Archive for Press Releases
APAT Deepen Grassroots Reach With Pub Poker Acquisition
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London, May 16th, 2013 The Amateur Poker Association & Tour has today announced that it has acquired one of the UK’s leading pub poker chains; the Live Pub Poker League, in a deal designed to offer high quality poker experiences to amateur players of all levels.
APAT Managing Director, Des Duffy, explains “APAT is synonymous with providing high quality, value for money, poker experiences and we’re excited to extend that offer to recreational players in towns and cities across the UK through our Live Pub Poker League acquisition. The LPPL team are already delivering a fantastic product and we can see tremendous benefits in pooling our resources and schedules for the enjoyment and development of our wider player community.”
Reigning IPO champion and 2013 Irish Open finalist Tom Brady; owner of the Live Pub Poker League, stated “This was an amazing opportunity to develop the growth and longevity of LPPL – and a true testament to all our management team, players and venues across the UK that we have been recognized as the pub poker league of choice by such a significant brand as APAT. The benefits to all LPPL members will be substantial and we look forward immensely to working with APAT and seeing our members really start to climb, with earnest, the poker ladder.”
APAT announced that Brady will join the board of the new business and continue to oversee the running of the LPPL brand with his existing team.
About the Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT)
APAT; who acquired the Poker.co.uk online poker business last year, launched the UK’s first national poker tour back in 2006. With a reach that extends to every major casino chain in the country, the London based organisation has also held multi day national events in Austria, Estonia, Spain and at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. A tie up with the ISPT will see the APAT Masters being played on the pitch of Wembley Stadium at the start of June 2013. To cement its reputation as a proving ground for talented players, APAT can count WSOP, WPT and EPT title winners amongst players who have made national final tables over the years.
About the Live Pub Poker League (LPPL)
With a database of over 34,000 players, the Live Pub Poker League has become one of the UK’s premier pub poker league operators since launch in 2006. With a weekly schedule of over 200 tournaments in pubs and clubs, LPPL provides a fun, free, poker night out, with many of its players winning trips to prestigious poker destinations such as Prague, Dublin, Paris and Las Vegas through well-structured local, regional and national qualifying leagues and tournaments.
For Further Information
Please visit www.APAT.com or www.LivePubPokerLeague.com
For APAT Media/Commercial Enquiries:
Email: customer@apat.com
APAT Supports UK Deaf Poker
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The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) are pleased to announce it’s support for the upcoming UK Deaf Poker Main Event to be held at Star City, Birmingham on 15th June 2013.
The winner of this annual event will receive entry into the National Main Event of their choice for upcoming APAT Season Seven.
Alongside this, APAT will also provide a similar added value seat for the online version which will be held on APAT Online on Sunday 21st April 2013.
Players can dowload the APAT Software now via APAT.com and take advantage of the current sign up bonuses.
History of UK Deaf Poker
Back in 2007, Oliver Westbury worked on varying charity projects for his North Pole Expedition backed by National Deaf Children Society. One of his charity projects was to set up UK Deaf Poker as a one-off self-dealt event in Febraury 2008. Seventy Five runners attended and half of prizepool went to his charity.
Stephen Draper had just started taking a serious interest in poker around this time and approached Oliver to propose to run annual events using his www.deafpoker.co.uk web site that would take place at private member poker clubs or casinos to give deaf players absorbing real poker experience using professional dealers and 100% prizepool to be awarded to at least top 10% players.
Steve Hedger who ran his own pub poker league called BLAPO in London at the time gave a lot of valuable consultion about how to run poker tournaments etc.
UK Deaf Poker events are open to Deaf or Hard of Hearing players and sign language must be used to dictate their actions instead of traditional spoken english, since about 10/15% of our players are coming from abroad so International sign language are also accepted. All event results are published in Hendon Mob.
Over the years UK Deaf Poker has seen new regional events start in Manchester, Stoke, Walsall, Newcastle & Bristol with Liverpool, Cardiff and Glasgow Deaf Poker Clubs having their inaugural event this year.
141 runners turned up for UK Deaf Poker main event 2012 which was a new european record for high number of runners!
2013 will see UK Deaf Poker propose a league format for some eligible regional events and at least top three players would be awarded in the grand final in June 2014.
Players can get further details about either the live main event or online tournament by clicking through to UK Deaf Poker
APAT Announce Opening Event Of Season Seven To Take Place At Wembley
Posted by: | CommentsAPAT are pleased to announce details of the opening event of Season Seven.
The APAT Poker Masters will take place at Wembley and will form part of the first ever International Stadium Poker Tour (ISPT) event between May 31st and June 5th, 2013.
The APAT Poker Masters will run across two days with a £200 + £20 buyin. Players will start with 15,000 chip on a 45 minute clock as per APAT’s normal National Event structure.
The event will be capped at 200 runners and will be open to all poker players, both Amateur and Professional.
Players will be able to satellite and buyin for this event exclusively at William Hill Poker.
Carl Pilgrim Wins Second Title At UK Amateur Championship
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The final table of this weekend’s Genting APAT United Kingdom Amateur Poker Championship brought with it a strong sense of deja vu, as familiar names took their seats in front of a large rail at Stoke’s Genting Casino.
Amongst them were Manchester Pro Am Champion George Downey, recently crowed European Amateur Champion Carl Pilgrim and serial final tablists Mark Donnelly, Paul Davis and Anthony Williams. Polish international Ian Szerlowski was also there as was Scottish international Tom Clark; fresh from winning team Gold at the Home International Championship two days earlier, a tournament that both Pilgrim and Davis represented England in.
The final itself was streamed live to a large and raucous online audience and the players lined up as follows:-
| Ant Williams | 65000 | ||
| Mark Donnelly | 500500 | ||
| Tom Clark | 364000 | ||
| Ben Russell | 286000 | ||
| Ross Hibbert | 260000 | ||
| Ian Szerlowski | 440000 | ||
| Paul Davis | 126000 | ||
| Carl Pilgrim | 125000 | ||
| George Downie | 327000 |
Ross Hibbert went in 9th, his Ace Six no match for Mark Donnelly’s Ace King in a hand that saw Ant Williams fold pocket Jacks and Ian Szerlowski fold pocket Queens. Szerlowski went a short while later, his Ace Queen failing to improve against Paul Davis’ Ace King. George Downie went in 7th, the victim of consecutive bad beats.
Play continued six handed for close to two hours before we lost Tom Clark, the damage done in a mis-timed push that found a call from Anthony Williams with pocket Nines. Mark Donnelly failed to improve on two previous Championship runner up spots when exiting in fifth to Carl Pilgrim, when both hit the flop with Pilgrim holding the better kicker.
The chip lead continued to fluctuate amongst the remaining players until Anthony Williams exited in fourth, just outside the medal positions, when outkicked by Ben Russell. Paul Davis went in the Bronze medal position, a mistimed move against Carl Pilgrim putting paid to his chances.
Carl Pilgrim held a 2:1 chip lead over Ben Russell when heads up started and a little over ten minutes later he secured the United Kingdom Amateur title, when his pocket Kings held against Russell’s Ace Five; the chips going in pre flop. The win sealed an amazing double for Pilgrim, who had won the 276 runner European Amateur Poker Championship three months earlier at Nottingham’s Dusk Til Dawn. The Ipswich man took a first prize of £4,250, the APAT Gold Medal and a seat at a Genting Poker Series event.
The aforementioned Genting APAT Home International Championship had featured 8 international team selections from Engand, Scotand, Wales and Ireand and it was the Scottish B side, captained by Davie Blacklaw, who took Gold, beating England C in a heads off playoff after a pulsating day of play. Engand B took the Bronze medal.
