Last night saw the completion of the tenth round of the PokerStars.com National Online League from APAT, where a field of over two hundred players assembled to compete for the thirteen participating regions.

The trend in recent weeks has seen Wales close the gap to long time leaders Scotland, and that trend continued again last night as the Welsh took another point out of the Scottish lead.  The Scots, to their credit, are mighty fighters and they managed to get an impressive four players into the last fifteen last night, to score four match points and take second position on the night.

But it was the Welsh who again took the maximum five, with a star turn from Rhys Langley, winning his second individual league event in the past three weeks, a very impressive performance indeed.  Scottish player Tom Hall took the individual second with Ricky Jones once again going deep, taking third following his individual win in last week’s fixture.

Elsewhere on the night, it was the North East who secured three match points, thanks to Dan Patterson’s individual fourth place finish.  West Midlands took two match points, with the North West scoring the final match point.

So with one third of the league remaining, Wales have cut the Scottish region’s lead to a mere two points, while West Midlands continue to lead the chasing group.

Match day 11 will take place next Sunday night at 7pm.  Click the PokerStars.com National Online League button (above right) to learn how to get involved and play for your region.

Things are getting decidedly nervy north of the border as Wales continue their relentless pursuit of Scotland in the PokerStars.com National Online League from APAT.

212 players took to the virtual baize for the 9th match of the 15 match series and it took 3 hours and 45 minutes to reach our final table, which included two players representing Wales, one of which, Ricky Jones (bubba82), had a commanding chip lead.

By the time the second Welsh player, David Langley (pokerkid2104) had exited in 7th, Wales had all but sewn up maximum match points. Andrew Duncan (AJDUK) exiting in 5th confirmed the win but also guaranteed North West the runners up spot on the night and valuable league points.

Jones never relinquished his lead, and went on to seal the double for Wales – team and individual wins. Runner up, George Dickson (thehibee2), guaranteed 3rd place match points for Scotland, ahead of West Midlands in 4th, with East of England taking the final team point.

The National Online League appears to be serving up three distinctive battles as we approach the final third of the season.  Scotland have led since match 2, but with with the heat of Welsh breaths on their necks over the past three or four weeks.  It would appear the battle for the Championship will lie with those two, with Scotland being a slight favourite due to points already on the board.  But if we were laying odds based on momentum, then the Welsh team led by Henry Griffiths might well be favourites.

Defending champions West Midlands may not have conceded their title yet, but it would take an incredible finish to the season for them to repeat. A more realistic target perhaps is the third place prize pool and they currently lead that battle by 4 points from South East, with North East and North West also in close contention a further 2 points back.

The third battle is to avoid the wooden spoon of finishing bottom of the league. Currently Europe and Ireland sit joint 12th with a single match point each. Both teams have talented players and there’s no question that either could climb to mid table security by the end of the series, but the presssure is on both to perform as we enter the final fixtures.

No matter who you play for or support, there’s plenty of excitement guaranteed through May and June and we very much look forward to the next installment, on Sunday night at 7pm, at PokerStars.com.