Gambling Network Forum Win APAT UK Team Championship
The APAT United Kingdom Team Championships was held at the G Casino and featured a sold out field of twenty three teams of eight players each drawn from some of the largest UK poker communities who were once again treated to a 10,000 starting stack, 45 minute clock tournament in keeping with APAT’s aim to bring affordable deepstack poker to recreational players.
The 184 runners created a £9,200 prize pool,half going to the top three teams (points scored for the top 50 finishers) and half to the top individual finishers. Once again APAT provided added value with a UKIPT seat to the individual winner of the Championship.
As expected play was extremely competitive throughout with the best performing teams in early play Hetton Social League, Hendon Mob and blonde Poker: All three did not lose a player until well into day one play.
In the last level, Rob Swindells who had been near the head of affairs all day, won a big pot against Alan Lake of Black Belt Poker, pocket Queens against pocket Tens to move into a dominating position.
At the end of day one 35 players remained with the chip leaders as follows:-
Rob Swindells – Gambling Network Forum – 235,900
Sam Swannack – Bristol MeetUp – 110,900
Ian Thompson – APAT Forum – 91,700
Steve Roderick – blonde Poker – 90,600
Nick Mazur – Black Belt Poker – 82,600
Top points scorers so far were Black Belt Poker, due to finishes in the top 50 positions, and six teams had three players remaining so there was all to play for.
With Duncan Godfrey’s exit in thirteenth it was confirmed that Gambling Network Forum with two players remaining on top of existing points finishes were to be the 2011 United Kingdom Team Champions, leaving The Hendon Mob, Black Belt Poker and APAT Forum to fight for second and third, while there were also the individual honours to play for.
The final table line up was as follows:
1 – George Lawson – Newcastle Poker Forum – 277,000
2 – John Murray – Live Pub Poker League – 148,000
3 – Peter Newton – Newcastle Poker Forum – 149,000
4 – Gary Peniket – Hendon Mob Forum – 219,000
5 – Phil Laws – Gambling Network Forum – 104,000
6 – Nick Mazur – Black Belt Poker – 195,000
7 – Karl McDonald A World of Poker 170,000
8 – Rob Swindells – Gambling Network Forum – 353,000
9 – Ian Thompson – APAT Forum – 167,000
Having started the final aggressively to try and move himself into contention, Phil Laws was unfortunate when running pocket Kings into Nick Mazur’s pocket Aces to leave the tournament in Ninth. Ian Thompson then accounted for Peter Newton. Pocket Tens winning a race against Ace-King, leaving Newton out in Eighth.
Long time chip leader Rob Swindells, who had led his team to the Team title at this stage, had suffered a difficult final, his aggression back-firing. Blind on blind he four-bet shoved Ace-Three and Ian Thompson called with pocket Jacks. The Jacks held, Swindells was out Seventh and Thompson had now become a commanding chip leader.
Thompson’s form continued. Gary Peniket had re-raised with pocket Queens and Thompson four bet with Aces. Peniket called and was elimiated in Sixth but he had nevertheless guaranteed his Hendon Mob team the runner up position in the team event.
George Lawson was unfortunate to exit Fifth when his Ace-King was outdrawn by Karl McDonald’s King-Jack of hearts which turned a flush. John Murray was the short-stack of four and began to push hard to get a stack to compete. One push too often, with Deuce-Four from the button, found Nick Mazur in the blinds with Aces to knock him out.
When Karl McDonald was knocked out in the Bronze medal position, pocket Tens falling to Mazur’s Ace-Jack, Black Belt Poker tied up the final cash position in the Team Championship and Mazur took a substantial chip lead into the Heads Up battle with APAT Forum’s Thompson.
After an hour of Heads up play with Thompson scrapping hard to overcome the chip deficit the key pot played out. Thompson button raised King Jack and Mazur called with Seven-Four suited. The flop came Jack high, with a Four. Mazur check called and then check-raised all in when the turn produced another Four. Thompson called with two pairs, and was confirmed Silver Medalist following a harmless River card.
So the winners of the 2011 APAT United Kingdom Team Championship were Gambling Network Forum, with Nick Mazur of Black Belt Poker winning the Individual element of the tournament.
APAT UK Team Championships
G Casino Luton
22-23 October 2011
Entries 184
Buy in £50
Team Prize Pool £4,600
1 Gambling Network Forum £2,300
2 The Hendon Mob Forum £1,380
3 Black Belt Poker £920
Final Team Positions
1 – Gambling Network Forum – 120pts
2 – The Hendon Mob – 108pts
3 – Black Belt Poker – 105pts
APAT Forum – 101pts
Hetton Social Poker League – 98pts
Blonde Poker – 91pts
A World Of Poker – 89pts
Live Pub Poker League – 89pts
Newcastle Poker Forum – 89pts
Punters Lounge – 80pts
Black Country Poker Club – 44pts
APAT Luton Club – 41pts
Lee Barrett Poker Nights – 38pts
Bristol Meetup – 36pts
Elite Amateur Poker League – 35pts
Eatmystack Forum – 34pts
Chorley Poker League – 21pts
London Poker Meetup – 20pts
Maple Dragon Poker Club – 18pts
APAT Champions – 10pts
FISO – 8pts
Betfair Forum – 0pts
iLovePlayingPoker – 0pts
APAT UK Team Championships
G Casino Luton
22-23 October 2011
Entries 184
Buy in £50
Individual Prize Pool £4,600
1 Nick Mazur £1300
2 Ian Thompson £700
3 Karl McDonald £450
4 John Murray £350
5 George Lawson £250
6 Gary Peniket £200
7 Rob Swindells £170
8 Peter Lawton £150
9 Phil Laws £130
10 Mark Lassman £100
11 Andy Overton £100
12 Duncan Godfrey £100
13 Anton Lee £100
14 Paul Thompson £100
15 Michael Plant £100
16 Gary Allen £100
17 Iain Wilson £100
18 Sharon Roberts £100
