An exciting end to Season Two of the Black Country Poker Club was assured before the final night as just 3 points seperated the top 4 players. 3 of those players, Andy Overton, Marcel Furet and Malcolm Howell were all on the same table as we kicked-off, but it was Season One Champion Tony Trippier who was a surprising first player out when Will Young eliminated him early in Level 2 and ultimately cost him his seat in the BCPC team for Manchester in December.
Marcel was playing an aggressive game early on but after losing a big pot, he called on all-in on a board of
js
holding :as: jd after Steve Freer, who was chip-leader, shoved all-in with kd
. The turn came ah and the river of
saw Marcel double-up.
Another player making a good start was Richard Davis and he ended Malcolm Howell"s 100% record for making the Final Table at the BCPC and also put paid to his hopes of winning the Title, eliminating him in 15th and in doing so, giving a faint hope to Title outsiders Tod Wood and Brian Yates.
After Steve Freer lost that big pot to Marcel, he never regained his early momentum and was all-in again on a board of
kc
holding ac
. Brian held kd kh and fortunately, the flush missed and so Steve exited in 14th with no-show Dave Allen getting blinded out in 13th soon afterwards.
We then had a monsterous 20k pot where Marcel shoved on a flop of
holding
but Richard insta-called after flopping the straight with ts jh and the board blanked to leave Marcel short and Richard...errmm......NOT short !
Season One 3rd place man Steve Redfern, sitting in the "Shirt Of Shame" tonight for the first time, shoved with ts js and got two callers, Marcel was all-in also with
and big-stack Richard called with :as: qs but this time it was Marcel"s turn to see another set hold. Richard took the small side pot and Steve exited in 12th, leaving him in bottom spot for the Season and the Shirt-Of-Shame to open Season Three.
Matt McKinlay was (Not) quietly building chips on Table 2 and when he outdrew Joey Williams with kh js against ac jh on a ks jc :
: flop, we were down to the Final Table.
Tod was eliminated in 10th spot with ah
against Ant Williams with ac jh on a Jack-High board and so didn"t score any points and was left to sweat as to whether 26 points would be enough to keep him in 6th place in the league for a £168 DTD seat.
Leader Andy Overton had looked more pressured than ever before, tonight and was finally forced to shove with
ah
and was delighted to get a call from Richard holding ac
, doubling up as they both missed.
Ant Williams was the next player all-in, re-raising Maxine McKinlay with ac qh . Maxine decided to gamble with :
: :
: and when the board came tc
kh
it was Ant who was out in 9th.
Soon afterwards we had a hand that would have massive implications on who would win Season Two. In a 3-way pot, Maxine raised with qs qh and Andy shoved for his tourney with kh ks . Matt ALSO called
kc but it was Andy"s Kings that held up to see him triple-up and put him in his strongest position all night.
Our next all-in saw Marcel shove with js
and get a call from Will holding ad
.
The board came
kd td ah kh to leave Marcel out in 8th but with a seat assured as his Season"s prize.
Will was having by far his best game of the season and on a flop of
:as: his check saw all the money go in on the turn of
and Andy showed kh kd but Will had outplayed him with his ah
and the blank river left Andy out in 7th with 39 points, knowing that Matt McKinlay would beat him to the Title if he could finish in 4th place for 8 points.
Brian Yates was 6th out when he hit the flop of
jc :
: with his
jd but Richard held jh qs and the qh on the turn sealed Brian"s fate.
The hand of the night......maybe of the Season,.......came soon afterwards, and it showed just how competitive the BCPC has become.
An innocuous flop of :
:
was checked by both Matt and Maxine. We saw action on the
turn when Matt bet out and Maxine called. The river came down
and Matt shipped it all-in. Win the pot and Matt would surely be Champion.......but if Maxine was eliminated here, then she would NOT be in the team for Manchester. After an agonising dwell, Maxine made what turned out to be a hero call with her th
and Matt immediately mucked his ts
to exit in 5th as Andy Overton celebrated being crowned BCPC Champion for Season Two.
Rich missed out on his first ever BCPC cash when on a qs
:
:
board, his ad
looked good until Will showed
.
The top 3 of Maxine, Paul Foy and Will all had a chance of making the Manchester team now, with Paul also needing a 2nd place finish to win himself a £168 seat.
Paul was the chip-leader when Maxine got it all-in with kd kh and Paul called with ad js . The board was no help and Maxine doubled-up to 33k.
Paul was almost all-in against Will next with a similar hand of :as: jd but this time he was racing as Will held
but the board came :
:
:
:
to leave Paul with just 300 chips and he exited the next hand.
Maxine was delighted to see Paul out as she was now guaranteed her Manchester seat and Brian was happy as he now had a DTD £168 seat on behalf of the retiring Chris Baker, who finished the season in 5th place.
Maxine"s earlier win with pocket three"s had the chance to be reprised when Will called her all-in with qh jc as Maxine held :
: :
: and she led on the
td th flop and the :as: turn but the qs killed her on the river to give Will his first career BCPC victory and a top 10 finish to seal his Manchester seat.
A great end to another great season........Congratulation"s to new Champion ANDY OVERTON !!
POS PLD PTS PRIZE
1 ANDY OVERTON 5 39 £550 SEAT TO BE ARRANGED
2 MATT McKINLAY 6 38 £336 SEAT AT DTD DEEPSTACK
3 MARCEL FURET 6 34 £336 SEAT AT DTD DEEPSTACK
4 MALCOLM HOWELL 6 33 £220 SEAT TO BE ARRANGED
5 CHRIS BAKER 3 26 £168 SEAT AT DTD £20K TOURNEY
6 TOD WOOD 6 26 £165 SEAT AT WALSALL £20K TOURNEY
...
7 BRIAN YATES 6 26
8 PAUL FOY 6 25
9 MAXINE McKINLAY 5 22
10 WILL YOUNG 5 21
...
11 ANT WILLIAMS 6 20
12 TONY TRIPPIER 5 20
13 RICHARD DAVIS 4 16
14 DARREN HOOPER 3 12
15 JOEY WILLIAMS 6 10
16 PAUL MELIA 4 8
17 STEVE FREER 6 5
18 DAVE ALLEN 2 4
19 STEVE REDFERN 5 3 SHIRT OF SHAME
