APAT News

London, December 27th, 2008: The Amateur Poker Association & Tour is delighted to announce details for Season Three of its critically acclaimed tour for amateur players.

Season highlights include the five day World Amateur Championship in August, featuring Omaha, Horse and a three day No Limit Hold’em main event, and the four day European Amateur Championship in November, featuring two day Individual and International Team Championship events.

The tour will continue to be sponsored by Blue Square and will now include an Online National Championship series and National League, in addition to a complete schedule of live National Amateur Championship tournaments.

The complete schedule is as follows:-

APAT National Championship Series:

1 - February 7th & 8th – UK Amateur Poker Championship - Grosvenor Walsall

2 - April 4th & 5th – Welsh Amateur Poker Championship - Grosvenor Cardiff

3 - May 30th & 31st – Irish Amateur Poker Championship - Fitzwilliam, Dublin

4 - July 18th & 19th – Scottish Amateur Poker Championship – Gala, Edinburgh

5 - August 27th – WCOAP Omaha Championship – Dusk Till Dawn, Nottingham

6 - August 28th – WCOAP Horse Championship – Dusk Till Dawn, Nottingham

7 - August 29th to 31st – WCOAP World Amateur Poker Championship – Dusk Till Dawn, Nottingham

8 - October 24th & 25th – English Amateur Poker Championship – Grosvenor, Bolton

9 - November 19th & 20th – European Amateur Team Championship – G Casino, Luton

10 - November 21st & 22nd – European Amateur Poker Championship – G Casino, Luton

11 - December 27th & 28th – UK Amateur Team Championship – G Casino, Manchester

The venues in Nottingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester are all subject to final confirmation as venues in the above schedule.

The APAT buy in to National Championship events will remain at £75. The two exceptions to this in Season Three will be the World Amateur Championship main event and the European Team Championship, where the buy in will be £100. All live events will remain registration free for the third consecutive season.

The structure of APAT National events will evolve to include antes in Season Three. Levels will increase to 45 minutes and the 500 / 1000 levels will be added on day one. Players will start all main events with 10,000 chips.

Three satellites will be made available at Blue Square in the run up to all National Championship events. There will be a Monday $20 + $2 freezeout, a Tuesday $10 + $1 freezeout and a Wednesday $5 + $0.50 rebuy. Non allocated seats will be sold directly to players on a Thursday evening. All dates will be updated on the APAT site in the next 24 hours.

The winners of the National Championship events (5) above will receive entry to the prestigious GUKPT Champion of Champions event, while the winners of the World Amateur Championship and European Amateur Championship main events will receive entry to the GUKPT Grand Final.

The winners of the European Team Championship will receive an added £2,000 in prize money, while players and selectors chosen to represent each of the 16 participating countries will receive specially commissioned international shirts to commemorate their participation.

Winners of all main events will receive a Championship Cup while the top three in each event will receive APAT National Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to commemorate their achievement.

APAT Online National Championship Series:

The complete online Championship schedule is as follows:-

1 - January 10th – UK Online Poker Championship

2 - February 21st – Welsh Online Poker Championship

3 - April 18th – Irish Online Poker Championship

4 – June 13th – Scottish Online Poker Championship

5 - August 1st – European Online Poker Championship

6 - September 12th – English Online Poker Championship

7 - December 5th – WCOAP Omaha Online Poker Championship

8 - December 6th – WCOAP Six Max Online Poker Championship

9 - December 12th – WCOAP Stud Online Poker Championship

10 - December 13th – WCOAP World Online Poker Championship

APAT Online National Championship events will be held on a Saturday evening, with low buy in satellites being made available on the Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday prior to each Championship event.

The buy in to an Online National Championship event will be $75.00 + $7.50 and players will start each event with 10,000 chips and a 12 minute clock.

The winners of each of the Online National Championship events (5) and the European Championship event will receive entry to the prestigious GUKPT Champion of Champions event.

The winner of the World Amateur Championship main event will receive entry to the GUKPT Grand Final.

The winner of the APAT Online Rankings will win entry to a GUKPT main event.

The top three in each event will receive APAT National Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to commemorate their achievement.

The top three will also receive a £75 entry to the next live National Championship event from the online prize pool, where they will be presented with their Online National Championship medals and interviewed for future video / press campaigns.

APAT Online National League:

The National League will feature 30 poker clubs, made up of APAT members located across the United Kingdom and Ireland, who will compete in three divisions for the right to play in the National League final at Blue Square in November.

APAT members will be able to join the poker club of their choice at any point in the season, but will not be able to change again prior to the season ending.

The league will run for twenty rounds, starting on February 1st. Competing clubs are as follows:-

Northern Division

Aberdeen Poker Club
Belfast Poker Club
Carlisle Poker Club
Dublin Poker Club
Dundee Poker Club
Edinburgh Poker Club
Glasgow Poker Club
Newcastle Poker Club
Stockton-on-Tees Poker Club
Sunderland Poker Club

Central Division

Birmingham Poker Club
Blackpool Poker Club
Bolton Poker Club
Leeds Poker Club
Liverpool Poker Club
Manchester Poker Club
Nottingham Poker Club
Sheffield Poker Club
Stoke Poker Club
Walsall Poker Club

Southern Division

Brighton Poker Club
Bristol Poker Club
Cardiff Poker Club
North London Poker Club
South London Poker Club
Luton Poker Club
Plymouth Poker Club
Southampton Poker Club
Swansea Poker Club
Thanet Poker Club

Each division will hold one multi table tournament for every round of the National League, with the final nine players scoring between 1 and 9 towards their club’s total in that round.

While there will be no limit on the number of players who can compete for each club, each club will be limited to a maximum of 4 scoring players in each round.

Club scores will be totalled at the end of each round, and the club in the highest scoring position will receive 3 National League points, with second receiving 2 National League points and third receiving 1 National League point.

There will be a total of twenty rounds in the National League, with the top three clubs in each division; and the highest scoring non qualifying club, going forward to compete in the National League final on November 14th.

APAT National League rounds will be held every fortnight, on a Sunday evening, starting on February 1st. The buy in for each round will be $10 + $1.

The four highest scoring players of each qualifying club will be eligible to play in the National League final.

The poker club which wins the National League will receive four entries to a Grosvenor UK Poker Tour main event, to be awarded to the four members of their who played in the National League final.

Should any of these four players go on to cash in their chosen GUKPT main event, then 20% of their GUKPT prize money will be retained as a secondary prize for their poker club team mates, and paid out in line with individual National League points scored during the Season Three campaign. For example, players who did not score any league points will not be eligible for a share of GUKPT prize money. Similarly, players who won a GUKPT seat as part of the National League winning team will not be eligible for a share of any secondary prize money, should they not cash with their own GUKPT entry.

The four members of the top three teams in the Online National League will receive APAT National Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to commemorate their achievement.

It is planned that the final positions in the Online National League will determine the divisional positions in a Live National League in Season Four. So, for example, the top three teams in each division will join the tenth best team overall in Division One, etc.

Neil ‘lukybugur’ Dawson (Northern), Ian ‘HaworthBantam’ Burnett and Leigh ‘Chipaccrual’ Wiltshire have been appointed as Divisional Controllers and will be seeking to appoint poker club captains in the coming weeks.

An APAT National League forum is now available for further discussion on this topic.

APAT National Rankings:

There will be two National Rankings in operation during Season Three; the APAT National Rankings and the APAT Online National Rankings.

Ranking points will be allocated to the top eighteen finishers in both APAT National Championship and APAT Online National Championship events, as per the schedule above. Team events and the APAT Online National League are non ranking.

For the first time, points earned online will not be eligible towards the Live Rankings and vice versa.

The top ten players (or joint top ten) will receive an option to buy into the next APAT National Championship event. To take up this option, they must post their request on the APAT forum prior to the event going on sale. Further details will follow on this prior to publication of the first APAT National Rankings of Season Three.

The winners of both National Rankings will receive a paid entry to a GUKPT main event.

Jon ‘JonMW’ Woodfield will continue to manage the National Rankings in Season Three.

Summary:

APAT, in association with Blue Square, will continue to offer an incomparable choice of top class live and online Championship tournaments in Season Three. Each event will offer significant added value, a high quality structure and a competitive, but friendly poker experience for APAT members.

The action starts with the UK Online Championship on January 10th and we look forward to greeting APAT members from all over the world as the hunt for National titles begins in 2009.