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APAT Scottish Amateur Poker Championships Report

Over the weekend of 19-20th June 2010 APAT held the latest event in it's fourth season, sponsored by Betfair, with the Scottish Amateur Poker Championships held at the International Casino in Aberdeen consisting of 127 runners and a £10,360 prize pool and the third leg of the APAT Professional Pot Limit Hold Em Series with 24 runners.

Courtesy of Betfair the winner of the Championship 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.

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 Professional League Event James Edwards from Wolverhampton beat Don Roberts of Surrey to the Victory with the other cashers being local player Eddie Gaines and James Eccles.

In the Main Amateur event approximately half the field were players from Aberdeen, Dundee and surrounding areas with the other half regular APAT players who had travelled to the event. In Day One action the key hand occurred in the last level where Shug Cairnie found Aces, with two players both holding Kings beside him, namely Scott Wilson and Blair Chalmers and all three were all-in pre-flop. A flop containing the other two Aces to give Cairnie Quads propelled him to the end of Day Chip leader as follows:

Shug Cairnie 138,800
Scott Maxwell 95,300
Omeed Farzin 90,500
Kevin Wallace 77,000
Neil Petrie 75,000

Day Two began with 24 players remaining and 13 paid. As well as the overnight chip-leaders the player making the most progress on the run down to the final table was Donegal's Timothy Boyle who hit a number of hands and won several "50-50" confrontations. Elsewhere Scott Wilson was always comfortably placed, helped by hitting Quad Fours to eliminate his opponent on one hand.

The final table chip counts were as follows:

1 Kris Buckley from Aberdeen 176,000
2 Jack Prime from leicester 98,500
3 Kevin Wallace from Dundee   197,000
4 William Hanratty from Aberdeen 49,000
5 Timothy Boyle from Donegal    239,000
6 Scott Wilson from Edinburgh 167,200
7 Shug Cairnie from Dundee 191,000
8 David Blacklaw from Whitburn 111,800
9 Omeed Farzin from Aberdeen 51,500

William Hanratty was first out, King-Ten losing a race against Scott Wilson's Pocket Nines, followed by the other short-stack Omeed Farzin. Farzin ran Pocket Sevens into Wilson's Pocket Queens.

Scott Wilson was by far the most aggressive player at the table, wielding his large stack with effect. After Timothy Boyle had suffered a few setbacks at his hands he took Queen-Jack Suited against Wilson's Ace-Jack. The better hand held and Wilson was in a commanding position.

In sixth we lost Kris Buckley, Sixes against Wilson's Ace-Jack, Ace on the flop. Inevitably a few of the other runners were by now short-stacked and in fifth departed David Blacklaw, button-shoving with a suited connector and missing against Kevin Wallace's Ace in the blinds. Wallace then won a big race against Cairnie with King-Queen against Pocket Nines.

Three handed Prime and Wallace trailed Wilson, but with plenty of play any of the three were still potential winners. Eventually Wilson called in the blinds to a Prime raise, flopped the second nut flush draw and hit on the turn, check-calling Prime's push to knock him out in third.

Heads up Wilson had a three-to-one chip lead and the battle only lasted two hands. Wallace with King-Jack, Wilson with Ace-King, which held to give him the tournament victory.

So Eighteen year old Scott Wilson from Edinburgh became the 2010 Scottish Amateur Poker Champion winning £3,000 and a GUKPT seat courtesy of Betfair Poker. APAT now moves on to Tallinn, Estonia for the Northern European Amateur Championships in July, followed by the World Championship of Amateur Poker at DTD in Nottingham in August. Details of both these events and how to become a member of APAT can be found on www.apat.com