INTRODUCTION

After a mammoth 16 hour journey Redtooth Poker, guests and 7 of the UK’s finest pub poker players touched down at the McCarran Airport in Las Vegas, Nevada to find the latest UK Pub Poker Champion. After three days of sunbathing in 40+ temperatures, sight seeing and general holiday shenanigans it was time to get down to business and settle this once and for all. With the unfortunate absence of our 2nd chip leader Andrew Gee and Richard Breakwell, Dean Dunkerley led the way with a comfortable chip lead.

Here’s a reminder of the starting stacks and player introductions.

LAST TABLE, LAS VEGAS PLAYERS & CHIP COUNTS

1. 393,500 Dean Dunkerley – Player’s Lounge, Sheffield
2. 317,000 Andrew Gee – Spink’s Nest, Huddersfield
3. 274,000 Neil Pitchford – Dolphin, Thetford
4. 216,500 Richard Arnott – Imperial Bar, Cupar
5. 169,000 Richard Breakwell – Cleveland Arms, Wolverhampton
6. 167,000 Richard Hoodless – Bull’s Head, Stapleford
7. 151,000 Nigel Hardy – Davy Lamp, Ilkeston
8. 147,500 Paul Broughton – Chartwell Arms, Leicester
9. 115,000 Andrew Seymour – Moby Dick, Weymouth

9TH RICHARD BREAKWELL – £200

8TH ANDREW GEE – £300

7TH NIGEL HARDY – £400

The first player to leave the final table was Ilkeston’s Nigel Hardy after about 30 minutes of play. Nigel can consider himself unlucky as his J-J saw a 9-8-6 flop. The chips soon hit the middle as his opponent Neil Pitchford tabled Q-Q to hold a comfortable lead. The turn and river was of no help to Nigel as he was eliminated in 7th place. A round of applause was followed by a few tears from Nigel’s supporters as Pitchford’s dream start made him our new chip leader.

6TH RICHARD ARNOTT – £500

Another 20 or so minutes later we were down to five players as our North Scotland champion was eliminated in another unlucky situation. Pitchford again was the culprit as Arnott got his money in on the turn with trip 9’s. Pitchford dwelled before calling with his combo flush and gutshot straight draw only to ping a 10 on the river to complete his straight draw. After a brief moment where Richard thought he’d won the hand he soon realised he hadn’t and then went to join Nigel on the rail.

5TH ANDREW SEYMOUR – £600

Our short stack was the next player to go as all afternoon he found the going tough and was only really limited to blind steals. The end came when he pushed with K-J and was called by Dunkerley. The flop was of no help to Andrew as Dean’s better starting hand held up to move himself alongside Neil Pitchford as a chip leader.

4TH RICHARD HOODLESS – £800

Richard Hoodless came home in 4th place after making an impressive start to the match. Richard’s tournament came down to two big moments, both against Dean Dunkerley. The first was Richard’s big fold against Dean who went on to show a bluff in a decent sized pot, the second hand came soon after as Richard’s flopped pair made two pair on the turn. He then proceeded to get his chips in only to be up against Dean’s bigger two pair. This was the end of Richard Hoodless as we were down to our final three players.

3RD PAUL BROUGHTON – £1,000

Paul was another player who struggled to really get going but that only made his 3rd place even more impressive. When Richard left in 4th, Paul’s stack was dwarfed by Dean and Neil’s monster stacks so it was a bit like climbing Everest with no equipment for Paul. The end came when Broughton had little choice but to shove with J-9 in the SB. Dean had no choice but to call in the BB before tabling Q-5. Paul couldn’t find any help from the poker gods as we now had a heads-up match between Dean Dunkerley and Neil Pitchford.

2ND NEIL PITCHFORD – £2,000

As the heads-up match got under way the stacks were fairly even. It took around an hour to find a winner as the chips were flying backwards and forwards across the felt. The deciding factor was undoubtedly Dean’s aggression as he wasn’t afraid to get his chips in the middle on a stone cold bluff whereas Neil was a lot more cautious and consistently folded to Dean’s re-raises. Perhaps with a bit more beer down him Neil could have been crowned the winner as he himself acknowledged he folded the best hand on a few occasions, however, the final hand came when Neil did make the call pre-flop with A-5 only for Dean to be holding A-J. The board only strengthened Dean’s hand as he completed the straight on the river to become the new UK Pub Poker Champion.

1ST DEAN DUNKERLEY – £5,000

UK PUB POKER CHAMPION