Gone clubbingJonathan Cook checks in with news of the latest seasonal final at The Weekly Poker Club
Players from Kent and Surrey finally triumphed over their previously dominant opposite numbers from Sussex in the Autumn Finals of The Weekly Poker Club (TWPC). Nearly 200 players competed in two finals at Brighton Racecourse.
Competitors included formal Pop Idol entrant Rik Waller who plays under the poker name ‘Juggernaut’ at The Swann, Edenbridge; The Anchor, Sevenoaks and Canterbury Tales in Gillingham.
Winner of the £1,000 main event was Spike Smith of the Rusthall Working Men’s Club who beat Susan ‘The Twins’ Perkins from Selsey Village Club with a pair of sixes. Perkins came to the eight-man top table in a dominant chip position having 245,000 (26 percent of the total chips) and hit an amazing sequence of cards including runner-runner straight and a rivered flush to consolidate her position.
Mick Colclough, a player who earned his seat at this event through playing at The Albion, Portslade took third position. Forced into a move, his ace-high did not stand up.
Out fourth was Micky Boyd from The Albion, who went to the final table as chip minnow with 3,000 and was drawn into the first big blind position. However, dark forces were smiling on Micky as his first hand was K-K and another good run of hole cards enabled him to crawl back into contention.
Fifth place went to Bruno Montherat of The Royal Coach in Shoreham-by-Sea, sixth to Darren ‘Spurs Lad’ Read, landlord of The Albion, and seventh was Jason ‘The Hat’ Southon, a previous champion, also of The Albion, and the only player to have top tabled for five consecutive finals. Dave ‘Psycho’ Nelson of the Cinque Ports Club in Uckfield beat the bubble and took eighth place.
Paul Cornwell of The Red Cross in Reigate won the £250 Anita Mullis 2,850 Final in a fascinating heads-up with Grant Lean of The Albion and Grenadier, Hove. James Gillan of Rusthall Working Men's Club took third place; Stephen Hincksman of The Canterbury Tales was fourth; fifth place went to Jerrad Carrol of the Queen’s Arms, Dorking, sixth to Gary Rees of The Canterbury Tales; seventh to Martin Ansell of Lancing British Legion and eighth place to Sam Hanley of the Cinque Ports Club.
Stewart Kebble of Charlie's Bar and The Eagle, both in Brentwood, Essex, won two ring games. Single side games were won by Terry Williams of The Swan; Graham ‘The Fox’ Ford of The Jolly Coopers; Kerry Craigie of The Anchor; Brigitta Azzopardi of The Piltdown Man and Cinque Ports Club; Toni Boi of The Albion, Fishersgate; Matt ‘Scouse’ Elliott of the Cinque Ports Club and Andy Gray of the Royal Coach in Shoreham.
888.com officially launched their partnership with TWPC at the event, the first time that they have done a joint venture with a pub poker league.
They are offering TWPC players fast-track entry into the Aussie Millions tournament through their Pacific Poker brand. Commenting on the final 888.com’s UK and offline poker manager Jonny Natas said that he was “impressed at the slickness of the event” and that it was good to “see so many people enjoying a great atmosphere in the true spirit of the game… competitive but with great etiquette.”
The Weekly Poker Club is a South of England-based pub poker league with about 100 venues across Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent, Essex and Hertfordshire. Check out more at theweeklypokerclub.com. |
