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APAT Season One - A Retrospective
For over three thousand APAT members who have participated at various stages throughout APAT's first dramatic series, their competitive interest in season one will effectively finish with tomorrow"s unique OnLive event.
For six skilful and lucky players, the season will be extended by a further two weeks to determine who will win the Final Championship event live at the Grosvenor Victoria casino; a seat at the World Series of Poker main event, and possibly the prestigious APAT Season One Rankings.
Incredibly, after 36 rounds, it is still possible that any one of ten players can still scoop the ultimate APAT accolade and an expenses paid entry to the multi million dollar PokerStars Caribbean Adventure which takes place next month in the Caribbean.
What an incredible first season it has been.
The series has unearthed talented new players both live and online and a tremendous camaraderie has been born amongst players from all corners of the planet.
So how has the Season unfolded to reach this point?
Follow our retrospective journey through season one below and get set for the final drama, which will unfold before us all in tomorrow"s APAT OnLive Championship from 2.30pm at Blue Square and through our discussion thread here on the APAT forum.
Players, please feel free to share your memories of significant plays, beats, wins and friendships made, to enable us to give season one the send off that it surely deserves.
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Event 1: The English Open, took place online on 19 August 2006 and was won by online specialist Des Morris. Wayne "Nosey P" Parker took Silver in the first of several final tables he would feature in througout season one and Geoff "Kedster" Keddy can be credited with becoming the very first APAT medalist when eliminated in third for Bronze.
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Keddy: First Medalist
While this event was playing out, drama was unfolding at the level of demand being experienced for entry to the first APAT live Championship event.
The English Amateur Championship was scheduled for September 23rd & 24th at the Broadway and it was quicky established that 120 seats was not going to go anywhere near enough to satisfy the number of members who wanted to play.
A member draw was decided upon and over 1,200 names went into the hat for the draw, with the lucky entrants being notified on September 4th.
Event 2: The Italian Open was won by Antony Pollard, with Wayne Parker final tabling in fifth. Steven Harries took Silver while Matt Whiting took Bronze. Other notables final tabling included Nathan "xkngdcex" Zabala in 9th.
Event 3: The Canadian Open was won by Andy "Skaro" Lyon with Kevin "Zukertort" Shutt taking Silver and Mike Rowe Bronze. Other notable players final tabling included Alan "smacl02" Lake in 6th and Zabala in 9th for the second event running.
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Lyon: Canadian Open Winner
So with the first live Championship event looming, the Rankings looked like this on 17 September:-
12 Wayne Parker nosey-p
9 Andrew Lyon Skaro
9 Antony Pollard The_Ant7
9 Des Morris purr of aces
8 Kevin Shutt Zukertort
8 Steven Harries Logan2004
7 Mike Rowe jaz66
7 Matthew Whiting matt250686
7 Geoff Keddy KEDSTER
6 Paul Griggs MagicPag
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Event 4: The English Amateur Poker Championship was played over two days at the Broadway Casino in Birmingham and was won by Daniel 'Kinboshi' Phillips, triumphing in his first live multi table tournament.
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Phillips: English Amateur Champion, 2006
Phillips, who got into the event from 69th on the reserve list beat serial mirrorhead Mark Donnelly for a first prize of £4,500 and a seat at the Copenhagen leg of the European Poker Tour.
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Donnelly: A pose we were to become familiar with
Scotland's Matty Milne took bronze after dominating the event for long periods. Other notable final tablists included Antony 'Pilf' Wolsey who took 5th, Jimmy 'Flying Pig' Doran who took 6th and Alistair 'Ironside' Fowler who took 8th, along with a warning from the local city council for noise pollution!
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Milne: Bronze
The tournament report read like this:
English Amateur Poker Championship Review
The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT ) held the first live event, the English Amateur Poker Championship, of its first season at the sumptuous Broadway casino in Birmingham over the weekend of the 23rd-24th September. Significantly oversubscribed, the event was full to the venue"s 120 player capacity giving many players their first taste of deep stack live poker. Of the 120 players around 20 were playing live for the first time.
At a buy-in of only £75 and with 10,000 starting chips and a 40 minute clock the structure was designed to give the players who had been lucky enough to secure entry real opportunities for creative play and an antithesis to the shallow stack re-buy competitions normally provided for new and recreational players around the country.
The Tour sponsors, PokerStars.com, are providing an expenses paid entry to an EPT event for the winners of each of the seven series one events and the added prize for the winner of the inaugural tournament was entry in to January 2007"s EPT in Copenhagen with a total value of E8,000. Also provided were cash prizes to the top nine finishers, medals for the top three and an engraved championship cup to the winner.
In another innovation play began on each of the two days at 3pm and finished on day one before midnight to allow potentially inexperienced players to avoid playing at unfamiliar times for them. A feature of the competition was the remarkable atmosphere it was played in. Each and every player exiting the competition was warmly applauded by all the other competitors, the dealers joined in the fun and the sometimes intimidating nature of festival events with an occasional air of jaded cynicism was entirely absent.
With a soft structure the early levels were uneventful until we had our first major confrontation, an almost inevitable KK versus AA all in pre flop with Ben Turnstill from Luton spiking a King first card out to send another runner home early . Sadly for Ben he then tangled with Jay Woods from London (who had already eliminated Chris Hall from Staffs with J6 versus QQ!). Ben was holding Q 10 on a Q 10 8 board, pushing on a blank turn and walking into Jay"s J 9 for the nuts. This left Jay with over 60,000 chips and chip leader by a considerable distance.
Elsewhere the tournament was beginning to hot up. A feature of the next two days was going to be some unfortunate bad beats. Take this one for example. Stephen Waddington with QQ and Jeff Povey with KK are all in pre flop together with a short-stacked Christian Briggs with A 10. The board provided a real rollercoaster of emotions for all three players : A 10 Q,K,Q, so quads beat the full house and a flopped two pair.
Amongst other players challenging on the first evening were Nigel Johnson who"s AA held up in a multiway coup to propel him towards overnight chip leader, Mark Donnelly who"s AQ bust AA by making a straight on the river and Alistair Fowler (above) who was the life and soul of the party and bluffed and bullied his way to a big stack as well as catching big hands at perfect times such as finding AA on the button with the cut off already having pushed.
At the end of the first day 33 players had survived. Chip leaders were Alistair Fowler with 74,000 and Nigel Johnson with 73,000 followed by Liverpool"s Jimmy Doran with 62,700. The remainder of the field, a few short-stacks apart, were tightly grouped in the 30-50000 region. Blinds on the return were due to be 1000-2000 so there remained plenty of play.
As the field whittled down on Day 2 two players overtook the overnight chip leaders. Matthew Milne (right) from Glasgow flopped trip Jacks to eliminate an opponent with top pair on a King high board to move over 100,000 chips and Trevor Heath from Cornwall won an unavoidable confrontation holding K8 in the small blind versus the big blinds 87 on an 87K flop to move over 85,000 chips
One of the key hands of the tournament occurred with 19 players left. This was a vital moment of the tournament because the top 18 finishers were to receive APAT player of the year points, the Player of the Year receiving a WPT package as their prize. Matthew Milne raised UTG and Nigel Johnson pushed all in from mid position for 80,000 chips. Matthew instantly called with AA and a forlorn Nigel turned over KK. When the AA held Matthew had over 250,000 of the 1.2m chips in play and then executed an impressive aggressive big stack game to go deep in the tournament.
At around 6.30pm on day 2 we were down to our final table as follows:
1.Antony Wolsely from Halifax: 42,000
2.Jimmy Doran from Liverpool 60,000
3.Matthew Milne from Glasgow 273,000
4.Steve Parker from London 75,000
5.Mark Donnelly from Birmingham 153,000
6.Scott Moore from Cumbernauld 50,000
7.Dan Phillips from Tamworth 240,000
8.Andy Winkett from Cradley Heath 121,000
9.Trevor Heath from Cornwall 74,000
10. Alistair Fowler from Elgin 123,000
The action was not long in coming. Matthew raises in mid position and is re-raised all in by Steve Parker. Matthew calls and shows QQ to Parker"s Aces. Amazingly Matthew spikes a Queen on the river to send Parker home 10th and rocket him to over a third of the chips in play. Trevor Heath lost a race with his JJ versus Wolsely"s AQ to exit in 9th followed by the aggressive Fowler in 8th after being pushed off several pots by re-raises and unsucccessfully pushing before he was blinded away.
At that point Scott Moore who had played an incredibly patient an disciplined game moved into contention with a treble up, all in pre flop with two callers, as his AQ won with Ace high! Andy Winkett departed in 7th and at that point the blinds, moving to 10,000-20,000 began to bite. A see-saw battle ensued with chip counts swinging wildly as the players aggressively battled for finishing positions in the top three where the payout structure had concentrated the rewards and more specifically the top spot with the added value.
Matthew Milne experienced a particularly up and down level, his AK call of an all in by Doran being beaten by 10 9 and A 10 by Q J to the same player. However Jimmy Doran then re-raised all in with pocket 10"s. Unfortunately for him Wolsely was holding AA to eliminate him in 6th. Wolsely"s situation was soon to turn though when he attempted to eliminate Mark Donnelly (right) by calling his all in with A 10 suited and lost to AQ. When he then lost a race with a pair versus KQ suited he was out in 5th.
Four handed the chip counts were even, the blinds were big and the prize structure top heavy. A little bit of luck was required for one of the four remaining to triumph. Here Daniel Phillips won two key hands. JJ versus Moore"s AK and KQ versus Milne"s 10 10 to move into a healthy chip lead. When Scott Moore, short-stacked, ran into AJ after pushing with K 10 he was out in 4th and Milne unluckily left in 3rd having lost the important races at the wrong times.
Daniel Phillips and Mark Donnelly were thus heads up for the title. Phillips had a healthy chip lead which was lost on the first hand losing with 66 versus AJ all in pre flop but the battle was to be short when Phillips hit a flop of 8 2 2 for his hand J2 and Donnelly caught his pair on the turn to be drawing dead when the chips went in.
Daniel Phillips is therefore the English Amateur Poker Champion and off to the EPT Copenhagen as part of his prize.
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Event 5: The French Open was won by Zabala, with Fowler following up his impressive showing in Birmingham with Silver.
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Zabala: French Open Winner
Kevin Shutt; who had scored points in Birmingham and by taking Silver in Event 3, took Bronze.
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Shutt: Double Medalist
Event 6: The Spanish Open was won by Michael Winter, with Stephen Little taking Silver and Nathan Zabala taking Bronze, in an incredible 4th consecutive online final table.
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Winter: Spanish Open Winner
Event 7: The South African Open was won by Parker, with Aaron Gustavson taking Silver and Barry Groom Bronze. The other notable final tablist was James "Thinker JE" Edwards who took 4th.
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Parker: South African Open Winner
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What a great idea Des! I"m getting quite misty-eyed reading back over the preceeding months. It"s really getting the juices flowing ahead of tomorrow"s OnLive tourney!
By the way, whatever happened to the £7.50 reg fee?
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Event 8: Aaron Gustavson followed up his Silver in Event 7 by winning the US Open, beating Allan "bigal371" Peers heads up. Scott Hicks took Bronze.
(http://www.apat.com/images/aaron.jpg)
Gustason: Celebrates Win In Home Event
Other notable points scorers included Dewi James taking 4th, Warren Fenwick taking 7th, Michael Gregg taking 9th but most notable of all, Daniel Phillips building on his Birmingham success with 5th in this event.
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James: Caribbean bound if Pints = Points!
Event 9: The Chinese Open was won by Michael Carlson with Wayne Parker once again scoring significant points with second and James Edwards following up his success in Event 6 with Bronze here. Other notable points scorers were Paolo "assocuori" Geovanetti with 4th, Jon Seal in 6th and more points for Allan Peers in 8th.
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Edwards: Bronze
With 210 players attending the next event, the United Kingdom Amateur Championship at Aspers Casino in Newcastle on December 2nd & 3rd, that left the Rankings as follows, a quarter way through the season:
29 Wayne Parker nosey-p
23 Daniel Phillips Kinboshi
19 Alistair Fowler ironside
18 James Edwards ThinkerJE
18 Nathan Zabala xkngdcex
18 Kevin Shutt Zukertort
17 Aaron Gustavson aguskb
17 Mark Donnelly dougal7878
16 Matthew Milne mattymillne
15 Scott Moore Scottf75
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What a great idea Des! I"m getting quite misty-eyed reading back over the preceeding months. It"s really getting the juices flowing ahead of tomorrow"s OnLive tourney!
By the way, whatever happened to the £7.50 reg fee?
Thanks Jack. The registration fee was effectively paid by APAT for every player in Season One and negotiated out altogether for Season Two.
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Event 11: The UK Open was won by Julian Morgan, with Kevin Fraser taking Silver and Martin Hadfield taking Bronze. Other notable finishers included Alan Brady in 4th, Steve Talbot following up his excellent final table in Newcastle with 5th here, Michael Carlson with 6th, Jon Woodfield with 8th and Mark Curwen with 9th.
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Brady: First Points
Event 12: The Indian Open was won by James Hill, with Mark Curwen making his second consecutive final table and taking Silver. James Dwinfour took Bronze and at 18 became APAT's youngest medal winner.
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Dwinfour (with cap): Youngest Medal Winner
Event 13: The Scandinavian Open, proved iteself lucky for Irishman Ciaran Lynch, who took Gold beating Paul Hebditch heads up, with Stephen Harries taking Bronze in his second final table of the series.
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Curwen: Another Final Table
Other notable finishers include Michael Paterson in 4th, Alex Pattillo in 5th and Mark Curwen scoring once again, this time in 8th.
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Paterson: A Sobering Performance
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Event 14: The Middle Eastern Open was won by Adrian Royle, who beat Allan Deuchars heads up for the title, with Mark Holliday taking Bronze.
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Royle: Middle Eastern Open Winner
Other notable finishers included Tom Massey in 4th, Michael Gregg in 6th and Michael Bodman in 8th.
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Bodman: Sneaks Into The Points
Event 15: Arran Keable won the Scottish Open, beating Scots Charlie Curtis (Silver) and Brian Manderson (Bronze).
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Keable: Scottish Open Winner
Another significant points scorers was Antony Wolsey with 4th.
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Curtis: Silver Medalist In Home Event
Event 16: The North American Open was won by Joel Roderick who beat Anthony Williams into Silver and Victoria Snider who took Bronze. Snider"s performance was significant as she became the first female winner of an APAT medal.
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Hodgkins: First Points
Other notable finishers included Ian Jappy in 4th, David Kehler in 5th, Joe Greenhalfgh in 8th and Duncan Hodgkins with 9th.
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Paterson a sobering performance.Very good Des ;D
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With the season nearly at the half way point and ahead of the next event, the Welsh Amateur Championship being held at the Grosvenor Casino, Cardiff, the top twenty players in the Rankings now looked like this:
29 Wayne Parker nosey-p
23 Daniel Phillips Kinboshi
21 Kevin Shutt Zukertort
20 Antony Wolsey Pilf
19 Alistair Fowler ironside
18 Steven Talbot SteveTheRake
18 Max Ward Spurs79
18 James Edwards ThinkerJE
18 Nathan Zabala xkngdcex
17 Stephen Lacey steveinhants
17 Aaron Gustavson aguskb
17 Mark Donnelly dougal7878
16 Tom Hunter thecowboy
16 Matthew Milne mattymillne
15 Steven Harries Logan2004
15 Adam Spratt adamspratt
15 Scott Moore Scottf75
14 Raymond Norton mondonewc
13 Michael Carlson mjcace
13 James Doran FlyingPig73
And so to Cardiff....
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Event 17: The Welsh Amateur Poker Championship was held on February 24th & 25th at the Grosvenor Casino in Cardiff. The event sold out over 220 seats in under 6 minutes.
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Mulligan: Welsh Amateur Champion, 2007
Soldier Lee Mulligan took the honours in a very exciting event, beating Mark Donnelly heads up for the Championship. Lee"s prize included the title, £4,000 first prize, Cup, Gold Medal and entry into the Dortmund European Poker Tour event.
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Donnelly: The Bridesmaid Again
Graham Cox took the Bronze medal and other notable points finishers were Richard Davies in 5th, Linda Iwaniak in 6th, Duncan Hodgkins in 8th, Antony Wolsey in 13th, Brendan Hartnett in 14th and Adrian Royle in 17th.
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Cox: Welsh Bronze
The tournament report was as follows:
Welsh Amateur Poker Championship Review
The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) held the third event in its first series of live tour events, the Welsh Amateur Poker Championship in Cardiff, over the weekend of 24th-25th February.
The event was a very rapid sell out to a capacity of 220 runners who once again were 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 next months EPT Dortmund event to the winner in addition to their cash prize, trophy, medal and Player of the Year ranking point. Fifteen members had qualified for the event in both online and live qualifiers.
Play got away at 2.30pm on the Saturday and despite the deep-stack a number of players departed early. These included local player James Fisher who called a raise on his big blind with K8 and saw a flop of 887. After a blank turn and a King on the river all the chips flew into the pot on only the third hand of the competition. James was understandably crestfallen to see his opponent turn over Pocket Kings. Elsewhere Jon Young's KK met AA leading to an early exit and English Amateur Championship winner Daniel Phillips ran AQ suited into AA on a Queen high flop to knock him out.
Early leaders included local Roberto Romanello whose opponent flopped a King high flush only for Romanello to river a straight flush, James Doran, Daniel Brown and Mark Donnelly. Dan Owston became chip-leader with over 80,000 chips after the dinner break, when calling a minimum raise on his big blind with J5, flopping trip 5's and stacking his opponent. Newcastle finalist Adam Spratt was close behind with over 70,000 chips whilst Paul Garnham seeing a flop in the big blind with 94 hit two pair on the turn and got his opponent to commit all-in with top pair with a King kicker.
Romanello made dramatic progress in the final two levels of the night, winning a 60,000 chip pot in a race, 55 versus AK and then slow-playing KK pre-flop he saw his opponent betting all-in on a 10 high flop with J 10 to propel his chip-count over the 200,000 chip mark. Mark Flynn found AA versus AK all-in pre-flop to go over 100,000 chips whilst Mark Donnelly had played an aggressive game to exceed 150,000 chips.
At the end of the first day 32 players remained with the prospect of swift early action on the second day as the average stack, with blinds going 4,000-8,000, was only 9xbb. The five chip leaders were:
* James Knox 185,000
* Adrian Royle 161,500
* Roberto Romanello 158,000
* Brendan Hartnett 128,000
* Mark Donnelly 123,000
Day Two did see immediate fireworks. On the first three hands of the day different short-stacks auto-pushed and they each doubled up in turn. In a 100,000 chip pot Curtis Ledger raised and was met by three-all-ins behind him, and thus faced a tricky decision for two-thirds of his chips with AK off-suit. Going for the win he decided to call and his face represented a mixture of relief and dread when he saw his opponents turn over A7,A10 and AQ. He was ahead but had to avoid a lot of cards. Sadly for him Andrew Jones (AQ) triumphed when a Queen fell on the flop for him to knock out two players and severely dent Ledger.
Prize Money began for the player finishing 22nd and ranking points for the Player of the Year title at 18th. Finishing 22nd was the unlucky Craig Clifford whose QQ was outdrawn by Richard Davies' 66 hitting trips on the flop. When Davies knocked out James Doran in 20th he became the new chip-leader with over 300,000 chips followed by Romanello, Donnelly and Linda Iwaniak. Indeed Iwaniak, winner of a big Ladies Championship in 2006, secured a final table spot when knocking out three players approaching the bubble including Antony Wolsey and James Knox, the latter with a rivered two pair against top pair on the flop.
However it was not one way traffic for Linda who was clearly flummoxed in one hand with eleven players left, pushing all-in on Lee Mulligan's big blind from the small blind for all Mulligan's chips (100,000 plus) with 9 10 off-suit. Mulligan made an astounding call with 54 off-suit and rivered a straight.
The final table line up, with blinds at 15,000-30,000 was as follows:
* Lee Mulligan from Southampton 425,000
* Dan Coles from Tiverton 315,000
* Roberto Romanello from Swansea 310,000
* Linda Iwaniak from Reading 270,000
* Richard Davies from Reading 255,000
* Chris Barnes from Rayleigh 250,000
* Graham Cox from Bristol 180,000
* Mark Donnelly from Birmingham 130,000
* Duncan Hodgkins from Stratford-upon-Avon 80,000
With high blinds and the prize money identical up to 3rd place it was inevitable that players would play to win and thus not back down from confrontations. Romanello provided an early example of this when he pushed all in from early position on the first orbit of the final. He was unfortunate that the player behind him to find one of the few hands capable of calling him was the chip-leader Mulligan with AK of diamonds. Romanello turned over KQ off-suit and was eliminated in 9th giving Mulligan over 750,000 chips and a commanding position.
Duncan Hodgkins was then next to depart after a valiant short-stacked battle when in a blind-on-blind battle with Mulligan flopped top pair, trap-checked but was caught out when the turn gave Mulligan the bottom straight to eliminate him. Chris Barnes struggled to make significant progress and then as the blinds rose again rose in the small blind with K2, was set in by Iwaniak in the big blind with A7 and was forced to call. The board gave him no help and he departed in 7th.
Mark Donnelly then went on a tear, doubling up three times in quick succession when pushing from late position or the blinds including on the final occasion AJ from the small blind versus Iwaniak's A10 following her button raise. Iwaniak was left short stacked and she pushed with J9 only to run into Dan Coles on the blinds with AK suited for her to leave in 6th.
Richard Davies then pushed on the button following a limp, and found himself called by Mulligan in the small blind which priced in Cox on the big and limper Donnelly. On a 8 2 6 flop Cox himself pushed, found himself heads-up with the all-in player and revealed 8 2 to eliminate Davies with Q 9 in fifth.
Four handed Dan Coles was extremely unlucky. Donnelly raised on the button with A9, Coles pushed on the small blind with AJ and Donnelly called. A heartbreaking/fantastic flop of 9 9 2 conclusively sealed the pot for Donnelly and knocked Coles out in 4th.
Chip counts as we reached the final three were as follows:
* Lee Mulligan 900,000
* Mark Donnelly 875,000
* Graham Cox 435,000
Play three-handed ebbed to and fro for approaching two levels with Graham consistently limping on the button and attempting to out-play his opponents pre-flop. In playing in this fashion he was able to secure a number of pots by the virtue of post-flop betting in position.
The key hand appeared out of nowhere. Lee raised on the small blind and Graham pushed in the big blind. Lee (pic, staring down Cox) dwelled and after an age made the call, turning over J10 of diamonds which brought gasps from the crowd of railbirds. With a sigh and a resigned “great call” Graham turned over 35 off-suit, a fantastic move in its own right that would have got past many players. A Jack on the flop sealed Graham's (pic) fate for third place and the APAT bronze medal.
Heads- up Lee has a 2.5-1 chip lead and it lasted one hand. Mark pushed from the small blind with Q7 off and Lee called immediately with A 10 of spades. A seven on the flop gave Mark hope but a rivered 10 gave Lee victory and the Welsh Amateur Championship title.
For Mark, he received the significant consolation of knowing that his second place had given him a sizeable lead in the APAT Player of the Year rankings, and a possible trip to the PokerStars.com Caribbean Adventure World Poker Tour event. Lee is off to Dortmund.
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Event 18: Following the drama of Cardiff, the Welsh Online Open was next up and fittingly won by Welshman Mark Hill. Clive Haggett took Silver while Linda Iwaniak took Bronze.
(http://www.apat.com/MarkHillPic.jpg)
Hill: Welsh Open Winner
Other notable finishers included Adrian Royle in 4th, Glenn Laming in 6th, Alex Pattillo in 7th and Chris Hiam in 8th.
(http://lh6.google.com/www.apat.com/ReXrLf1zxRI/AAAAAAAAC_8/iaslT0r4lQQ/s288/IMG_2177.JPG)
Iwaniak: Ladies UK Champ Takes APAT Bronze
Event 19: The African Open was won by Daniel Parkin with Huw Thomas taking Silver and Joseph Greenhalgh taking Bronze.
(http://lh6.google.com/www.apat.com/RuM4wVUhW7I/AAAAAAAAHB4/HIlxfJocxx8/s288/IMG_4477.JPG)
Greenhalgh: Bronze
Other notable points scorers included Tom Massey taking 4th, and Darren Newton taking 5th.
Event 20: The German Open was won by Chris Filus, beating Alistair Fowler headsup with German player Patrick Müßel taking Bronze.
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Filus: German Open Winner
Other notable finishers included Johnny Gibb in 6th and Geoff Grant in 7th.
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Fowler: Silver
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Event 21: The Scottish Amateur Championship was held at Gala Maybury Casino in Edinburgh on April 14th & 15th.
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Starrs: Scottish Amateur Champion, 2007
The event was a complete sell out and local player Phil Starrs took the honours when beating fellow Scot James Eccles heads up. In winning, Phil took the title, £3,000 first prize, Cup, Gold Medal and entry to the Barcelona European Poker Tour event.
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Eccles: Scottish Silver
Richard Davies took the bronze, following up on his final table appearance at the Welsh Amateur Championship in February.
(http://lh4.google.com/www.apat.com/RiaKhhMbMeI/AAAAAAAAD2U/C_ewU84MT5Q/s288/DPP_0009.JPG)
Davies: Bronze Medalist
Other notable points finishers included Steve Talbot in 6th, Alan Brady in 7th, Duncan Hodgkins in 8th, Charlie Curtis in 9th, Terry Aylward in 11th, Glenn Wisbey in 12th and Michael Paterson in 18th.
[youtube=288,216]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vh95TL_n5cE[/youtube]
Final Table Introductions
[youtube=288,216]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW1MzTSaxAw[/youtube]
Final Result
The tournament report read like this:
Scottish Amateur Poker Championship Review
The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) held the fourth event in its first season, the Scottish Amateur Poker Championship in Edinburgh, over the weekend of 14th-15th April.
The event was sold out to a capacity of 130 entries, who qualified by a mix of live and online satellites and member draw. The players were once 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 to the winner in addition to their cash prize, trophy, medal and Player of the Year ranking points. Amongst the runners were previous APAT Champions Daniel Phillips, Max Ward and Lee Mulligan.
Play got away at 2.30pm on the Saturday and despite the deep-stack two players departed in the first level. Newcastle finalist Vicky Glynn's pocket aces fell to Ken Jones who flopped trip threes and Thomas Stanfield flopped a straight and lost to a rivered full house. Player of the Year rankings leader Mark Donnelly was also an early departure, holding an over-pair on a seven high board against trips.
Early leaders included William McAllister who flopped three sets and rivered two flushes in the first level getting paid several times and Philip Toomer whose straight outdrew Terence Tochel's AA. Also amongst the early contenders were several players who were to feature strongly later in the tournament such as local casino player Phil Starrs, together with Charlie Curtis and Duncan Hodgkins. Also running well were Scottish competitors Scott Moore and Stephen Donnelly.
The field began to thin quickly as blinds rose through the 600-1200 and 800-1600 levels. Benefiting by building impressive stacks were Toomer (pictured) (75,000) and Starrs (60,000).
Towards the end of the first day the dispersion of the 1.3m chips in play had become very disproportionate. Londoner Alex Gabriel and Toomer had 200,000 between them with 50 runners left. Also on the same table were Craig Kelly and Dubliner Lloyd O'Farrell, both with chips. The effect was to leave every other table markedly short-stacked and players in push or fold territory.
At the end of the first day 20 players remained with blinds going 3,000-6,000, and the average stack 61,000. The five chip leaders were:
Alex Gabriel 156,000
Craig Kelly 127,000
Duncan Hodgkins 90,000
Richard Davies 85,000
Steve Talbot 77,500
Early on Day Two Charlie Curtis, who finished second in the APAT Online series Scottish Open, cut a swathe through the early departures knocking three players out by winning pair versus over-cards races. A key hand that was to shape the final stages of the tournament occurred with thirteen players left as the money positions started. Alex Gabriel raised in early position with AQ and was minimum re-raised by James Eccles from Alloa with AA. Gabriel, playing the style that had allowed him to accumulate his chips so fast on the first day, pushed and was of course called. When Eccles' AA stood up he had one a 220,000 pot, crippled Gabriel's stack and playing in only his second live tournament shot to the chip lead. On the final table bubble Welsh Championship finalist Richard Davies secured his final table position when knocking out Craig Kelly, AQ versus 10 10, all-in pre-flop with a Queen on the river.
The final table line up, with blinds at 6,000-12,000 was as follows:
James Eccles from Alloa 237,000
Phil Starrs from Whitburn 210,000
Richard Davies from Reading 190,000
Philip Toomer from Doncaster 170,000
Charlie Curtis from Doncaster 155,000
Duncan Hodgkins from Stratford-upon-Avon 119,000
Steve Talbot from Blackburn 96,000
Alan Brady from Hawick 66,000
Stephen Patterson from Stirling 58,000
The final table saw three former Championship finalists in Davies, Talbot and Hodgkins and four Scottish players positioned to win the title.
In the first part of the final table the key participant was Phill Starrs. On the first hand of the final he knocked out Charlie Curtis with both players moving in on a 10 9 2 flop, button versus big blind. Starrs' top pair queen kicker held on to defeat Curtis' A9. Then Starrs made a move on the button with Jx and pushed on a Jxx flop only to see Toomer turn over AA in the big blind on a cleverly played hand.
After eliminating these two players Starrs had nearly half the chips in play. Alan Brady and Stephen Patterson the two short-stacks then battled over several hands with Patterson finally prevailing to knock Brady out 7th.
There followed another key hand. Steve Talbot had been extremely aggressive in the prior action, moving in continually into unopened pots to secure the now high blinds. In the Small blind with Q8 he limped and Starrs in the big blind checked behind. Both checked a 7 10 Q flop. On the 5 turn, Talbot bet, Starrs raised and Talbot pushed in. Priced in to call, unhappily, Starrs did so and turned over 5 3 for bottom pair. When a 3 hit the river Talbot was outdrawn, to exit in 6th and leave Starrs in an even more commanding position. Patterson's long short-stacked grind ended soon thereafter to leave the final four players on the next bubble before the leap to bigger prize money, championship medals and a shot at an EPT seat.
In an inevitable confrontation Philip Toomer's QQ then raced James Eccles' AK in a 450,000 chip pot. A King on the flop propelled Eccles into serious contention and knocked Toomer out in 4th. Eccles then went on a serious tear, flopping the nut straight three handed blind on blind with Davies who flopped two pair. When the turn and river did not bring the needed full house Richard Davies was out in third. Nevertheless the ranking points secured had taken Davies into second place in the Player of the Year rankings a few points only behind Mark Donnelly.
Heads- up Eccles (pictured) began with a small lead but was playing a wily and far more experienced player. Starrs was taking advantage of this showing constant aggression to push Eccles off pots and put himself into a modest chip lead. Occassionally though this aggression turned into over-playing, which Eccles took advantage of, doubling up to restore his lead.
The crucial hand played out quickly. Starrs raised on the small blind with K9 and Eccles pushed with a pair of tens. Starrs instantly called and saw a miracle flop of K K 9 to leave Eccles visibly shaken and down to 85,000 of the 1.3m chip in play. Twenty minutes later, Eccles having doubled up twice in the meantime, the final hand saw Starrs take top pair and a straight draw against Eccles' up and down straight draw all-in on the flop. Eccles missed and Phil Starrs won the 2007 Scottish Amateur Poker Championship.
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Following the Scottish Amateur Championship, the Rankings race was really hotting up, with the top twenty plus places looking like this:
34 Mark Donnelly dougal7878
31 Steven Talbot SteveTheRake
30 Richard Davies rhmd
29 Wayne Parker nosey-p
27 Alistair Fowler ironside
26 Antony Wolsey Pilf
23 Duncan Hodgkins duncthehat
23 Daniel Phillips Kinboshi
21 Kevin Shutt Zukertort
20 Linda Iwaniak linziwan
18 Phil Starrs PHILSTARRS
18 Alan Brady alanb65
18 Charlie Curtis jan c 59
18 Lee Mulligan jjandellis
18 Max Ward Spurs79
18 James Edwards ThinkerJE
18 Nathan Zabala xkngdcex
17 James Eccles Eck68
17 Adi Royle ad1976
17 Stephen Lacey steveinhants
17 Aaron Gustavson aguskb
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Event 22: The South Amercian Open was won by Alan Lake, beating Steve Kerr into the Silver medal position and David Kehler into Bronze.
(http://lh6.google.com/www.apat.com/Ry386FqodYI/AAAAAAAAH3A/f_ouOMX6LY8/s288/IMG_5368.JPG)
Lake: South American Open Winner
Other notable points finishers included Charlie Curtis in 4th, Jimmy Doran in 5th and Darren Newton in 6th.
(http://lh4.google.com/www.apat.com/RSGXpJZCABI/AAAAAAAAAXA/8MiFfFLlVqc/s288/DSC_0212.JPG)
Doran: Adds To Points Total
Event 23: The Russian Open was won by Glenn Wisbey who beat Stephen Jackson heads up with Michael Bodman taking Bronze.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RmGS-YHSsWI/AAAAAAAAEqs/MG-1aPC5EkE/s288/DPP_0069.JPG)
Wisbey: "Lighting Was A Bit Too Bright"
Event 24: The Asian Open was won by Johnny Gibb, who beat Jack Prime heads up, with Ian Winter taking Bronze. Other notable points finishers included Alistair Fowler in 6th.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/ReXp1P1zveI/AAAAAAAACxk/GDfHlJZ2hYU/s288/IMG_2062.JPG)
Prime (pictured on right): No stranger to a seat at the final table
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(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/ReXp1P1zveI/AAAAAAAACxk/GDfHlJZ2hYU/s288/IMG_2062.JPG)
Prime (pictured on right): No stranger to a seat at the final table
How"s Jack getting on? Is he still in?
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Event 25: The Dutch Open was won by Mark "sharky_uk" Briggs with Chris Greaves taking Silver and Mark Hayward taking Bronze.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RyycsFqoZ4I/AAAAAAAAHYU/vtDarvBhUO4/s288/1apat_0023.JPG)
Briggs: Dutch Open Winner
Other notable points finishers included Jack Prime, who took 6th at his second consecutive final table, Paolo Giovanetti in 7th and Mattie Milne in 8th.
(http://lh4.google.com/www.apat.com/RtBFxlUhN4I/AAAAAAAAFwE/sMWm1N8FSEc/s288/IMG_4200.jpg)
Prime: In from the cold
With players now preparing to go to Dublin for the Irish Amateur Championship, the Rankings table looked like this:
34 Mark Donnelly dougal7878
31 Alistair Fowler ironside
31 Steven Talbot SteveTheRake
30 Richard Davies rhmd
29 Wayne Parker nosey-p
26 Antony Wolsey Pilf
24 Charlie Curtis jan c 59
23 Duncan Hodgkins duncthehat
23 Daniel Phillips Kinboshi
21 Kevin Shutt Zukertort
20 Linda Iwaniak linziwan
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
18 Nathan Zabala xkngdcex
17 James Eccles Eck68
17 Adi Royle ad1976
17 Stephen Lacey steveinhants
17 Aaron Gustavson aguskb
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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.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RmRQEoHSyuI/AAAAAAAAFfA/M45gf0gBJsM/s288/IMG_3798.JPG)
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.
(http://lh6.google.com/www.apat.com/RmRPP4HSxtI/AAAAAAAAFW4/yNmBmH5EfVc/s288/DPP_0138.JPG)
Hartnett: Battled To Irish Silver
Kieft beat Brendan Hartnett heads up in a thrilling battle, with Paul Townsend taking the Bronze Medal.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RmRPIoHSxjI/AAAAAAAAFVo/BoyVBu3RdW8/s288/DPP_0128.JPG)
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.
(http://lh6.google.com/www.apat.com/RmLUJYHSvYI/AAAAAAAAFEE/1mWF0mMiWJc/s288/IMG_3633.JPG)
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.
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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.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RuM4nFUhWjI/AAAAAAAAG-0/Sz4WYXqjV9c/s288/IMG_4453.JPG)
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.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RyyRbFqoZHI/AAAAAAAAHRs/o5JKZXOlSHA/s288/APAT%20English%20084.jpg)
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.
(http://lh6.google.com/www.apat.com/RmHqboHSu3I/AAAAAAAAE_0/o9zdhm8xAlk/s288/IMG_3580.JPG)
Hartnett: Consistent Scoring
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Event 30: David Bennett won the Irish Open, beating Ger Smyth who took the Silver and Kevin McCann who took the Bronze.
(http://lh4.google.com/www.apat.com/RmGSVIHSr1I/AAAAAAAAEmk/RaOOLzPtZtA/s288/DPP_0036.JPG)
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.
(http://lh3.google.com/www.apat.com/RuM4ulUhW2I/AAAAAAAAHBQ/MaQ8mrku2fM/s288/IMG_4472.JPG)
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.
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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.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RuM4LFUhVfI/AAAAAAAAG2U/bFgY9jfF-7o/s288/IMG_4385.JPG)
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.
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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.
(http://lh6.google.com/www.apat.com/RuM4WVUhV6I/AAAAAAAAG5s/itrvosfFx58/s288/IMG_4412.JPG)
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.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/RtLVeVUhSMI/AAAAAAAAGUI/zgn51C4yeBg/s288/IMG_4524.jpg)
Bedi: First Final Table
Event 35: The WCOAP main event was keenly contested and boasted APAT's highest online buy-in to date.
(http://lh4.google.com/www.apat.com/RXhlNa62vGI/AAAAAAAABX0/xYNAc3elR4o/s288/PP-006122.jpg)
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.
(http://lh5.google.com/www.apat.com/Rie_rCZ1DLI/AAAAAAAAEJE/SRy2hScY_E8/s288/IMG_2877.JPG)
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.
(http://lh4.google.com/www.apat.com/RifCvyZ1ERI/AAAAAAAAER0/g4EHbZ5_tek/s288/IMG_2947.JPG)
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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After 36 events, 9 players can still win the APAT Rankings, although Mark Donnelly remains a hot favourite.
In a twist as dramatic as the season itself, Donnelly will not actually be able to participate in the OnLive Championship tomorrow, leaving the Rankings as follows:
43 Mark Donnelly dougal7878
The other contenders who can win are:
35 Wayne Parker nosey-p (needs to finish 10th)
31 Brendan Hartnett ericstoner (needs to finish 7th)
31 Alistair Fowler ironside (as above)
31 Steven Talbot SteveTheRake (as above)
30 Kevin Shutt Zukertort (needs to finish 6th)
30 Richard Davies rhmd (as above)
29 Daniel Phillips Kinboshi (needs to finish 4th)
26 Antony Wolsey Pilf (needs to finish 1st)
25 Stephen Lacey steveinhants (needs to win for playoff)
25 Nathan Zabala xkngdcex (as above)
Unfortunately Nathan Zabala will be unable to play in the OnLive due to the US government restrictions now in place on online poker.
Parker, Hartnett, Fowler and Shutt in particular, have all shown tremendous consistency online througout the season and must be in with a great chance of getting down to the final table in tomorrow"s online section.
Parker would win the Rankings if he achieved that. Similarly both Hartnett and Fowler could also win the Rankings tomorrow prior to the Grosvenor Victoria live final table of this event. The other contenders would have to make it to London as a minimum to remain in contention beyond tomorrow.
It"s going to be exciting. Watch this space!
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Great review of the season Des.When my memory returns i will give a players view of season 1(Hope fully tomorrow)
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Des, I have followed this today and it has been a great distract/relief from work.,.,
Good stuff - In fact; Genius.
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Great memories, a fantastic first season.
To quote the Chairman, "Its been emotional"...
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A cracking review of season one,well done. 8)
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Brought back some great moments from season one Des, thanks for that. I wish all players the best of luck in this the final event of a tremendous season 1, hope to see you at the Vic. ;)
Kevin
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That was a quality read....with a capital Q! Nice one Des
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Almost missed this classic,wtg Des,fantastic review.
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Keen to watch the big Heads Up match between Kevin and Mark, I went looking in PokerStars and BlueSq Lobbies for it ...
Can anyone point us in the right direction ... ?
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This has been postponed and is likely to be played next weekend.
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Just read this cover to cover. Excellent review Des- must have taken you a while to put together. Nice one
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This has been postponed and is likely to be played next weekend.
I missed this. who won?
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This has been postponed and is likely to be played next weekend.
I missed this. who won?
Don"t think you"ve missed anything yet.
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Event 37: The final event of APAT's inagural season promised to bring the season to a dramatic close, and we were not to be disappointed. With Rankings leader Mark Donnelly unable to play the event, a narrow gap existed where one of the other 9 contenders could perceivably steal the title from Mark"s grasp at the very last hurdle.
The list of potential Champions and their existing points scores were as follows, remembering that Mark stood on 43 points.
35 Wayne Parker (needed to finish 10th to force a playoff)
31 Brendan Hartnett (needed to finish 7th)
31 Alistair Fowler (as above)
31 Steven Talbot (as above)
30 Kevin Shutt (needed to finish 6th)
30 Richard Davies (as above)
29 Daniel Phillips (needed to finish 4th)
26 Antony Wolsey (needed to finish 2nd)
25 Stephen Lacey (needed to win)
There was a lot of speculation around who might be the one to possibly come through, with Wayne Parker the obvious favourite as a result of his current 2nd place and his online form throughout season one. Hartnett, Fowler and Talbot each had the potential to go very deep, but it was Shutt who was the "form horse" having scored ranking points in three of the most recent online events.
Rankings battle aside, event 37 was very newsworthy due to the unique format employed. This event would initially take place online at Blue Square, and play down to six. Those six players would then retain their online chipstacks and transfer to the Victoria Casino in London to play out the final table and crown APAT's first OnLive Champion. There was also the small matter of a seat at the main event of the 2008 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas for the winner.
With 10,000 starting chips and blinds at 10 / 20, it was with much excitement that 163 players paid the $100 entry fee to start the final voyage of APAT's first season; and what a legendary voyage it was to become.
The first APAT live update of an online event caught measures of the drama and can be reviewed at your leisure here (http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=794.0).
Slowly, the Rankings contenders fell by the wayside in this highly competitive field, despite several going deep and when the last ten players broke to a final table, amongst them was Kevin Shutt - the last remaining Rankings contender - needing to make the top six and the live final at the Victoria Casino to draw level with Mark Donnelly. Kevin made the final ten as one of the leading chipstacks, but reduced to 161k through cautious play, when this key hand came up against Jack Prime with 8 players remaining. Kevin; in the cowboy hat, made the initial raise. Jack, ahem, was in the red dress!
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTgc-IpEh_U[/youtube]
After losing that pot, a few pots later Kevin found himself with 39k chips, facing blinds of 30k and 15k in his next two hands with a tantalising 7 players remaining. Within 1 point of Mark Donnnelly and a seat at the live final table of the OnLive event, Kevin shoved his remaining chips into the pot, under the gun.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKmV_xUjjII[/youtube]
Rivering survival, Kevin held on to make the live final table; ensuring at least a tie in the Rankings, along with APAT regulars Jack Prime and Micky Paterson.
A live update of the final table from the Victoria Casino can be read here (http://www.apat.com/forum/index.php?topic=802.0).
A thrilling and dramatic live final table saw Kevin go out sixth; remarkably, to tie for the Rankings lead with Mark Donnelly, and blissfully happy Scot Micky Paterson go on to win the OnLive, and the trip to Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker in June.
(http://lh3.google.co.uk/www.apat.com/R2R0Qnv8ptI/AAAAAAAAJFs/d1N0VpgXOoc/s288/IMG_5937.jpg)
New APAT member Charlie Sanderson took Silver, while APAT regular Jack Prime took Bronze in a hugely successful event.
(http://lh5.google.co.uk/www.apat.com/R2R0UHv8pwI/AAAAAAAAJGE/gcoLYcjQAmQ/s288/IMG_5954.JPG)
(http://lh5.google.co.uk/www.apat.com/R2R0VHv8pxI/AAAAAAAAJGM/veaqW60Qh9M/s288/IMG_5957.JPG)
With Donnelly and Shutt tied on 43 ranking points for the Season, a heads up shoot out to decide the title was arranged.
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7YuEYAq4p4&feature=related[/youtube]
Despite a great deal of expectation, corny promotion and everyone"s best efforts, Mark Donnelly was unable to complete the fixture and the 1 point awarded through this concession was enough for Kevin Shutt to take the title and an expenses paid entry to the European Poker Tour event in San Remo as APAT Season One player of the year.
Kevin"s record throughout the season was exceptional, across both live and online events. He won his points as follows:-
Canadian Open - Silver
English Amateur Championship - 16th
French Open - Bronze
UK Amateur Championship - 16th
WCOAP Omaha - 5th
WCOAP Razz - 6th
OnLive Championship - 6th
(http://lh3.google.co.uk/www.apat.com/R2Rztnv8pGI/AAAAAAAAJAs/IwbKd7VOnVQ/IMG_5887.jpg?imgmax=576)
Thank you to everyone who participated in APAT events throughout Season One. Many congratulations also to Kevin and to all of our Champions.
As the Chairman has been known to say, "its been emotional", and we look forward to an equally fascinating climax to Season Two at the end of 2008!
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35 Wayne Parker (needed to finish 10th to force a playoff)
31 Brendan Hartnett (needed to finish 7th)
31 Alistair Fowler (as above)
Slowly, the Rankings contenders fell by the wayside in this highly competitive field,
i needed to finish 7th but was unable to play due to the fact i already made plans to be in nottingham for the DTD launch
so fell by the wayside before it kicked off
i would of blown it anyway