SUNDAY 4TH MARCH

GROSVENOR CASINO – BRISTOL

THE ACTION

118 players competed for the last five national final seats in the South West region. £1,000 was shared amongst the top eight players.

This regional saw the welcome addition of two new venues, the Godolphin Arms in Cornwall and the Tamar in Plymouth. The Tamar had a good day with a finalist and now national finalist in Mike Taynton and another top 20 finisher in Ian Curran. The team event, however, went to our favourite named club for the second time in a year. The Beer Social Club from Beer were on this occasion represented by league champion Nick Carney, Steve Somers and finalist Martin Jennings.

THE FINAL TABLE

Seat 1: Chris Thomas – Brookhouse Farm, Swindon (30,000)
Seat 2: Mike Taynton – Tamar, Plymouth (101,000)
Seat 3: Ashley Humphreys – Bell, Yeovil (121,000)
Seat 4: Karin Willis – Crown, Swindon (76,000)
Seat 5: Colin Lewis – Carters Rest, Swindon (27,000)
Seat 6: Simon Pledger – Victory Inn, Cornwall (26,000)
Seat 7: Sophie Rigali – Village Inn, Swindon (152,000)
Seat 8: Martin Jennings – Beer Social Club, Beer (70,000)

The final table began with Sophie Rigali leading the way with 152,000 in chips. Unfortunately for Sophie she didn’t quite have enough to carry her into the nationals as she was to bubble the qualifying places in 6th place. This left the second big stack Ashley Humphries as the new favourite to take the title. Ashley did go on to the heads-up match with Martin Jennings who was looking to make it a Beer Social Club double. Any hope Martin had died however, when he was cruelly outdrawn on the river when his chips went in the middle with K-10 against Ashley’s 9-3. The flop of 9-K-A put Martin in great shape which improved further with an 8 turn. But Ashley had the poker gods with him as he spiked another 9 on the river to make him the new South West champion and put him one step closer to Las Vegas.

THE WINNERS

1. Ashley Humphreys – Bell, Yeovil
2. Martin Jennings – Beer Social Club, Beer
3. Colin Lewis – Carters Rest, Swindon
4. Karin Willis – Crown, Swindon
5. Mike Taynton – Tamar, Plymouth
6. Sophie Rigali – Village Inn, Swindon
7. Simon Pledger – Victory Inn, Cornwall
8. Chris Thomas – Brookhouse Farm, Swindon