talbot and Rich Offless, a finalist at the last APAT National Championship. Indeed Talbot became the first player over the 100,000 chip mark when he managed to eliminate two players on one hand when calling two all-ins pre flop with JJ (versus QQ and KK): a jack flopping to give him trips. Towards the end of the day local player Mike Hopkinson went on a tear winning a series of races to rise to approaching 200,000 chips before Talbot matched him, eliminating Tom Fielding who had run his Kings into Talbot’s Aces.
Gareth Ower Wins 2007 APAT European Amateur Poker Championship
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The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) held its sixth event in its first season live series, the European Amateur Poker Championship in Luton’s new and sumptuous G Casino, on 25th-27th August. The event had 300 entries split over two starting days, the biggest ever field for an APAT tournament, who qualified by both online satellites and direct payment. The players were again offered a £75 freeze-out with 10,000 starting chips, a slow clock, £3,750 to the winner plus significant added value from new tour sponsors BlueSquare.com via the form of entry into November’s GUKPT grand Final in London worth $8,000 to the winner in addition to their cash prize, trophy, medal and Player of the Year ranking points.
With the Season One Player of the Year race only having two live events remaining, all the leading participants were present as they battled for the exciting prize for the Player of the Year, entry into the PokerStars.com sponsored EPT event in the Bahamas in early 2008.
Day 1a saw the field play down to 20 players headed by Danny Palmer with 170,500 chips followed by Ben Walton (120,000), Rupinder Bedi (111,000) and Gary Hartley (102,000). In a day of unavoidable confrontations the first player to exit, Chris Wilkinson, saw his Aces beaten by the flopped trip Jacks of John Huckle and there proceeded a number of set against set and over-pair against set eliminations. Indeed play finished two levels earlier than planned due to the pace of exits. English Amateur Champion Daniel Phillips never made significant progress and left the tournament in the middle of the first evening, whilst the same applied to rankings challenger Wayne Parker.
