With the continued growth of the Redtooth poker league, the North West region now hosts two Regional Finals, Liverpool and here in Manchester. 115 players arrived at the Circus Casino on Sunday with many of them competing in their first ever Regional Final.

Play got underway promptly at 2:00pm and many of the competitors expressed their suprise and pleasure at the increased size of the starting stack and the revised blind structure. These improvements were reflected by the fact that only seven players were eliminated before the buffet break. First man out was Roger Hough from the Three Lions in Hazelgrove, the first of many ‘bad beat’ stories heard throughout the day.

By 7:00pm we were down to the final nine, although it would be almost 9:00pm before the winner was crowned. The unfortunate player who finished 9th and missed out on a cash prize was Scott Callum. Richard Taylor and Zak Salim followed soon after but it was almost an hour later before anyone else was eliminated. John Collinson-Taylor finished 6th with Imran Pervaiz and Dale Peters in 5th and 4th respectively. The final three exchanged the chip lead amongst themselves for almost half an hour before Joe Ecclestone was eliminated in 3rd place.

The final hand saw Dave Richards going all-in with pocket 4s, only to be called by Steve Greenhalgh with AJ. The flop came down 710A giving Steve the advantage which was further increased with a J on the turn. Only a 4 could now save David, but when the river card was a 3 Steve was left as our well deserved champion.

National Final Qualifiers And Cash Prize Winners
1st Steve Greenhalgh – Beaumont Arms, Bolton
2nd David Richards – Rileys, Altrincham
3rd Joe Ecclestone – Forrestors Arms, Burnley
4th Dale Peters – Sparking Clog, Bury
5th Imran Pervaiz – Varsity, Manchester
6th Jon Collinson-Taylor – Bowling Green Inn, Chadderton

Other Cash Prize Winners
7th Zak Salim – Donkey, Rochdale
8th Richard Taylor – Cross Keys, Burnley