Yorkshire Regional Poker Championship 2009

West Riding & Craven - poker powerhouse of Yorkshire!

Once again, the Yorkshire regional poker tournament was hosted by West Riding & Craven Area Association and their members took pride of place, finishing first, second and third!

We welcomed competitors from South Yorkshire, Leeds and York areas but the locals managed to keep them at bay from the prize list.

It wasn't all plain sailing though. The defending champion, Chris Houlden, who is based at Centenary Court in Bradford, couldn't get going this year and left the proceeding relatively early. He did survive to the first break which cannot be said of newcomer Katie Farrell who also works in Centenary Court.

Another past champion, Liam Brady of DWP Bradford, survived until the second break of the day but soon after ran out of chips, as did his work colleagues, Tim Edmondson and Jacqui Pearson.

Tracey Taylor-Dunne (HMRC Bradford) played her usual aggressive game but luckily (for the rest of her table) could not raise enough chips to become too powerful.

Brian Herriot (Centenary Court) played a lot of hands early on but fell victim to a couple of unlucky blows and had to bow out before the final table.

Newcomer, Pete Tatum (Also Centenary Court) showed no fear and came close to making the final table at his first attempt. But it wasn't to be as he became a victim to his own over confidence.

Chris Heywood and Glen Burrage (both Shipley) were eliminated just before the final table. A gutted Glen said he thought he made a mistake and blew his chance while Chris was looking dangerous then inexplicably lost a load of chips.

Eventually, the final 8 players were decided. The four dealers all made it through to the final table with varying ease. All the dealers were representing West Riding & Craven Area.

Matthew Dickinson (Shipley) took 11,700 chips to the final table. Lee Baron (Shipley) had 3,800, Phil Mackley (Centenary Court) 5,300 and Ihor Lewyk (Shipley) a massive 30,600.

They were joined by Pete Hepworth (HMRC Bradford) on 6,900, Iain Bradley (South Yorks) with 5,600, Mike Brooke (York) on 12,000 and Tim Rudland (South Yorks) with 14,100.

The first player to exit the final table was Lee Baron, who lost to a straight on the last card. Pete Hepworth was the recipient of his chips and his 'Bounty'. The 'Bounty' prize contained a few CSSC goodies and a bounty bar. Each of the dealers had one, as did Chris Houlden.

Two dealers clashed next with Phil Mackley holding all the Aces. Actually, he only held two of them but this was still far too strong for Matt Dickinson to compete with and Phil won a 'Bounty' of his own.

Soon there were 3 players left and all were from West Riding & Craven.

Ihor dominated with a large chip stack and defeated Phil with a flush. Then, he defeated Pete by hitting a 7 in the first hand of heads up to lift the trophy.