APAT UK Festival April 2010 Report
Over the weekend of 17-18th April 2010 APAT held the second events in it's new fourth season, sponsored by Betfair Poker, with the UK festival held at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino, London. The festival consisted of the 152 runner UK Amateur Poker Championship, the second leg of the APAT Professional League ( a £250 Pot Limit Hold Em series ) and the Razz leg of the £25 Specialist Series with a further 62 runners combined.
Courtesy of Betfair Poker the winner of the UK Amateur Championship and Professional League events wins an entry to a GUKPT main event as part of an overall sponsorship package where APAT members have the chance to win thirty three seats to GUKPT main events and twenty three seats to APAT Professional League tournaments. In addition, each of the season’s seventy five amateur, professional and online tournaments are run completely registration free for players.
The winner of the Professional League will win a £20,000 APAT sponsorship package for 2011. In addition, the winners of the Online and National Amateur Rankings will join the 17 Amateur Champions from season four and the player with the most points finishes across Amateur and Online events, to compete in the APAT Champions Final, to play for a second APAT £20,000 sponsorship package in 2011.
In the One day thirty-one runner Professional Series Pot Limit Hold Em event the final table produced two former APAT Champions Nick Jenkins and Andrew Tracey and the winner of the first Professional League event Stephen Boyd, as well as former GUKPT Winner Bernard Littman, and the event culminated in the following result:
1st Bernard Littman £3,500
2nd Amar Morjaria £2,000
3rd Nick Jenkins £1,250
4th Andrew Tracey £900
5th Paul Garnham £400
Meanwhile in the Amateur Championship two players dominated proceedings on Day One. Alan Lake played an aggressive game throughout and ended the Day Chip-leader while Don Roberts had a big stack right from the early levels thanks to beating Jean-Michel Ballocchi's Pocket Kings with four-three suited.
The end of Day One chip leaders in the UK Amateur championship, with 20 runners remaining and 17 runners paid, were:
Alan Lake 203500
Perry Garland 146100
Alan Patterson 115900
Don Roberts 110300
David Butler 99200
As Day Two play progressed towards the final table both Lake and Roberts remained well placed, using big stacks to their advantage. Indeed Roberts was to reach the final as Chip leader when eliminating Dylan Herbert in 11th. Roberts' Pocket Eights hit a full house on the turn to win the biggest pot of the tournament up to that point. Amongst the shorter-stacked players serial APAT finalists Darren Shallis and John Murray used their guile and experience well to once again reach APAT National final tables.
The final table line up was as follows:
Darren Shallis (Newport) 130600
Barrie Cullen (Coldstream) 131000
Don Roberts (Romford) 374000
Perry Garland (Worthing) 172300
Dougal Philps (Sevenoaks) 109800
Alan Lake (Witney) 318000
David Butler (Epsom) 56100
Colin Wilson (Newcastle) 135000
John Murray (Portsmouth) 93500
Alan Lake knocked out three of the first four players from the final table: Dougal Philips in 9th, Darren Shallis in eighth and Perry Garland in sixth, the exception being Colin Wilson in 7th who found Pocket Nines in the blinds only for Don Roberts to have Pocket Kings against him.
Five handed Lake and Roberts had two-thirds of the chips in play when John Murray, who had been sitting patiently as the big stacks did their work around him, changed gears and began to be more active. He picked up many pots uncontested, trading off his image, and moved into contention.
Barrie Cullen and David Butler were eliminated in fith and fourth respectively when, three handed, a key pot was played. Blind on blind Don Roberts raised and Alan Lake moved all-in from the big blind. Don immediately called and with 1.5m chips in play the two were playing a 1m chip pot. Roberts showed Kd10d and Lake AhJc. The board to the turn was 9-8-10-Q giving Lake the straight and a strangehold on the title until a Queen fell on the river making Roberts a straight to the King, knocking Lake out.
Roberts began Heads Up play with a two-to-one chip lead over John Murray in a battle that was to last for nearly two hours. The Chip lead moved to and fro until finally the participants were all-in with Roberts holding Pocket Queens and Murray King-Jack. The flop ran out a harmless 9-3-2 for Roberts, the turn a 10 and the river a cruel Queen, making a gutshot straight for Murray and winning him the tournament.
So the winner of the UK Amateur Poker championships, the second event of APAT's fourth season was John Murray from Portsmouth winning £3,500 and a GUKPT seat courtesy of sponsors Betfair. The winner of the APAT Specialist series Razz event was Steve Marskell who also wins a seat into the next Professional League event.
The next APAT Tour event is the Central European Amateur Championship at the Concord Casino Vienna on May 15-16th. Details of how to enter the events can be found on www.apat.com, along with free APAT membership, and via the Betfair Poker lobby
Eleanor Brannigan at the Grosvenor Victoria