Mason Lodges victory at APAT

Submitted by: TightEnd on Tue, 01/09/2009 - 3:06pm
APAT World Championship of Amateur Poker 2009

The APAT World Championship of Amateur Poker 2009 was held at the Dusk Till Dawn Club in Nottingham, England from 27-30th August 2009 in association with BlueSquare.com. The Championships comprised three events in Omaha, Hold'Em and HORSE to determine 2009 Champions in each discipline from a total of four hundred and fifty players across the three events from afar afield as France, Germany and Norway.

The 81 runner Omaha event was won by Paul Pitchford for £1,300 ahead of Andrew Drago and James Barber, whilst the 48 runner HORSE event was won by Andrew Tracey for £1,000 ahead of Jonathan Woodfield and Richard Iwaniak.

In the 314 runner main event, with two day Ones, the most notable hands that led to the creation of the two chip leaders were as follows. Jamie Reeve called a raise with 3-3 in the big blind in the second level and saw a 6-6-3 flop, and trebled up through two opponents with Aces and 6-5. Later in the day's play James Bagley won a very large pot when his Ace-Queen beat his opponent's Pocket Kings in an all-in pre-flop confrontation. The Omaha event winner Paul Pitchford also continued his excellent run in the series, and was amongst the chip leaders through the day.

The Leaders at the end of the combined day ones were as follows, with 49 remaining and 38 paid:

James Bagley   187,500
Jamie Reeve    127,500
Frances Creed 120,900
Paul Pitchford  120,400
Kevin Smith     119,100

In the Day Two run to the final table Charles Mason made substantial early progress when he eliminated Gurpreet Nagi, Aces against Jacks whilst James Bagley was using his big stack to effect, most notably when winning a large pot off Paul Pitchford with a flopped set of sevens, taking most of Frances Creed's stack with a turned set and then knocking out Irish Amateur International Brendan Byrne. The unfortunate Byrne took his Kings against Bagley's Ace-Jack only to see a cruel flop containing two Jacks. On the final table bubble Jamie Reeve knocked out Paul Pitchford.   

The line up for the final table was as follows

1 Ian Overson from Woodford, Northants 256,500

2 Chris Filus from Evesham 282,000

3 James Bagley from Southampton 772,000

4 John Miller from Accrington 421,500

5 Ant Williams from Birmingham 482,500

6 Charles Mason from Solihull 372,500

7 Oystein Eggen from Oslo, Norway 114,000

8 Dave Potter from West Cornwall 114,000

9 Jamie Reeve from London 313,000


blinds began the final at 8000-16000/1,500. The final began with Bagley in trademark aggressive form, but was met with concerted resistance in the form of re-raises that he had to fold too. After over an hour's play our first exit was Norway's Oystein Eggen, who pushed with King-Jack of diamonds and was called by Overson's Ace-Eight of diamonds. A flopped nut flush was decisive. By this time the chip distribution had evened out substantially, and play was attritional.

Dave Potter was to double through twice in quick succession with eight remaining, most notably with Queen-Jack against Bagley's Pocket Eights. When Potter won this race Bagley was left the short-stack at the table. He pushed Ace-Deuce, Potter called with Ace-Four and despite the myriad of split pot opportunities Potter's hand previaled to knock Bagley out in 8th.

In seventh John Miller departed, at the hands of Charles Mason, Ace-Eight falling to pocket Queens. Soon after Ian Overson lost a big pot, making a move at a pot from the blinds post flop, but running into Dave Potter's Aces. Mason knocked Overson out in sixth, in a big three way pot that also felted Chris Filus, thereafter. Soon Filus was out in fifth.

In fourth Jamie Reeve accounted for Dave Potter, raising with Ace-Five, Reeve called Potter's re-raise and was against pocket sevens. A flopped Ace eliminated Potter. Three handed Reeve was a commanding chip leader but a key hand turned the tournamanet on its head at that point.

Ant Williams had been the quietest player at the final table, raised on the button. Charles Mason pushed over 1m chips from the small blind and Reeve clearly had picked up a hand in the big blind. Eventually he called for two-third of his stack with Ace-Queen. The decision was back on Williams and the tension in the air, towards the end of a long final, was palpable. Williams eventually passed and Mason revealed Ace-four off-suit. In the key hand Mason out-drew Reeve with a four on the river.

Ant Williams was then eliminated in third, calling Reeve's push with King -Ten but being defeated by Reeve's Jack-Six. Heads Up, Mason began with a four to one chip leader courtesy of the earlier rivered four and the battle was short. Both players found Aces, Reeve Ace-Deuce, Mason Ace-Seven. Mason's hand held up to ensure he won the competition.

This meant that Charles Mason is the APAT World Amateur Poker Champion 2009 winning £7,000, a GUKPT Grand final seat worth over £3,000 courtesy of BlueSquare.com, Championship trophy and Gold Medal.

The next APAT Event is the English Amateur Poker Championship at the Grosvenor Casino Bolton on the 24th-25th October 2009. See. www.apat.com for free membership of APAT and details of this and other future events.