Welsh Poker Championship won by Englishman Andrew Jones

- by Josef Rantamaki

Englishman, Andrew Jones has won the Welsh Amateur Poker Association and Tour (APAT) Championship at the G Casino in Cardiff, beating off 121 players and taking a prize of £2,750.

He also beat fellow Englishman, JP Round, in the £75+£7.50 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em William Hill Welsh Amateur Poker Championship and collected an APAT National Gold Medal and a Genting Poker Series (GPS) seat.

The tournament was sold out with a prize pool of £9,150 (about $14,347). It was a nine-handed final table with Dan Carpenter and Garry Wilden in the lead, with Jones way behind in the closing stages with a short stack of 97,000.

At this point, the blinds were 5,000/10,000, with Jones holding less than 10 big blinds. However, David Jackson left the table in ninth place and Wilden followed in eighth place as the short stack doubled up. Jones doubled-up several times and Jason Kemp and Jason Stephens left the table in sixth and seventh place respectively.

Warren Jones was the next to leave, which left only Kevin O’Driscoll, JP Round and Andrew Jones at the table. O’Driscoll was soon eliminated, leaving Round and Jones heads-up. After two hands, Jones became champion.

Cork will host the next APAT stop for the Irish Amateur Poker Championship and the tournament will be played from 7th July to 8th July at the Macau club.

Here is a list of the 10 winners at the Welsh Amateur Championship:

  1. Andrew Jones (England) – £2,750 ($4,312)
  2. JP Round (England) – £1,940 ($3,042)
  3. Kevin O’Driscoll (England) – £1,210 ($1,897)
  4. Warren Jones (England) – £750 ($1,176)
  5. Jason Stephens (England) – £590 ($925)
  6. Jason Kemp (Wales) – £460 ($721)
  7. Dan Carpenter (England) – £370 ($580)
  8. Garry Wilden (England) – £270 ($423)
  9. David Jackson (England) – £210 ($329)
  10. Matt Carter (England) – £160 ($251)