Tristan Chaplin Wins Main Event; Pak To Wins Heads-Up Event On WCOAP Final Day

The APAT 2014 World Championship Of Amateur Poker (WCOAP) came to a thrilling conclusion on Monday when the Heads-Up event and the Main Event crowned their champions. Pak To is the new APAT Heads-Up World Champion, with Tristan Chaplin becoming the new World Champion.

2014 WCOAP: Main Event – Tristan Chaplin Is the APAT World Champion

At the start of Day 2 of the 2014 WCOAP Main Event, Tristan Chaplin was armed with 76,700 chips, which were enough to see his name somewhere around the middle of the 73 returning players. Blending in with the crowd took some pressure off him as all eyes were on Darren Moy (309,200) and Scott Berridge (220,700) who had amassed massive stacks on their respective Day 1s.

Regardless of their chips stacks, each of the players shared a common goal: to progress to the top 36 places where the prize pool was distributed. This meant the worse possible position to finish in was 37th place, which is exactly where Jason Williams bowed out.

Williams got his stack in with pocket queens against jacks, but the knaves improved to a flush by the river to send Williams packing. As a gesture of goodwill, Apsers Stratford Westfield gifted Williams with a seat to the World Poker Tour National London Main Event for later this year.

The aforementioned Berridge was one of the first players to cash, falling in 31st place after failing to build on his impressive Day 1 start. Berridge’s fellow start-of-the-day chip monster Moy saw his tournament end with a 22nd place finish.

Meanwhile, Chaplin had gone about his business in a quiet and efficient manner, turning his 76,700 stack into one containing 725,000 betting token by the time the nine-handed final table was reached.

Guy Taylor was the first player to bust from the final table, doing so after a clash with Anthony Gale. The latter opened to 80,000 from under the gun and the action passed around to Taylor in the big blind who jammed all-in for 220,000. Gale called and showed , a much stronger hand than the of Taylor. Both players paired their ace, but when no ten showed up on the board it was game over for Taylor.

After losing a large pot when Levente Varga’s came from behind to beat his , Dan Crabbe was left nursing a short stack and was in desperate need of a double-up. That much-needed boost to his stack looked set to happen when he got his chips into the middle with and Gale called with an inferior . Gale’s hand only remained behind as far as the flop, and when the and completed the five community cards it was game over for Crabbe.

Another few hands played out before Rod Davies committed his 180,000 chips with and Gale again called to find himself needing some help from the board. Gale held and wasn’t too enthralled by the flop, although the on the turn gave him some outs to a straight. Amazingly, the improved Davies to a pair of aces, but also Gale to a straight, condemning Davies to a seventh place finish.

Six became five with the elimination of Claire MacGregor and again it was Gale who was again the executioner. Gale opened to 125,000 only to see MacGregor three-bet to 300,000. Gale responded with an all-in bet and MacGregor called off her stack.

Gale showed and MacGregor the , setting up a coinflip scenario. It was a coinflip that Gale went on to win after the board ran out.  Game over for MacGregor.

Stephen Howell was the next player to head to the cashier’s cage and amazingly it was not Gale who sent him there. This time Howell moved all-in for 560,000 from under the gun with what turned out to be and Varga looked him up with . Those “ducks” held as the five community cards fell , leaving the tournament with only four players, each of whom were now guaranteed at least £2,450 for their efforts.

That prize money increased to £3,400 after Rob Quinn succumb to the run-good of Gale. An open to 250,000 on the button from Gale was met with a 1.6 million chip all-in bet from Quinn and a call from Gale! Surely this was a cooler of versus?  Nope, not even near! Quinn showed the less than stellar , which was remarkably ahead of Gale’s . A queen on the flop was enough to see the gargantuan pot slide towards Gale.

Three-handed play spanned across a couple of blind levels and ended with a great call to send Gale to the rail. Chaplin raised to 245,000 with and then called when Gale raised to 650,000. The flop fell , Gale checked, Chaplin bet 655,000 and Gale responded with a check-raise all-in! Gale eventually called and was correct to do so as Gale flipped over . Chaplin’s call was rewarded with a turn and river, leaving Gale to pick up third place money and to send the tournament into its heads-up stage.

Due to Chaplin holding 5.9 million of the 6.6 million chips in play, heads-up was a brief encounter. The final hand saw Varga push from the button with and Chaplin call with a dominating . Chaplin had the hand locked up by the turn of the board and was announced as the 2014 WCOAP Main Event champion!

2014 WCOAP Main Event Final Table Results

In addition to the £7,500 in prize money, Chaplin also secured a gold medal, a championship bracelet, a trip to Las Vegas and €150 of tournament entries at Coral’s online poker arm. Congratulations!

2014 WCOAP Event #16: Heads-Up Championship – Pak To Takes It Down

The Heads-Up event was a complete sell-out with 64 players turning out for the one-on-one contest. The tournament was played in the true APAT spirit despite some chunky prizes being on offer.

Helping themselves to £160 after falling in the quarter finals were Andrea Canil, Mauro Surino, Lee Crane and Robert Smith. Doubling that amount was Andrew Brisland who collected £320 after being defeated by in the third place playoff with Richard Sheils.

The eventual champion was Pak To who claimed the £1,120 first place prize after edging out Raphael Augustin in the final round.

That, as they say, is that for this year’s WCOAP. Stay tuned to in the coming weeks for more details on exciting APAT related tournaments and news.