Congratulations to Kevin who has made the final table of the APAT OnLive Championship, which will be played at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino on December 15th. In a series of interviews with each finalist, APAT Media Director Richard Prew caught up with Kevin for his views on the event to date, and his thoughts on the London final table.
1. What is your poker background? What is your previous experience with
APAT?
I have been playing for just over 3 years after being introduced to poker by a chess playing friend. I have been involved since the early days as i liked APAT's concept of raising the standards, skills and enviroment for amateur players everywhere.
2. Tell us your greatest poker successes to date?Live it has to be winning Sky Poke"rs 1st live event at the Broadway in Birmingham and of course keeping in touching distance with the APAT season 1 points leaders. This has enabled me to sneak up and create some drama in this the final event by saving my best till last.
3 How did the Online section go? What were the key hands and situations that
led you to get to the final six?I doubled up 1st hand with AA v KK, which on reflection my opponent could have played better, i then was able to stay at the top end of the leader board to reach the final table with no great drama"s. Once reaching the final table my chipstack was up & down like a yo-yo, sending me on an emotional roller coaster!? I doubled up with AA v AK, and again with AK v 1010. Then a stroke of luck as my KK v AA ended up as a split pot with a rivered straight, could this be my day i thought!?
4 Were you ever seriously at risk of going out during the Online stage?Not until the final table & you had to be there to see how close i came to bubbling in 7th? I lost a raised pot to jacklevel, who had made a bet of 30K into an AQ7 all diamond flop? I was sure i had him beat with my Q, but it was all-in or fold and i bottled it? Of course Mickey showed me his 109 with one diamond, would he have called my all in? Probably! I then went card dead and the blinds were eating me away, when i raised with KcQc, technolol went all in? I made a bad call hoping for an under pair, but his AK had me dominated and crippled me? So down to 39K i raised all in UTG with Qc7C as i was going to have to be all in on my BB with any 2 cards anyway? Unfortunately i had a caller with 66 and it looked to be all over, until that 7 on the river-lucky seven eh! A few hands later in was a battle of the blinds as the small stack was all in on my BB, i called to see his KJ beaten by my A3 and we had reached the final six.
5 How many of your fellow finalists did you encounter during the Online
section?I believe i played with Mickey & Jack for a while, possibly the others too? I must admit to being pretty focussed and concentrating on other things at the time!?
6 What are your thoughts about the Live section?A 6 player live final table at the famous Vic, with an EPT & WSOP package to play for-does it get any better? Ask me on the Sunday!
7 What do you think of the Onlive concept and the tournament structure?It is an interesting idea as your usual final table gets to be an all in fest as the blinds increase, the skill factor is lessened and lady luck (Good & bad) plays a bigger part in the result? The OnLive concept allows the final 6 an opportunity to play poker again, where the most skillfull player will win-probably!?
8 What would it mean to you to triumph and win that WSOP seat?Winning either the EPT or WSOP seat would tick off a couple of things i want to do before i die, still lots on the list though!? It would also be an honour to represent APAT and the players at these events. I have learned so much by being a member and playing in both the online & live events, and of course the friends i have made make it special-thankyou all!
9 Looking at the chip count, there is all to play for. Will you go with a
strategy in mind? If so, what is it?(feel free to spread disinformation!)Level 1 thinking-"i will play tight till i"ve wrapped up 5th spot"......Level 2 thinking-"they know that, so i will play back at them representing a monster".......Level 3 thinking-"damn Mickey"s raised me all in", where"s the bar! Good luck everyone see you at the Vic!
