Tom Noble is Scottish Amateur Poker Champion
134 players braved the adverse Edinburgh weather on Saturday morning 4th July and made the decision that indoors was the place to be – and to fight it out for the title of Scottish Amateur Poker Champion.
Despite the traditional APAT slow structured event, it was only 90 minutes into play before Gregory Barbour’s pocket 5c 5d hit the flop of 5h 2s Ad and all the chips went in, only to find his opponent holding 3d 4c and no help on the Turn or River – Gregory’s departure being the first of 18 before the first break.
By the second break after 6 levels a total of 45 had hit the rail, with some notable chip stacks:
Conghai Wang 71k
Andy Wilson 65k
Tom Noble 64k
Shoib Gulamhussein 52k
John Peeples 49k
James Gray 45k
Michael Meighan 44k
Ben Burnhill 44k
Tom Clark 32k
Andy Whiteford 30k
Liam Spence 26k
Play following the second break saw the same relentless departure of players, with Day 1 ending with a field of 44 from the original 134.
Resuming play on Day 2 and notable players were starting to emerge.
Andy Whiteford, winning a Silver Medal in this event last year, took out Gordon Marshall when his 9h 9s against Gordon’s Kd Qd hit a flop of Kc 7s 9d – although with the 5d Turn giving Andy a tense moment it was a welcome Js River to double him up.
Marco Erasmo Crespo soon departed at the hands of Tom Noble when his 7h 10h didn’t improve past Tom’s Qd Qc, whilst likewise Blair Barr got in all in pre-flop holding Kh Qc but couldn’t improve past Conghai Wang calling with Js Jc.
Scott Henderson soon ran his Qd Qc all in pre-flop into Tom Noble’s Kh Kd and departed, whilst Andy Wilson’s Kh Kd holds against Samuel Joseph Smith’s As Kc, and Liam Spence calls with Ad 7c against Danielle Paterson’s all in move with Ah 9d – with Flop 2h 5h 7d and Turn 3s it looks like Danielle will get a double up until the inevitable River 7h to end her play.
By level 16 players had made the Final Table:
S1 Michael Meighan 117,400
S2 Tom Noble 375,700
S3 Conghai Wang 226,800
S4 George Dick 302,600
S5 Andy Whiteford 167,800
S6 Nicki Seton 108,200
S7 Tom Clark 201,200
S8 Liam Spence 239,700
S9 Andy Wilson 286,500
After an hour’s play Tom Clark found himself reduced to short stack when a Flop 2h 4s 6h see his chips go in against Conghai Wang – Tom tables 4c 4d and Conghai 8h 8d – the Turn brings 10d but a devastating 8s River reduces Tom to 34k – although it didn’t last long and after a few all ins by Tom he was very quickly back to about 150k, with each hand yielding 24k in each uncalled pot.
It was Michael Meighan who was the next player all in when on a Board of 5c 7c Ad 6c, he pushed over Conghai Wang’s 25k bet whilst holding Jd Jc, only for Conghai to call holding 9c 10c and Michael drew dead and departed in 9th position – soon followed by Tom Clark at the hands of Tom Noble, and then Nicki Seton in 7th again at the hands of Tom Noble.
We get to 4-handed, and on the ‘medals bubble’, when George Dick gets sent to the rail in 6th by Andy Whiteford, and Liam Spence going in 5th at the hands of Andy Wilson.
Tom Noble 480k
Conghai Wang 670k
Andy Whiteford 660k
Andy Wilson 215k
Play tightened for some considerable time before we had Tom Noble and Conghai appreciatively ahead on chips, and it was Andy Wilson in short stacked spot who moved all in pre-flop with 9h 9s to be called by Conghai Wang with As 10h – on a Board Qh 6c Ac Kd Kc a disappointed Andy Wilson departed in 4th without a much-wanted APAT National Championship Medal.
Not many hands later and short stacked Andy Whiteford pushed all in from the Button with Kd 9s, Tom Noble calling with As 3s and no help on the Board saw Andy depart in 3rd spot and Bronze Medal position – to add to his Silver Medal won last time – and with a £1230 prize.
And after an incredibly short heads up, we found our Gold Medal winner when Tom Noble pushed with 9h 9s and Conghai called with As Kd – with the Board 3c 7c 8c 10s 9d winning Tom the hand, it was only after a chip count that it was found he had Conghai covered.
Conghai Wang finished with the Silver Medal and £2080, and the Scottish Amateur Poker Champion was crowned – Tom Noble winning Gold Medal, an added value seat in the forthcoming World Championship Of Amateur Poker (WCOAP) and £3010 richer.
Next stop for APAT is the Welsh Amateur Poker Championship in Cardiff with 2 Day 1s on 28th and 29th August.
