WCOAP Day 4: France Win 2014 Team Title

Good Friday turned out to be a great day of poker at the Aspers Stratford Westfield as the 2014 APAT World Championship Of Amateur Poker (WCOAP) continued to draw in big crowds.

Three events wrapped up on Friday night – some in the early hours of Saturday morning – namely the Team Championship, the Shootout Championship and the Six Max Championship. Who won what and how? Keep reading to find out!

2014 WCOAP Event #6: Team Championship – Sacré bleu! France Wins the Title

The team event pitched 10 teams of four members against each other in a series of single table tournaments, multi-table tournaments and a heads-up match to determine which country would be crowned World Champions.

France led for most of the event, their Gallic flair being too much for some of its competitors. But that’s not to say things were not closely fought, in fact quite the opposite was true. Wales, Germany, Canada and Belgium were always on the coattails of France yet our cousins from across The Channel managed to keep their noses in front.

In the end, it was France who were crowned champions with Wales taking the silver medal and Canada the bronze. In addition to £2,000 to split between its members, the Jean-Michel Ballaocchi led France team also won commemorative bracelets and a €150 entry to the Coral Poker Sunday Major. Nice!

Place Team Prize
1 France £2,000
2 Wales £1,120
3 Canada £880

2014 WCOAP Event #8: Shootout Championship – David Bradbury Binks The Shooutout

Shootout tournaments give Sit & Go specialists the chance to flex their muscles as the only way to progress to the final table is to win your starting table. That is exactly what David Bradbury, Ben Andrews, John Patten, Rob Hallworth, Chris Austin, Marc Davidson and Luke Slisz did.

Each of the seven finalists sat down at the final table safe in the knowledge they had locked up £165 for their efforts, but with a bankroll-boosting £1,110 up top none of them wanted to min-cash.

It was Slisz who was the first player eliminated, losing a few pots early on then running his pocket nines into Austin’s kings.

Slisz was followed to the Davidson – his {K-}{K-} lost to {A-}{K-} – then by Austin who lost {A-}{K-} against Andrews’ {A-}{6-}. There was the a double elimination that saw Andrew’s pocket sixes hold in a three-way all-in that involved soon-to-be fourth place finisher’s Hallworth’s {10-}{7-} and soon-to-be third place finisher Patten’s {A-}{J-}.

That monster pot sent the tournament into the heads-up stages, pitting Bradbury against Andrews. The latter played very aggressively and was practically helping himself to Bradbury’s chips, but after a fortunate double up with {J-}{8-} versus {Q-}{4-}, Bradbury found a new gear and looked like he was going to bulldoze his way to victory.

He did exactly that when Andrews got his short stack into the middle with {J-}{2-} and Bradbury looked him up with {A-}{7-}. Bradbury’s hand remained the best through all five community cards, sending Andrews to the rail in second place.

2014 WCOAP Event #8: Shootout Championship Final Table Results
1 David Bradbury £1,110
2 Ben Andrews £765
3 John Patten £515
4 Rob Hallworth £410
5 Chris Austin £305
6 Marc Davidson £230
7 Luke Slisz £165

2014 WCOAP Event #9: Six Max Championship – Matt Kirkby Wins

Matt Kirkby is £2,295 richer after outlasting a strong field of 173 players in the £55 buy-on Six Max Championship. The event kicked off at 4:00pm on Friday and didn’t wrap up until almost 6am on Saturday, proof if ever you needed it how fantastic the APAT structures can be.

The final table was set at 04:30am on Saturday when only six blurry-eyed players remained. Within half hour Matt Cregg, Raymond Lynch and Shane Henry had lost their stacks, although it took another 45 minutes before the tournament lost another player.

That player turned out to be Ryan Kirkham, the third place finisher, leaving a super-short heads-up battle between Ben Prior and the massively stacked Matt Kirkby. A shove with {9-Spades}{5-Spades} from Prior was called by Kirkby and his {K-Clubs}{6-Hearts} and when the board ran out {7-Clubs}{2-Clubs}{3-Hearts}{Q-Diamonds}{7-Diamonds} it was all over and bed time for the players and bloggers!

2014 WCOAP Event #9: Six Max Championship Final Table Results
1 Matt Kirkby £2,295
2 Ben Prior £1,585
3 Ryan Kirkham £1,020
4 Shane Henry £755
5 Raymond Lynch £565
6 Matt Cregg £450

Saturday sees the eagerly anticipated £110 buy-in Main Event begin, with the Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo and Cash Game Championship also scheduled to run.