Leo’s in Liverpool was the venue for our re-arranged North West Two Regional Final which was to be held on a Saturday afternoon. The top six would make the National Final while eight players would receive a cash prize.

The very well organised tournament was under-way at exactly 2pm with a handful of players soon hitting the rail including Liam Forrest, Lee Hubert and Jim Fitzgerald. Unfortunately their respective pubs would now be eliminated from our brand new team event.

A few venues put in a good performance on the day as we searched for a team event winner, with the Farmers Arms, the Hillfoot and the Wheatsheaf Hotel being some of the stand out venues. But the venue to stand out the most was the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Sandbach as Simon Barnes, Alex Trembath and Ian Millward sealed an impressive victory.

Our final table of eight included one of Northwich’s finest in the shape of Colin Sutton who had already secured a National Final seat in season one. Colin’s qualification would now mean that 7th place would gain a seat in Nottingham. John Garnett from the Blue Cap, Northwich would profit on this occasion. No time was wasted as we stormed to a brief heads-up match between our double qualifier Colin Sutton and Joe Edwards. The final hand had Colin in great shape pre-flop as his A7 of clubs was up against Joe’s J7 of diamonds. The flop gave Colin a huge sweat as 2 diamonds fell on the flop, but a final board of 5dKh9d 9s Qc saw Colin become the new North West Two Regional champion and is surely a player to watch out for in Nottingham!

Cash Prize Winners
1st Colin Sutton – Hartford Hall, Northwich (Already Qualified)
2nd Joe Edwards – St Annes Conservative Club, Lytham St Annes
3rd Marc Stoneley – Bears Paw, Frodsham
4th Paul Harman – Air Balloon, Blackpool
5th Andy Tyler – Swan Hotel, Prenton
6th Stuart Bellis – Chesterway, Northwich
7th John Garnett – Blue Cap, Northwich
8th Declan McCue – Farmers Arms, Liverpool

National Final Qualifiers
Joe Edwards
Marc Stoneley
Paul Harman
Andy Tyler
Stuart Bellis
John Garnett

Team Winners
Wheatsheaf Hotel, Sandbach