APAT results

The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) held the fourth event in its first season, the Scottish Amateur Poker Championship in Edinburgh, over the weekend of 14th-15th April.

The event was sold out to a capacity of 130 entries, who qualified by a mix of live and online satellites and member draw. The players were once again offered a £75 freeze-out with 10,000 starting chips, a slow clock and significant added value from tour sponsors PokerStars.com via the form of entry into an EPT Season Four event to the winner in addition to their cash prize, trophy, medal and Player of the Year ranking points. Amongst the runners were previous APAT Champions Daniel Phillips, Max Ward and Lee Mulligan.

Play got away at 2.30pm on the Saturday and despite the deep-stack two players departed in the first level. Newcastle finalist Vicky Glynn’s pocket aces fell to Ken Jones who flopped trip threes and Thomas Stanfield flopped a straight and lost to a rivered full house. Player of the Year rankings leader Mark Donnelly was also an early departure, holding an over-pair on a seven high board against trips.

Early leaders included William McAllister who flopped three sets and rivered two flushes in the first level getting paid several times and Philip Toomer whose straight outdrew Terence Tochel’s AA. Also amongst the early contenders were several players who were to feature strongly later in the tournament such as local casino player Phil Starrs, together with Charlie Curtis and Duncan Hodgkins. Also running well were Scottish competitors Scott Moore and Stephen Donnelly.

The field began to thin quickly as blinds rose through the 600-1200 and 800-1600 levels. At the end of the first day 20 players remained with blinds going 3,000-6,000, and the average stack 61,000. And the final table came around quickly on day two.

The final table saw three former Championship finalists in Davies, Talbot and Hodgkins and four Scottish players positioned to win the title. However it was James Eccles and Phil Satrrs that battled trhough to the heads-up confrontation.

Eccles began with a small lead but was playing a wily and far more experienced player. Starrs was taking advantage of this showing constant aggression to push Eccles off pots and put himself into a modest chip lead. Occassionally though this aggression turned into over-playing, which Eccles took advantage of, doubling up to restore his lead.

The crucial hand played out quickly. Starrs raised on the small blind with K9 and Eccles pushed with a pair of tens. Starrs instantly called and saw a miracle flop of K K 9 to leave Eccles visibly shaken and down to 85,000 of the 1.3m chip in play. Twenty minutes later, Eccles having doubled up twice in the meantime, the final hand saw Starrs (pictured) take top pair and a straight draw against Eccles’ up and down straight draw all-in on the flop.

Eccles missed and Phil Starrs won the latest prestigious APAT title, the 2007 Scottish Amateur Poker Championship.