APAT Crown Latest Austrian and Scottish Champions
Vienna and Edinburgh played host for APAT visits with the recent Austrian and Scottish National Championship titles.
With APAT’s 13th Season just over the horizon, it was way back in Season 2 that APAT paid its first ever visit to Austria (2008 – England’s Andy Kingan being crowned European Amateur Poker Champion), and although returning again in 2010 (with local player Christoph Kreindl taking the Central European title), it was to be a 9 year gap before the recent visit to the Concord Card Casino Wien-Simmering, in Vienna would host the inaugural Austrian Amateur Poker Championship in what will now be an annual tour stop.
The final day of action had 22 players return for the €20,000 prize fund, and the action was fast paced right up until the Final Table, where play then slowed and became more intense, taking some time before the National Championship medal positions were reached. Exiting in 3rd and Bronze Medal position was local player Markus Loidl, with another local player, Ali Eghbalzad fighting hard to the end only to be beaten into 2nd and Silver Medal position by Germany’s Robert Solbach, with Robert entering the history books and being crowned the inaugural Austrian National Champion winning €4,234 and the coveted National Championship Gold Medal.
Things are a bit different for APAT visits to Scotland, where the Scottish Amateur Poker Championship was the 4th ever APAT event held – hosted way back in Season 1 where Scottish player Phil Starrs took the honours in April 2007 – and with the National Championship event being hosted in every APAT Season since then.
Grosvenor’s Maybury Casino was the scene for the recent Season 12 visit, where action kicked off with a max capacity field of 120 from the outset being whittled down to 31 for Day 2, with 13 players making the cash. It was local player Ross Fullarton (did you see him in the 2-page ‘LPPL hot-tub spread’ in last month’s edition!) who was first to cash – Blinds at 4k/8k/8k (Button Ante) and Jamie Lackenby completed from the small blind only for Ross to ship his stack in the big blind for 63k, with Jamie thinking for a while and then making the call:
Ross and Jamie
Although with an open-ended straight draw on the Turn, but facing Jamie’s flush draw, Ross missed to depart in 13thwith a min cash.
bsh
Final Table 9:
Seat 1 – Stuart Allan – 160k
Seat 2 – Roddy Morrison – 185k
Seat 3 – Neil Pickering – 265k
Seat 4 – Asa McGrath – 365k
Seat 5 – Jamie Lackenby – 390k
Seat 6 – Gary Maclennan – 220k
Seat 7 – Ian Swan – 400k
Seat 8 – Scott Wilson – 230k
Seat 9 – Tom Noble – 280k
Blinds 5k/10k/10k Average 278k
Jamie went on to Final Table and got his full stack in when Asa McGrath shipped under the gun and Jamie announcing all in directly behind him, with the rest folding and the cards going on their backs:
Asa Jamie
Asa won the hand on the River to knock out Jamie Lackenby in 7th (Jamie took 3rd spot in the event in 2018).
Asa got involved again when 5-handed, Blinds 12k/24k/12k Average 500k, and Asa shipping with
and Scott Wilson making the call with with Asa at risk, only to see the board run out
and Scott groans at this point – and sees the inevitable on River to keep Asa’s hopes alive with the Straight on the River as Asa doubling up to circa 368k.
(pic of hand)
Asa, a long time avid APAT supporter, went on to take his first ever National Championship Medal with Bronze (although he has considerable success in WCOAP – check out his Hendon Mob profile https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=126202, with the Championship decided between Stuart Allan and Tom Noble with Blinds 15k/30k/15k Average 1.25m and Tom flat calls pre flop only for Stuart to raise another 75k, Tom ships, and Stuart calls… for Stuart with Tom needing to hit a 2 with but Board running out
1st Stuart Allan £2,860 & APAT Gold Medal & £560 GUKPT Seat
2nd Tom Noble £1,855 & APAT Silver Medal
3rd Asa McGrath £1,210 & APAT Bronze Medal
4th Neil Pickering £825
5th Scott Wilson £600
6th Ian Swan £420
7th Jamie Lackenby £320
8th Roddy Morrison £275
9th Gary Maclenna £240
10th Arvind Sood £215
11th Andrew Bathgate £195
12th James Gray £180
13th Ross Fullarton £180
bsh
APAT returns to Vienna to host the World Championship of Amateur Poker April 19th to 28th, and we’ll be reporting next month on all 30 World Championship events, including the World Team Championship, whilst eagerly awaiting the release of APAT’s Season 13. Visit apat.com.
