Warren Says Make Mine A Double Top!

The G Casino, Cardiff held the 2013 Welsh Amateur Poker Championship over the weekend of August 3rd. With a £75 buy in and a 15,000 starting stack running to a 45 minute clock the field, made up of APAT members from around the U.K. 114 runners battled it out to see who would become the new Welsh Champion – with a prize pool just over £8,500. Added to this were APAT Gold, Silver and Bronze medals to the first three players, as well as an added seat in the Main Event of the 2014 World Championships of Amateur Poker

The Welsh Championship was the Main Event of the weekend – but also part of the weekend were two side events – Leg 2 of the Cash Tour Championship, played on the Friday evening and Leg 2 of the Pot Limit Omaha Championship – played on Sunday afternoon. Both these events, along with the Main Event, held APAT Ranking Points for the top placed finishers – these points, won at events throughout Season 7 – both live and online – will result in an overall Ranking Points Leaderboard – the eventual winner of which will receive a once-in-a-lifetime package to Las Vegas with APAT in 2014.

Play commenced in the Main Event right on time at 1:30pm on Saturday – as always there was an early departure – Chen Tam had not been sat down long on Table 1 before he was standing up again and departing the scene – Vikrum Mehta accounting for Chen. Not long afterwards, Judi Edwards was also walking dejectedly towards the exit – her flopped straight not ultimately good enough for the higher straight of Garry Wildin.

Play settled down somewhat as players looked to get into the event – the true deepstack nature meant that players had plenty of playing time and looked to take advantage of that. But some big names fell by the wayside early on – Dann Williams, Paulie Davis, Asa McGrath all being eliminated by the first break. By this time, James Fisher had pushed his way to the top of the chipstack count, being sat on 59k after the end of Level 3 – a sign of things to come for James.

The tournament numbers soon started to drop more rapidly after the first break – blinds started rising in earnest and the antes had their usual effect…James Fisher, having plenty of vocal support, maintained his chip lead throughout the day and ended up by the close having a substantial percentage of the chips in play – although chasing him hard was Sean Priest, playing his first APAT Championship, and Chris Webber. Warren Jones, who only a few weeks back had won the APAT English Championship was also very well placed in his attempt to be the first player to ever win back-to-back Championships.

At close of play on Day 1, we were down to 28 players left in the event. Amongst the chip leaders starting Day 2 were :

James Fisher 172,100
Sean Priest 144,000
Chris Webber 125,075
Warren Jones 98,925
Adam Sharples 88,750
Martin Foreman 79,000
Stuart Milne 73,300
Gavin Priestley 72,950

James Fisher started Day 2 as clear chip leader, but he was soon to be reminded how fickle the poker gods are – as easy as chips came his way on Day 1, so they departed him on Day 2 – and amazingly he was soon fighting for his tournament life. But players were falling by the wayside around him as Tony Trippier, Stuart Milne and Debjani Duncan exit the event as we move to tables. Here, James Fisher’s luck eventually ran out, as Richard Rudyard-Smith accounted for him – James finally exiting in 19th place. One by one they fell, and when the afore-mentioned Richard Rudyard-Smith’s AT couldn’t improve against the bigger Ace of Warren Jones, we had our Final Table line up:

1 Martin Foreman 405,000
2 Warren Jones 348,000
3 Sean Priest 246,600
4 Tom Steuart-Feilding 233,600
5 Laura Rhoden 141,800
6 Gareth Johns 138,000
7 Craig Williams 84,900
8 Adam Sharples 72,600
9 Gavin Priestley 58,500

Gavin Priestley immediately doubles through Tom Steuart-Feilding – and soon Gareth Johns attempts to double through Martin Foreman – alas he doesn’t have the same luck, as his Jacks cant hold against AQ of Martin. Gareth exiting the FT in 9th place. Craig Williams’ stack was crippled in a cooler against Adam Sharples – but it was Sean Priest who finally accounted for him in 8th place – Sean finding a straight on the turn with KQ against the pocket 3s of Craig. Next to go is Adam Sharples – Adam trying to pick his spots but faced with some big stacks in behind him, he was in an awkward spot. He commits with pocket 6s – but Warren Jones finds KJ good enough to call with – and a King duly arrives to send Adam out in 7th.

Tom Steuart-Feilding had been very much a Final Table aggressor – but when losing a large chunk to Martin Foreman, he had to battle back from the brink to stay in the event – but it didn’t last as his QT runs into the Aces of Warren Jones and Tom departs in 6th. Laura Rhoden had flown the female flag high in her first APAT Championship – and she is desperately unlucky to go in 5th place – Laura’s shove with 88 in great shape against the 44 of Gavin Priestley – but a flop of A23 gave Gavin more outs – and the 5 sickeningly for Laura fell on the river to send her out.

At this point, Warren Jones and Martin Foreman had the lions share of chips, but Gavin Priestley and Sean Priest both still respectable. But Martin hit a distinctly cold patch and he lost pots with alarming regularity – Sean Priest being the main beneficiary. Martin eventually fell in 4th place to Warren Jones – his QT not good enough to beat Warren’s AQ.

The three handed battle didn’t last long – Gavin Priestley had fought his way into FT magnificently, but he lost a succession of pots to Warren Jones which left him dangerously low stacked. He eventually shoved and found a call from both Warren and Sean. The flop brings J3A to which Sean also shoves – Warren has to fold – Sean showing AQ – Gavin’s KJ couldn’t improve and we were Heads Up between Warren Jones and Sean Priest.

Warren immediately went on the front foot – holding a sizeable chip lead, it was a strategy that Sean seemed to have little answer to. Bets and raises met only calls and folds from Sean and soon his stack was looking paltry to the towers that Warren was building. Sean valiantly attempts a fight back and wins a few sets of blinds, but the writing was on the wall – Warren again puts Sean all in – Sean commits – his Q9 in bad shape against the QJ of Warren. Sure enough, the QJ holds, and amazingly, Warren Jones has won back to back APAT Championships – adding the Welsh title to his English one. Much congratulations to Sean Priest – a great showing in his first APAT Championship and surely one to follow in future – but no one could deny or stop Warren Jones from collecting his second Winners cash and Gold Medal in two events…an APAT first!

Congratulations also to Dwayne Stacey, who won Leg 2 of the Cash Tour Championship, and Dylan Herbert, who won Leg 2 of the Pot Limit Omaha Championship.
APAT now moves on to its fourth event of Season 7, the APAT UK Poker Championship at Dusk till Dawn, Nottingham over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

For all the details of how to enter this and future APAT events and free membership of APAT visit www.apat.com – please note you can reserve your seat NOW for just £5 also via the APAT website!

APAT Welsh Poker Championship

G Casino, Cardiff

3/4 August 2013

Entries 114

Buy in £75

Prize Pool £8,550

1 Warren Jones £2560 + WCOAP Main Event Seat + Gold Medal
2 Sean Priest £1820 + Silver Medal
3 Gavin Priestley £1130 + Bronze Medal
4 Martin Foreman £705
5 Laura Rhoden £555
6 Tom Steuart-Feilding £430
7 Adam Sharples £340
8 Craig Williams £260
9 Gareth Johns £190
10 Richard Rudyard Smith £150
11 Ian Thompson £150
12 David Minshull £130
13 Chris Webber £130
14 Mike Gale
15 Garry Wildin
16 Darren Underhill
17 Derrick Andrews
18 Jo Rees