WCOAP 2019 Snippet
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF AMATEUR POKER
APAT’s WCOAP continues to go from strength to strength, and if the 2019 hosting is anything to go by, with 30 bracelet events in all variants of poker, with buyins ranging from €60, then long will it continue – and here’s hoping it makes a return to the UK for 2020!
The Concord Card Casino in Vienna was the host venue where WCOAP kicked off on Good Friday for 10 days of action, and with 30 WCOAP Champion events we’ll let the pictures do the talking…
MORE WOMEN IN POKER
To help more women into poker, APAT teamed up with Poker League of Nations (PLON) for WCOAP 2019 where PLON sponsored a ‘Leading Lady Leaderboard’ and offered a Tiffany & Co. bracelet to the top ranking female player from points awarded from all 30 poker variant events. This relationship will continue into APAT’s forthcoming Season 13 where again PLON has sponsored the APAT Season 13 Ladies Series, with again a Tiffany & Co. bracelet for the top ranking female from all APAT events.
WCOAP 2019 – APAT/PLON Leading Lady
Dory Iemmito is a 32 year old Italian mother, with a 4-year old son by her husband Gabriel whom she met 7 years agho, and who has been participating in APAT events for 5 years, and this past 3 years she has been a member of Team Italy during the WCOAP.
Dory has also been working as a Croupier for the past 5 years, currently at Casinó Lugano in Switzerland, and her favourite hobby/sport is poker – especially all the different variants like offered at WCOAP by APAT – she played the full 10 days of WCOAP 2019 in Vienna with great success – she took the top honours in the ROE (NLHE/PLO) and the NLHE Survivor Shootout, with Bronze Medals in no less than 3 other events – 6-Max, PLO 4/5/6/ and NLHE Shootout – results that saw her top the PLON Leading Lady Series and win a 3rdbracelet – the Tiffany & Co. bracelet for Leading Lady.
APAT PLAYER PROFILE – APAT Stalwart, and PLON’s APAT Ambassador, Linda Iwaniak
From Reading, UK, Linda is a former Graphic Designer who retired in 2011 when she took up poker with her late husband Richard after watching it a lot on TV throughout the 90s. Enjoying discussing and analysing the hands, it was the early days of online poker and after opening accounts they did very well at it whilst still working in full time jobs.
After about a year playing online, and now keen to play live, they were taking a vacation in Las Vegas, which they had done for a few years and had watched some live WSOP in Binions – so Vegas seemed the perfect place to cut their teegh, although with the card rooms full of men it did take Linda a while before summoning up the courage to go in, but once there, the Orleans became a particular favourite where they played both tournaments and cash, and in 2006 Linda won a tournament at The Orleans.
Upon returning home to the UK they heard about the UK Ladies Poker Open Championship that was to be held in Stanleys Star City Casino in Birmingham, with a £225 buy in and a deep stacked tournament with 40 minute levels over two days, Although the buyin was pushing the limit for Linda, she felt confident in herself, and indeed went on to win it and became the first UK Ladies Open Champion and the proud owner of a beautiful gold and diamond bracelet, donated by Stanleys, and a £10,500 1st prize.
Also in 2006 it was impossible to find a low buy in tournament, that would be dealer dealt, in any casino, never mind having a decent structure! Enter APAT who started the UK’s first poker tour and started giving amateur players their first taste of a professionally run, well structurer deep stack event over 2 days.
Over the following years Linda and Richard made many friends through APAT and gained a lot of experience in other versions of poker which APAT brought into the schedule as side events, such as PLO, HORSE and Stud – affordable opportunities for amateurs to play in a professional environment that have stood the test of time with APAT to this very day, and as witnessed in APAT’s recent WCOAP 2019 in Vienna, Austria which had 30 different ‘bracelet’ events with buyins from €60, up to €250 for the (amateur) High Roller.
Fast forward, and in 2018 Linda had 3 WSOP cashes and one of those was in the WSOP PLO Giant where she finished 35th, she finished 500th of nearly 6,000 in the WSOP Seniors NLHE, and went on to final table the WSOP Super Seniors NLHE, finishing 4th, out of nearly 3,000 players.
Linda says “APAT is a great way for all players to get into poker, but especially for any ladies. Ladies events have their place, but getting into a mixed environment is the best learning curve. I lost Richard four and a half years ago, but he made me promise to carry on, and I feel he is there, always, encouraging me. To him I was always a poker player that just happened to be female – I will love it when everybody looks at it this way”.
Linda is certainly a worthy Ambassador for PLON, the Poker League of Nations set up to encourage more women into poker, and with their recent partnership with APAT, BLUFF Europe certainly fully supports their initiative to encourage more women into the historically male-dominated poker environment.
WCOAP 2019 PLAYER PROFILE – Angie Doherty (Northern Ireland)
I had a great time at the WCOAP I love my APAT family so much …I played day 1a winning into day 2 with 239k in 2nd place. I made the mistake of being right then tilting. I have played poker all of my life. All my family played. My grandparents played followed by my parents then myself and my siblings . Though I am the only one who has played on any serious level. But this has been on and off over the years. Life throws other exciting opportunities but poker has always been there in the background. Now it is becoming a bigger part of my life than ever. It is my world. A world I have helped to bring people into and get interested in. Something I’m very proud of. I have had my little games (ANGIES ROOM) online for 15 years starting at Ladbrokes. Now on 32Red and coming soon to OTP. Traveling around meeting other like-minded poker players is just amazing .. networking, learning new ways etc. Long may it continue.
My background is full of weird and wonderful things I helped run night clubs.. I owned my own businesses from cafe to security company .. I have been senior in the prison service and also worked for a couple of years at the old Bailey. Seen a lot of things in my time, and hope to see many more on my future travels through life.
WCOAP 2019 PLAYER PROFILE – Stefan Fischer (Netherlands)
Living in the Netherlands, Stefan works as a manager in a supermarket when not at the poker tables, which he first encountered around 2006 when it was broadcast on Dutch TV. Starting off playing in a pub game, Stefan’s first experience with APAT was when he went to play poker with friends in Spa, Belgium at the beginning of 2015, which was an APAT event. In 2017, he attended APAT’s WCOAP for the first time in Manchster, UK and had a great experience playing a lot of excellent, affordable tournaments.
A regular on the APAT scene in Belgium, September 2018 Stefan was offered the opportunity to Captain Team Netherlands at WCOAP 2019 in Vienna – and he jumped at the chance. Inviting other regular Dutch APATers on the team, he was joined by Danny op ‘t Hof, Marco Wouters and Andreas Kapper, who had also represented the Netherlands at WCOAP 2017 and, failing to succeed then, along with Stefan they were hungry for success in 2019 – hunger which proved fruitful as they went on to be crowned Team Champions, beating 12 other international teams and taking the Team Championship Bracelets and Gold Medals for their endeavours.
For Stefan it was “a dream scenario definitely for me as a captain, with a great honour to Captain my Country, and for it to come true is a wonderful feeling for myself and my team mates who all shared the same mentality and team ethos to win, but at the same time continuing to enjoy and have fun as we always do at APAT, where also respect is paramount for everyone”.
