APAT London Does It Again
APAT’s latest annual tour stop, to the Aspers Casino in Stratford London saw an APAT record broken when 482 entries took to the felt for the £100+£20 Main Event – a NLHE Daily Freezeout that attracted 223 entries into the Friday night Day 1A, concluding with a further 259 for Day 1B on Saturday, setting a new record for an APAT Main Event in the UK.
With 72 players making it through to Day 2 on Sunday, Santiago Garcia was the first to bust, picking up £250 for his efforts before the next pay jump in 54th spot for £300 – that honour went to Tamas Rozsnyai, with Sergiu Maftei in 45th the first to collect £350. APAT regular and ever-popular player Tristan Chaplin went on to bust in 36th (£400) with fellow APAT regular Ian Thompson picking up £500 for his 27th place finish.
Down at the business end we reached the Final Table with all guaranteed a 3-figure sum, and getting to 3-handed we lost:
4th Xianqui Zent £2,400
5th Paul Noble £2,000
6th Florian Calin £1,700
7th Marin Pouliadi £1,500
8th Brial Rile £1,300
9th Marco Mensello £1,100
The action went Heads Up when Gheorghe (Cristian) Mirita on the Button folded and the chip leader Ajay Spoila made a raise only to hear Florian Gkikas, with the 2nd largest stack, announce ‘raise’ as he moved his largest chips into the middle… swiftly followed by Ajay repeating the action himself for a call, putting Florian at risk – and who flipped over Ah Kd as he was delighted to see Ajay show As Qh, though his delight didn’t last long as Qs appeared in the window and Ajay held all the way to the River to eliminate Florian in 3rd place, picking up a £3,000 pay day and of course the APAT National Championship Bronze Medal.
Heads Up and Ajay Spoila has over a 5:1 chip lead ahead of Cristian Mirita – and we see action on the second hand between the two, although it was slow to get going when the Flop 2h 5d 5h was checked down, as was the Turn 8c, before we see the River Kh and Cristian bets 2m before Ajay makes it 6m and Cristian snap calls to see Ajay show Ah Jh for the nut flush – Cristian holding Kc 8s for top two pair and Gheorghe Cristian Mirita finishes in 2nd place picking up £4,000 and the APAT National Championship Silver Medal – and we crown Ajay Spoila our UK & Ireland Amateur Poker Champion, winning £6,000 and National Championship Gold Medal.
UK & Ireland Amateur Poker Champion – Ajay Spoila
The weekend had plenty of other APAT action going on, with Michael Berry taking down the Saturday night NLHE 93-runner side event for £970, and Neville Harrington bagging the lion’s share for the NLHE Sunday event, winning £594 in a 5-way split.
APAT also hosted the UK & Ireland PLO Amateur Poker Championship on Sunday, which attracted 57 entries for the £100 + £20 Freezeout event, with the National Championship Medals going to David Crook (Bronze), Pradeep Davis (Silver) and with Stephen O’Keeffe being crowned the Champion and winning £1,865 and the coveted Gold Medal.
UK & Ireland PLO Amateur Poker Champion – Stephen O’Keeffe
To round off the weekend, Tristan Chaplain, who finished 36th in the Main Event, saw his £400 winnings propel him to the top of the APAT All Time Money List, when his equivalent $490 put him on a total APAT winnings of $25,734 – just $166 ahead of long time leader Steve Roderick. Tristan now has a total of 19 ‘APAT Flag’ cashes on The Hendon Mob, with his biggest win coming when he championed the entire field in the 2012 WCOAP Main Event, picking up £7,500 for his win, and also going on to win the individual element of the UK Team Championship 2019, picking up another £3,010 – all contributing to his new title of APAT All Time Money Winner!
Following London, APAT stop off in Dublin 5th / 6th April as part of the Irish Open festival for the APAT Irish Amateur Poker Championship, then travel to Grosvenor Blackpool 14th – 16th April for the English Championship, before their Mediterranean Championship in Malta 29th – 30th April during the Malta Poker Festival and then host the UK Championship of Amateur Poker (UKCOAP) at Dusk Till Dawn, Nottingham UK Wed 17th – Sun 21st May with a £50,000 Guaranteed Main Event alongside other Championship events including PLO, Triple Stud (ROE), HORSE, ROE (NHE/PLO) and Bounty Hunter.
Full details of the APAT 2023 live tour can be found on the APAT website: https://www.apat.com/tour/season-16/
Tom Brady
APAT Operations Director
Live Events & Tour
Email: tombrady[at]hotmail.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TomBrady65/
WhatsApp: 07957 977 057
