APAT UK Team Championships

October 25 2011, Richard Prew

The APAT UK Team Championships was held at the G Casino ,Luton on 22nd-23rd October 2011. Twenty three eight-player teams from UK poker forums and communities across the UK were once again treated to a 10,000 starting stack, 45 minute clock tournament in keeping with APAT's aim to bring affordable deepstack poker to recreational players.

The 184 runners created a £9,200 prize pool, half going to the top three teams (points scored for the top 50 finishers) and half to the top individual finishers. Once again APAT provided added value with a UKIPT seat to the winner of the UK Team Championships.

APAT members have the chance to win added value throughout a packed season of Live and Online National Championships and leagues. In addition, each of the season’s seventy five amateur, professional and online tournaments are run completely registration free for players.

As expected play was extremely competitive throughout with the best performing teams in early play Hetton Social League, Hendon Mob and Blonde Poker: All three did not lose a player until well into Day One play. In the last level, Rob Swindells who had been near the head of affairs all day, won a big pot against Alan Lake of Black Belt Poker, pocket queens against pocket tens to move into a dominating position

At the end of Day One, 35 players remained, with the chip leaders being as follows:

	Name	Team	Chips
	Rob Swindells	Gambling Network Forum	235,900
	Sam Swannack	Bristol MeetUp	110,900
	Ian Thompson	APAT forum	91,700
	Steve Roderick	Blonde Poker	90,600
	Nick Mazur	Black Betl Poker	82,600

Top points scorers so far were Black Belt Poker, due to finishes in the top 50 positions, and six teams had three players remaining so there was all to play for.

With Duncan Godfrey's exit in thirteenth it was confirmed that Gambling Network Forum with two players remaining on top of existing points finishes were 2011 United Kingdom Team Champions, leaving The Hendon Mob, Black Belt Poker and APAT forum to fight for second and third, and the Individual competition to play out.

The final table line up was as follows:

	Seat	Name	Team	Chips
	1	George Lawson	Newcastle Poker Forum	277,000
	2	John Murray	Live Pub Poker League	148,000
	3	Peter Newton	Newcastle Poker Forums	149,000
	4	Gary Peniket	Hendon Mob	219,000
	5	Phil Laws	Gambling Network Forum	104,000
	6	Nick Mazur	Black Belt Poker	195,000
	7	Karl McDonald	A World of Poker	170,000
	8	Rob Swindells	Gambling Network Forum	353,000
	9	Iam Thompson	APAT Forum	167,000

Having started the final aggressively to try and move himself into contention Phil Laws was unfortunate when running pocket kings into Nick Mazur's pocket aces to leave the tournament in ninth. Ian Thompson then accounted for Peter Newton. Pocket tens winning a race against ace-king, Newton out in eighth.

Long time chip leader Rob Swindells, who had led his team to the Team title, had suffered a difficult final, his aggression back-firing. Blind on blind he four-bet shoved ace-three and Ian Thompson called with pocket jacks. Jacks held, Swindells was out seventh and Thompson had now become a commanding chip leader.

Thompson's form continued. Gary Peniket had re-raised with pocket queens and Thompson four bet with Aces. Peniket called and was elimiated in sixth but had nevertheless guaranteed his Hendon Mob team the runner up position in the team event.

George Lawson was unfortunate to exit fifth when his ace-king was out-drawn by Karl McDonald's king-jack of hearts which turned a flush. John Murray was the short-stack of four and began to push hard to get a stack to compete. One push too often, with deuce-four from the button, found Mazur in the blinds with aces to knock him out.

When McDonald was knocked out in third, pocket tens falling to Mazur's ace-jack, Black Belt Poker tied up the final cash position in the team event and Mazur took a substantial chip lead into the heads-up battle with Thompson

After an hour of Heads up play with Thompson scrapping hard to overcome the chip deficit the key pot played out. Thompson button raised king-jack and Mazur called with seven-four suited. The flop came jack-high, with a four. Mazur check called and then check-raised all in when the turn came another four. Thompson called with two pairs, and was the runner up after a harmless river.

So the winners of the 2011 APAT UK Team Championship were the Gambling Network Forum, with Nick Mazur of Black Belt Poker winning the Individual element of the tournament .For all the details of future APAT events and free membership of APAT visit www.apat.com

Top Five Teams

	Position	Team	Points	Prize
	1	Gambling Network Forum	120	£2,300
	2	The Hendon Mob Forum	108	£1,380
	3	Black Belt Poker	105	£920
	4	APAT Forum	101
	5	Hetton Social Poker League	98

Final Table Payouts (Individual title)

	Position	Name	Prize
	1	Nick Mazur	£1,300
	2	Ian Thompson	£700
	3	Karl McDonald	£450
	4	John Murray	£350
	5	George Lawson	£250
	6	Gary Peniket	£200
	7	Rob Swindells	£170
	8	Peter Lawton	£150
	9	Phil Laws	£130

The APAT also takes place online with the official partners being 888 Poker. Signing up for an 888 Poker account through PokerNews would entitle you to a 100% up to $888 first deposit bonus.

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to post one!

What do you think?

Register to leave a comment or login with facebook

Username Password
Post this comment to my facebook wall

Post it