APAT European Online Championship – 888poker
Date: January 14th, 2012 – 8pm – $50 + $5 – 10,000 chips – 15 min clock
Added 888poker SuperStack Seat For Winner
Password – apatmember

APAT European Online PLO Championship – 888poker
Date: January 14th, 2012 – 9pm – $20 + $2 – 10,000 chips – 15 min clock
Password – apatmember

Satellites:
Feeder to APAT European Online Championship
Date: January 10th, 2012 – 8pm – $5 + $0.50 – 3,000 chips – 13 min clock
1 package awarded for every $55 in prize pool.

APAT European Amateur Poker Championship – Rendezvous Casino, Brighton
Date:  January 21st & 22nd – £75 – 10,000 chips – 45 minute clock
This event is sold out, but players can still put their name down on the reserve list.

Cash Tour – New For 2012 – Rendezvous Casino, Brighton
Date:  January 22nd – £50 buy in + £10 Warrior payment + 10% entry fee
For full details and to reserve a seat see the Cash Tour thread in the forum.

Look out for an announcement regarding APAT Season 6 in February.

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Award 1 – Poker Hall Of Fame – Leigh Wiltshire
Award 2 – Professional Player Of The Year – Sam Trickett
Award 3 – APAT Player Of The Year – Paul McGuinness
Award 4 – Best APAT member performance at a non APAT event – George Bedi
Award 5 – Best APAT member performance at an APAT event – Wales
Award 6 – Best APAT Tournament – World Championship Of Amateur Poker, DTD
Award 7 – Best APAT Forum Contribution – Richard Prew
Award 8 – Best Online Poker Room – PokerStars
Award 9 – Best Poker Media Provider – Blondepoker
Award 10 – Best Poker Tour – APAT
Award 11 – Best Poker Forum – APAT
Award 12 – Best Poker Social Media User – Richard Prew

APAT Awards 2011 – Final Results

Dave Garden, APAT World Amateur Poker Champion 2011

The centrepiece of the five day APAT WCOAP festival at Nottingham’s Dusk Till Dawn Club was the No Limit Hold’em World Amateur Poker Championship main event, which attracted 405 runners over two starting days, creating a £42,900 prize pool with a first prize of £12,900. The event was run in partnership with www.DTDPoker.com who provided several added value seats to Dusk Till Dawn events for WCOAP Champions.

199 players took part in Day 1a, each starting with 15,000 chips and a deepstack structure affording bountiful play. After 14 levels and 12 hours play 26 players made it through to the final day. On Day1b 206 players began and, with somewhat tighter play to the fore, 38 players made it through.

Once the chip counts were combined the chip leaders going into Day Two were as follows:

Greg Yates 274600
Simon Hyde 235900
Chris Salmon 235400
David Garden 225800
Gary Orme 213700

64 remained with 45 paid, while an average stack of 95,000 represented over 25x big blinds, so it was all to play for.

One player dominated the run down to the final in the first few hours of Day Two, Dave Garden. Such was his dominance that he had 2 million of the 6 million chips in play as the field broke to the final two tables. This chip lead inevitably meant that many other players were playing tournament poker with below average stacks and it was Christian Rzegotta of Germany and Andrew Duffin, by virtue of eliminating Greg Yates in eleventh after finding Pocket Kings in the big blind, that came through the pack to be the nearest challengers as we arrived at the final table.

The final table line up was as follows:

David Garden 2,166,000
Christian Rzegotta 1,142,000
Andrew Duffin 1,060,000
Paul Cammiss 385,000
Colburn Tomlin 336,000
Gary Strang 331,000
Bradley Girard 247,000
Gary Orme 227,000
Mark Sanders 185,000

First to exit was Mark Sanders, taking pocket fives in a race against the chip leader with Ace-Queen, only to see Garden flop two Queens. Garden’s commanding position strengthened further when he knocked Tomlin out in 8th in a rollercoaster of a hand. Tomlin had Pocket Eights, Garden Jack-Ten. Garden flopped a Jack on a paired board, Tomlin turned an Eight but Garden rivered a third Jack to give him a higher Full House.

Gary Orme was unfortunate to exit in seventh. Garden shoved an unopened pot in the small blind with Four-Three and Orme called all in with King-Queen suited. Garden rivered a Four to knock out his third player in a row in the early final table stages

Garden continued to cut a swathe through the final table, calling a shove from Bradley Girard with Jack-Eight, and beating Pocket Sevens to knock Girard out sixth. Paul Cammiss then eliminated Christian Rzegotta in fifth finding Ace-King behind the German’s shove with King-Queen.

Gary Strang had clung onto a short-stack throughout the final until he too fell to Garden, who rivered a Straight with Ten-Five in the blinds against King-Jack.

Three handed play slowed until Garden once again accounted for an opponent, his Ace-Seven out-drawing Paul Cammiss’ Ace-Nine, a Seven falling on the flop.

Heads Up Dave Garden started with a 4 million to 2 million chip advantage over Andrew Duffin. This became an equal situation until over the course of two levels Garden took control. In the final hand Duffin pushed Ace-Five suited into Garden’s Ace-King. Big Slick held and Dave Garden became the 2011 APAT World Amateur Poker Champion, winning over £12,000, the Championship Trophy & Gold Medal.

As one of 24 players who made it through to day two, Spiers played aggressively throughout to beat his Glasgow Poker Club colleague Jamie Kearns heads up, with Martin Turner taking Bronze.

A full tournament report will appear here later in the day, but in the interim the final result from Glasgow was as follows:-

1st  – Grant Spiers – £3,095
2nd – Jamie Kearns – £1,965
3rd – Martin Turner – £1,176
4th – John Bannerman – £786
5th – Steven Bayliff – £590
6th – Steven Hall – £491
7th -  Dean Cursley – £393
8th – Mark Lockhart – £295
9th  – Alex Thompson – £246
10th – David Whiteford – £197
11th – Shug Cairnie – £197
12th – Suzanne Hayward – £197
13th – Gary Purcell – £197

See how the event unfolded through the live update thread

Read ‘Grant’s Glasgow Banter’ Blog

Join Glasgow Poker Club who participate in the APAT Online National League

Wales: 2010 APAT World Amateur Team Champions

The complete list of competing nations has been announced for the two day APAT World Amateur Team Championship, which will take place at Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham on August 25th & 26th; as part of the APAT World Championship Of Amateur Poker (WCOAP).

The list is headed by defending Champions Wales; who will be captained once again by Paul McGuinness of Rhyl, while the United States will make their debut in this year’s event. 

In the 2010 event, Wales took Championship Gold, from Canada who took Silver and Northern Ireland who took Bronze. 

Participating countries in 2011 are as follows:-

Canada, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Northern Ireland, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Spain, USA and Wales.

For further details on this event and the World Championship Of Amateur Poker, please click through to the forum.

In partnership with Europe’s most prestigious poker venue Dusk Till Dawn, the WCOAP will take place in Nottingham between August 25th and 29th.  The five day festival  will feature World Amateur Championship events in Stud, Omaha, Heads-Up, Six Max and HORSE in addition to a World International Team Championship and the three day World Amateur Poker Championship main event.

For the full press release and details of how to purchase seats, please click through to the press release in the forum.

Lukas Dasynski Wins Welsh Amateur Poker Title

Over the weekend of 28th-29th May 2011 APAT held the third event in it’s fifth season, sponsored by 888.com, with the Welsh Amateur Poker Championships held at the Les Croupiers Casino, Cardiff and 168 runners playing to win over £4,000 as part of a £12,600 prize pool.

Courtesy of 888.com the winner of the Championship wins an entry to a UKIPT main event as part of an overall sponsorship package where APAT members have the chance to win added value throughout a packed season of Live and Online National Championships and leagues. In addition, each of the season’s seventy five amateur, professional and online tournaments are run completely registration free for players.

After three exits on the same table in the first level Alan Vaughan took his seat as the final alternate and proceeded to chip up quickly, a process that was to end with him as the day one Chip leader. This was ahead of former APAT Heads-Up and Omaha Champion Dave Howard who was always near the head of the chip counts.

Beneath those two players no dominating chip stacks emerged, and a higher than usual 36 players made it through to Day two, with 16 players to be paid. In those 36 players many players local to Cardiff were prominent notably Henry Griffiths and Chris Moore

At the end of Day One the five chip leaders, were as follows

Alan Vaughan 149,100
Dave Howard 139,800
Chris Burton 103,800
Henry Griffiths 69,300
James Barber 65,400

At the start of Day Two Dave Howard moved into a commanding position, eliminating several players on his way to a 350,000 stack, four times the average, with 20 players left. Alan Vaughan maintained his position and Lukas Dasynski knocked out three players near the final table, two in one hand when Pocket sevens hit a straight against an overpair and two over-cards, all three stacks in pre-flop.

The final table line up was as follows:

Dave Howard 334,200
Alan Vaughan 301,800
Anthony Johnson 250,700
Lukas Dasynski 221,700
Paul Williams 179,500
Bob Bulman 129,600
Darren Moore 128,800
Jon O’Neil 84,100
Gareth Acreman 33,700
Gavin Morgans 13,500

Blinds on the final began at 4,000-8,000 with an Average stack of 168,000.

Morgans trebled up first hand of the final and Acreman finished tenth when his pocket fives were counterfeited on the river by Alan Vaughan’s Ace-Ten on a double paired board. Morgans exited next hand when his Ace-King was outdrawn by Darren Moore’s Ace-Ten, Ten on the flop.

Williams then won a 300,000 chip pot when flopping four to the straight and flush against Darren Moore’s over-pair to the flop. Williams hit his draw on the river and Moore exited next hand in eighth. Williams then lost ground doubling up several players. He then called a Dave Howard raise in the big blind and was all in on the flop with an up and down straight draw against Aces. He missed, and departed in seventh.

Short-stack of six Jon O’Neill then ran Ace-Nine into the on fire Dave Howard’s Pocket Queens and was out sixth. Anthony Johnson lost a blind on blind confrontation with Alan Vaughan to leave him short-stacked, exiting in fifth at the hands of now big chip leader Dave Howard.

Four handed Lukas Dasynski knocked out Bob Bulman, with Pocket Jacks in the blinds against a shoved Ace-ten. Howard lost a big pot to Vaughan three handed with flopped flush draw against flopped set and he then set about rebuilding his stack over two hours. He did so but eventually fell to Lukas Dasynski, Pocket Jacks outdrawn by Ace ten.

Heads up Alan Vaughan and Lukas Dasynski battled for the title for several hours until the key hand where Vaughan flopped the nut flush, Dasynski two pair, and Dasynski rivered the full house to win the title.

Lukas Dasynski from London became the APAT Welsh Amateur Poker Champion 2011 winning £4,032 and a UKIPT Main Event seat.

Ben Young Wins APAT UK Amateur Poker Championship 2011

Over the weekend of 23rd-24th April 2011 APAT held the second event in it’s fifth season, sponsored by 888poker.com, with the UK Amateur Poker Championships held at the Aspers Casino, Newcastle consisting of 156 runners playing to win over £3,600 as part of a £11,700 prize pool.

Courtesy of 888poker.com the winner of the Championship wins an entry to a UKIPT main event as part of an overall sponsorship package where APAT members have the chance to win added value throughout a packed season of Live and Online National Championships and leagues. In addition, each of the season’s seventy five amateur, professional and online tournaments are run completely registration free for players.

At the beginning of the tournament Richard Baker doubled up, pocket Queens hitting a set on the flop to outdraw pocket Kings. Ben Young eliminated six times APAT final tablist Darren Shallis and in the early leaders were both gerard Smyth and Dawn Dineen. The pace of early exits was faster than usual.

As play settled down local players Andrew Harrison and Robert Dunbar moved to the head of the counts, though Dunbar was to lose some ground later in the day. Once he gained his stack, APAT veteran Paul Davis maintained his position.

At the end of Day One the five chip leaders, were as follows including reigning APAT WCOAP Champion Ben Young and Nottingham UKIPT Winner Gareth Walker:

Andrew Harrison 156100
Ben Young 151800
Paul Davis 118000
Andres Sanchez 98800
Gareth Walker 97700

Andrew Harrison knocked out two more players early on Day Two, Kings against Steve Lacey’s Ace Jack and then Aces against the Kings of David Pilkington.

Craig Simpson dealt a big blow to Gareth Walker, Pocket Jacks against Pocket Tens in a blind on blind confrontation. Paul Davis lost most of his stack when his Aces were beaten by the Queen-Jack offsuit of Andrew Blair, and Ben Young accounted for Blair when four-bet shoving King Jack to beat Ace-Queen. Andres Sanchez then knocked out Richard Baker on the final table bubble, Ace-Queen against Pocket Tens, Ace on the flop.

The final table line up was as follows:

Andres Sanchez 361,300
Ben Young 301,400
Craig Simpson 204,000
Andrew Harrison 203,300
Robert Dunbar 97,000
JP Round 94,300
Mark Langdale 91,600
Paul Mallett 71,500
Gareth Walker 67,700
Chris Peers 24,700

Blinds on the final began at 3,000-6,000 with an Average stack of 156,000.

In the first exit of the final the short-stacked UKIPT Champion Gareth Walker ran Jacks into JP Round’s Kings to depart in tenth place. In ninth, Paul Mallett exited with pocket Nines against Harrison’s Pocket Queens. By this stage short-stack Peers had trebled up and doubled up to move towards an average stack.

In an unlucky eighth was Mark Langdale. Sanchez shoved the button with Ace-Seven and Langdale found Pocket Jacks in the big blind, he called but Sanchez outdrew him to win the pot and knock him out. On the very next hand Sanchez, playing aggressively with his big stack ,shoves Ace-Eight and JP Round called with Pocket Fours. Ace on the river knocks Round out and ensure that six handed Sanchez had one-third of the chips in play.

The fortunes of Sanchez then reversed, doubling up Simpson (Ace Queen versus Ace King) and Dunbar (Ace King versus Tens) in quick succession.

With the chip lead changing hand several times over a number of hours the next exit was some time coming.It came when Harrison called a raise with eight-nine of diamonds and flopped a pair and flush draw. All-in against Sanchez’s Pocket Aces he missed his draws and was out sixth.

Young then doubled through Sanchez and a rollercoaster of fortunes continued. Blind on blind Young raised, Sanchez then shoved with King Jack and was called for odds by ten-nine. A ten on the river knocked Andres Sanchez out fifth. Young’s commanding position improved when his Ace Nine accounted for Chris Peers who had shoved Ace-Six, Peers out fourth.

Three handed Dunbar was by some distance the short-stack and was knocked out by Craig Simpson, Jack five against Ace Jack.

Heads Up, WCOAP Champion Ben Young began with a three to two chip lead over Craig Simpson. On the final hand, after an hour’s battle, Young trapped Simpson when he slow-played a pair of Jacks and beat Simpson’s flopped top pair.

So Ben Young became the APAT UK Amateur Poker Champion 2011 winning £3,625 and a UKIPT Main Event seat. He also became the first two time APAT National Champion.

In a very finely contested tournament, The Welsh A Team; the reining World Amateur Team Champions, defeated England B and Ireland A into Silver and Bronze positions respectively, largely thanks to an outstanding team effort in the final Multi Table Tournament discipline late on day two.

Wales - UK & Ireland Home International Champions 2011

The Welsh A team comprised (left to right) Dan Owston, Steve Roderick (captain), Dylan Herbert and Richard Rudling Smith.

The final result was as follows:

Wales A 173
England B 146
Ireland A 134
England A 125
Scotland A 124
Wales B 124
Scotland B 124
Ireland B 122

2011 English Amateur Champion Mark Briggs

Over the weekend of 26th-27th March 2011 APAT held the first event in it’s fifth season, sponsored by 888.com, the English Amateur Poker Championships held at the G Casino, Coventry with 156 runners playing to win over £3,600 as part of a £11,700 prize pool.

Courtesy of 888.com the winner of the Championship wins an entry to a UKIPT main event as part of an overall sponsorship package where APAT members have the chance to win added value throughout a packed season of Live and Online National Championships and leagues. In addition, each of the season’s seventy five amateur, professional and online tournaments are run completely registration free for players.

Michael Richards was chip leader from an early stage of Day One. His key hand that gave him a commanding position at the end of the day was when his Ace-Jack beat Dave Howard’s pocket Queens in a huge pot. Elsewhere Mark Briggs managed to beat pocket Queens with a flopped set of Jacks, eliminating early chip-getter Dan Owston in the hand.

Elsewhere Glenn Laming called a raise with King Queen, flopped Queen-Queen-deuce and stacked a disbelieving player who was holding Aces for Glenn to double up and remain in contention for the rest of the day.

At the end of Day One the five chip leaders, were as follows:

Michael Richards 269,500
Mark Briggs 152,500
Paul Williams 139,000
Craig Dawson 128,600
Glen Laming 124,700

With fifteen players paid, five of the day two starters were to go home unlucky and miss out on the cash. On the run down to the final table chip leader Michael Richards consolidated his position, eliminating three players until losing a big confrontation with Paul Williams. He then recovered when finding Pocket Kings to eliminate Duncan Hodgkins with Pocket fives on the final table bubble. Mark Briggs’ progress to the final was far more sedate, yet he remained well placed as the exits occurred.

The final table line up was as follows, including defending APAT English Amateur Champion Tod Wood:

1 Steve Harrison 120800
2 Michael Richards 362000
3 Paul Williams 174000
4 Mark Briggs 138500
5 Alex Jackson 253000
6 Mike Wilson 142500
7 Tod Wood 85200
8 Debbie Kimm 46000
9 Craig Dawson 233000

Blinds on the final began at 3,000-6,000 with an Average stack of 171,000.

The first exit of the final was Steve Harrison, followed by Paul Williams both knocked out by chip leader Michael Richards winning two races, first with Ace Queen and then Pocket Sevens.

Debbie Kim departed an unlucky seventh after losing most of her stack with Ace-King, calling a shove from Ace-three held by Mike Wilson, two threes falling on the board. Tod Wood then knocked her out soon after. Tod Wood was also extremely unfortunate to fall in sixth. First his Pocket Kings lost to Alex Jackson’s Pocket Eights via a gutshot river straight and then Jackson knocked him out.

Over two levels of nip and tuck play there were no exits, until Richards pushed Ace-Eight in the small blind into Briggs in the big blind with Ace-Jack. Briggs’ hand held and long time chip leader Richards was out in fifth place.

Short-stacked Mike Wilson then fell in fourth at the hands of Briggs again, with a turned set of tens to make Briggs a big chip leader with three players remaining over Craig Dawson and Alex Jackson. Jackson then ran into the pocket Queens of Craig Dawson to depart in third place.

Mark Briggs began Heads-Up the chip leader over Craig Dawson and in a compelling see-saw battle over two hours the chip lead changed hands several times. Eventually Briggs rivered trips to take a commanding chip lead and saw Jack-Nine beat King-Six for the victory soon after, a Jack landing on the flop.

So Mark Briggs became the APAT English Amateur Poker Champion 2011 winning £3,625 and a UKIPT Main Event seat.