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APAT Season One - A Retrospective
Des_D:
Event 26: The Irish Amateur Poker Championship was held on June 2nd & 3rd at the Fitzwilliam Cardroom in Dublin. The event sold out in under 2 minutes and an incredible weekend of poker was in prospect.
Kieft: Irish Amateur Poker Champion, 2007
The event did not disappoint with Dutchman Jacques Kieft taking the title, £3,000, Cup, Gold Medal and seat at the Dortmund European Poker Tour event.
Hartnett: Battled To Irish Silver
Kieft beat Brendan Hartnett heads up in a thrilling battle, with Paul Townsend taking the Bronze Medal.
Townsend: Bronze Medalist
Other notable points scorers in the race for the Rankings included Mark Donnelly with 10th place and Stephen Lacey with 11th place.
Donnelly: Takes significant step towards Rankings title
[youtube=288,216]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1p0f20I-PI[/youtube]
Poker Week Irish Amateur Championship Report
The tournament report read as follows:
Irish Amateur Poker Championship Review
The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) held the fifth event in its first season live series, the Irish Amateur Poker Championship in Dublin, on 2nd-3rd June. The event had 150 entries, who qualified by a mix of live and online satellites and member draw. The players were again offered a £75 freeze-out with 10,000 starting chips, a slow clock and significant added value from tour sponsors PokerStars.com via the form of entry into an EPT Season Four event worth $8,000 to the winner in addition to their cash prize, trophy, medal and Player of the Year ranking points.
With the Player of the Year race only having three live events remaining, all the leading participants were present as they battled for the exciting prize, entry into the PokerStars.com sponsored WPT Caribbean Adventure Tournament in early 2008.
Play began at 2.30pm on the first day and early chip leaders included Dave Compton and Bob Taylor, Taylor being paid off with Quad Kings in a 16,000 pot on the second level to move to 26,000 with the blinds still 50-100. Also more than doubling their chip-stacks early on were Stephen Bayliff and Jim Owen. Local qualifiers Scott Prendiville and Neil Murphy were looking solid and Matt Doyle benefitted from flopping a flush against a set to move ahead.
Aisling Collins, one of over twenty ladies in the field, then eliminated Dewi James with AA versus KK to move towards the head of the field. Rankings leader Mark Donnelly then had a rush, moving to 45,000 with a double-up with a set of jacks on the flop against a set of twos and David Jones from Telford became the first player over the 50,000 mark with set over set and then a flopped straight against a missed nut flush draw with Donnelly progressing to chip leader at the dinner break.
Moving into contention as Day One moved towards a close were Patrick Tochel, Brendan Hartnett, Paul Townsend and John McGill but the leader was Donnelly, taking out a succession of shorter-stacked players until the last level when his aggressive style saw him lose chips. Instead David Jones from Yorkshire was paid off with top set against top pair whilst the likes of Tochel, previous finalist Steve Lacy and Des Farrell gathered menacingly behind.
At the end of Day One 20 players advanced to the second day with the chip leaders as follows:
David Jones 135,500
Steve Lacey 113,500
Doc Farrell 112,000
Martyn Sharp 112,000
Patrick Tochel 110,500
Play from 20 down to the final table was brisk as with blinds at 2,000-4,000
stacks needed to consolidate before a lot of play was seen. Stephen Hourie from Dublin knocked out two players in one hand with 17 left when four-flushing the nut flush on the river, King of Spades in his hand.
Sadly for him Mark Donnelly bubbled in 10th, though still securing valuable player of the year points whilst the key pots occurred with 12 players left. Patrick Tochel got into a raising war on a K xx flop, unraised, with KQ versus Steve Lister"s KJ. It held through the streets to make him chip leader. Meanwhile Brendan Hartnett found AA facing a short-stack all and Martin Zaffky"s push all-in with AK, and it held to send him to the final second in chips.
The final table line up in seat order was as follows:
David Jones from Leeds 197,000
Patrick Tochel from Glasgow 367,000
Brendan Hartnett from Brighton 245,000
Stephen Hourie from Dublin 123,000
John McGill from Dublin 103,000
Jacques Keift from Galway 119,000
Paul Townsend from Witney 189,000
Doc Farrell from Dublin 108,000
Brendan Byrne from Dorgheda 80,000
blinds beginning at 4,000-8,000.
First to depart was Stephen Hourie, AQ versus Townsend"s 88 all-in pre-flop. In eighth was John McGill, with what he hoped was live cards against a bigger stacked big blind: Townsend again. Doc Farrell was in 7th trapped by David Jones when hitting a King top pair on the turn but Jones had flopped trip Queens already and checked trappily. In sixth Brendan Byrne"s attempt to ladder short-stacked ended against Townsend (K3 versus A2)
Six handed Brendan Hartnett ran 99 into Kieft"s QQ, no help to leave him with 3 big blinds left before he staged a remarkable recovery quadrupling his chip stack against the odds. At this stage Townsend, Kieft and Jones were moving ahead around the 400,000 chip mark against Tochel, 250,000 and the trailing Hartnett.
When Hartnett doubled through Jones with KK versus AJ he had over 200,000 again and it was once more a five horse race for the title. Two hands later Hartnett"s KK held up against Townsends" QQ to complete a remarkalbe recovery: 30,000 to 380,000 chips in one level. When after a quiet level he had AA hold on against the flopped flush draw of Jones he rose to a 600,000 chip leader, knocking Jones to the felt.
With Tochel and Jones now shortstacked the irrepressible Bendan Hartnett continued to lay waste to his opponents. First he knocked out Tochel in 5th AQ versus K9 all in pre flop and then Jones A8 versus Q8, both blind on blind battles.
Three handed the payers reached the medal positions with chip-counts as follows:
Brendan Hartnett 720,000
Paul Townsend 420,000
Jacques Kieft 390,000
Three handed did not last long as Hartnett took AJ against Townsend"s K 10, flopping a Jack with all the chips in pre-flop to enter heads-up with a big chip lead (2 to 1). Brave play by Townsend, clearly going for the win and the EPT seat but losing out on his gamble.
For a long time the Heads Up battle was even, with comparatively few pots but with Kieft gradually clawing his way back to parity by virtue of greater re-raising aggression. The key hand occurred in an unraised pot with Kieft flopping top two pair, Hartnett turning the straight and the board pairing on the river to give Kieft full house over straight and a big chip lead. Hartnett recovered slightly, flopping trips and being paid on the river.
The final hand saw Kieft take 33 against Hartnett"s KQ all-in pre flop. The 33 held to make Jacques Kieft the Irish Amateur poker champion, winning £3,000 and the EPT Season Four Seat.
Des_D:
Event 27: The European Open was won by Geoff Grant, beating Chris Greaves heads up. This represented quite a performance by Greaves, who was winning his second Silver at consecutive APAT online final tables. Ian Bennett took Bronze.
Grant: European Open Winner
Other notable points finishers included Wayne Parker in 4th; now urgently looking to reduce Mark Donnelly"s lead in the Rankings, and Glenn Wisbey in 7th.
Event 28: The Japanese Open was won by Andrew Mills, beating David Graham heads up for the title. Nathan Zabala took the Bronze.
Graham: Took Silver
Event 29: The Australian Open was won by Paolo Giovanetti, who beat Simon Stepney heads up for the title. David Taylor took the Bronze.
Other notable points finishers included Geoff Keddy in 6th and Brendan Hartnett in 8th, for his fourth Rankings placing.
Hartnett: Consistent Scoring
Des_D:
Event 30: David Bennett won the Irish Open, beating Ger Smyth who took the Silver and Kevin McCann who took the Bronze.
Smyth: Struck Silver
Other notable points finishers included Alan Lake in 4th, Paolo Giovanetti in 6th, Irish Amateur Champion Jacques Kieft in 7th and Glenn Wisbey in 8th.
Kieft: Looking To Do The Irish Double
Effectively, the Online Series season finished with the Irish Open - leaving the five World Championship of Amateur Poker tournaments, the European Amateur Championship and the OnLive Championship to determine who would top the Rankings at the end of season one.
After 30 events, the Rankings looked like this:
43 Mark Donnelly dougal7878
35 Wayne Parker nosey-p
31 Alistair Fowler ironside
31 Steven Talbot SteveTheRake
30 Brendan Hartnett ericstoner
30 Richard Davies rhmd
26 Antony Wolsey Pilf
25 Nathan Zabala xkngdcex
25 Stephen Lacey steveinhants
24 Charlie Curtis jan c 59
23 Duncan Hodgkins duncthehat
23 Daniel Phillips Kinboshi
22 Paolo Giovanetti assocuori
21 Jacques Kieft CRAIC
21 Glenn Wisbey wizza
21 Kevin Shutt Zukertort
20 Linda Iwaniak linziwan
18 Alan Lake smacl02
18 Matthew Milne mattymillne
18 James Doran FlyingPig73
18 Phil Starrs PHILSTARRS
18 Alan Brady alanb65
18 Lee Mulligan jjandellis
18 Max Ward Spurs79
18 James Edwards ThinkerJE
However, with the five online events of the WCOAP taking place in a single week, their remained every possibility that one or two players could make a late challenge to Donnelly.
Des_D:
The World Championship of Amateur Poker (WCOAP) brought a series of tournaments that were not all about Texas Hold'em.
With Omaha, Stud and Razz events, in addition to a Hold'em heads up event and a No Limit Hold'em main event, it was expected that the experienced APAT online players would come to the fore over the week. With that said, the week"s first winner knocked the "experience" theory for six straight away!
Event 31: The WCOAP Pot Limit Omaha event was won by 18 year old James Dwinfour. Dwinfour, winning his second medal of the series, beat Dominican Alejandro Espaillat into Silver with Malcolm Hepworth winning the Bronze.
Dwinfour: First WCOAP Champion
It was essential that Donnelly"s closest competitors picked up points and Kevin Shutt did just that by taking 5th place. Paul Townsend also picked up points in 7th.
The overall quality of the tournament was exceptional, with 5 previous medalists making this first WCOAP final table.
Event 32: The WCOAP Stud tournament was won by Maurice Weeks, beating Dean Jopson into second and Andrew Mills into third. Both Martin Hadfield (6th) and James Edwards (8th) picked up Ranking points but live specialist Donnelly must have been quite happy with the way WCOAP week was progressing.
Event 33: The WCOAP Razz tournament was won by Mark Holliday, with Dietmar Bartsch taking Silver and Ricky Laming taking Bronze.
Of the chasing pack, Kevin Shutt scored points for the second time in WCOAP week in 6th, as did Paul Townsend in 8th and Brendan Hartnett in 9th.
Des_D:
Event 34: The WCOAP Heads Up tournament was won by Paul Ward, beating Suraj Shah into second while Johnny Gibbs scored valuable points in securing Bronze.
Shah: WCOAP Silver
Donnelly"s chasing pack continued to push, without doing quite enough. Daniel Phillips took 4th, Rupinder Bedi took 5th, Alex Pattillo took 6th, Andy Lyon 8th and Mark Curwen 9th.
Bedi: First Final Table
Event 35: The WCOAP main event was keenly contested and boasted APAT's highest online buy-in to date.
Dacey: On top of the world
PokerPlayer Strategy Editor Rick Dacey came out on top to secure Gold and the first WCOAP main event title, beating two Frenchman Jean-Michel Ballocchi who took Silver and Ferrando Sebastien who took Bronze.
Ballocchi: Travelled from France for APAT live events
After an exhausting week of poker, the chasing pack were largely nowhere to be seen, with the exception of Alex Gabriel in 6th and Steve Kerr in 9th.
Gabriel: WCOAP main event final tablist
Following the WCOAP and with two events left to play in season one, the Rankings now looked like this:
43 Mark Donnelly dougal7878
35 Wayne Parker nosey-p
31 Brendan Hartnett ericstoner
31 Alistair Fowler ironside
31 Steven Talbot SteveTheRake
30 Kevin Shutt Zukertort
30 Richard Davies rhmd
29 Daniel Phillips Kinboshi
26 Antony Wolsey Pilf
25 Nathan Zabala xkngdcex
25 Stephen Lacey steveinhants
24 Charlie Curtis jan c 59
23 Duncan Hodgkins duncthehat
22 Paolo Giovanetti assocuori
21 Paul D Townsend townsend
21 Jacques Kieft CRAIC
21 Glenn Wisbey wizza
20 Johnny Gibb Divitts
20 James Edwards ThinkerJE
20 Linda Iwaniak linziwan
18 James Dwinfour JDforce
18 Alan Lake smacl02
18 Matthew Milne mattymillne
18 James Doran FlyingPig73
18 Phil Starrs PHILSTARRS
18 Alan Brady alanb65
18 Lee Mulligan jjandellis
18 Max Ward Spurs79
The tour now moved to Luton for the APAT European Amateur Championship, a three day extravaganza with 300 entrants. As expected, all of the key Rankings contenders were in attendance, the question became whether any could outlast Mark Donnelly through the largest live tournament of the season.
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