National Finals May 2012

Once Full details are confirmed, they will be published here

England & Wales Day 1 - Bristol Final Sat 12th May

England & Wales Day 2 - Stoke Final  Sat 26th May

Scotland - Saturday 9th June (TBC), Venue TBC

A list of current qualifiers is below

England & Wales Qualifiers:

Scotland Qualifiers:

November 2011 National Finals

Scotland

Congratulations to Chris Matuszczyuk - Scottish National Champion!

1. Chris Matuszczyk (Ayrshire) £2300 + £430 Genting Tour Seat
2. Gary Weir (Glasgow) £1280
3. Kieran Westbrook (Dumfries & Galloway) £800
4. James Duncan (Fife & Stirling) £500
5. Arran Hastings (Dumfries & Galloway) £400
6. Steven Feggans (Lanarkshire) £300
7. Rab Kane (Ayrshire) £260
8. George Harvie (Glasgow) £240
9. Dylan Barclay (Lanarkshire) £220
10. Chris Wildig (Scottish Borders) £200
11. Vivienne Potter (Glasgow) £100
12. Pauline McIntyre (Fife & Stirling) £75
13. Joy Sim (Edinburgh & Lothians) £75

Photos from the day are available on our Facebook page.

155 Players descended on Genting's Mint Casino in Glasgow for the 2nd Scottish National Final of 2011. At 1.30pm Steve Bellis, got everyone in the spirit by having the players count down to the customary "Shuffle up and deal." With 15,000 chips and 30 minute levels it would be a long fought game, but sadly not for our first man down, William Hill, who moved all-in pre-flop after 5 minutes of playing holding pocket Queens, only to be snapped off by his opponent holding pocket Aces, Hill's Queens failed to improve and the pressure was quickly lifted of having the uneviable position of 155th!

With the pressure off, a steady stream of players were eliminated throughout the day until at 11.20pm we were down to the final 10 players who would form our final table, although the previous 3 players were all happy as they had secured a cash finish with 13 players being paid on the day, from the impressive £6,750 prizepool!  It took a further hour and 50 minutes for the final 10 to become 1, with Chris Matsuzyk of Ayrshire being crowned our eventual champion, after a marathon heads up between Gary Weir of Glasgow.

Thanks as usual went to Colin Reid and his team at Genting Mint Casino for their help and support during the event, who praised the players and thanked them for their good nature and friendliness.

Special thanks as always went to Team Nuts players and dealers for their help and assistance during the event especially volunteer dealers Gary, Chelsea, Chris & Lyndsey.

England & Wales

Congratulations to Lee Simons winner of the England & Wales Final

The Nuts Poker League England / Wales Main Event Day 2.

The  event got underway at 1.35 with 190 runners each with 10,000 chips all vying to be crowned England & Wales National Champion and a share of the £10,000 prize money.

The 6 qualifiers from Bristol Day 1, Phillip O’Donoghue, Lee Simons, Sarah Bateman, Matt Carpenter, Nigel Reardon and Phillip Morris from Day 1 reported for registration at 9.00pm ready for action.

The last 12 players was reached by 10.00pm when we took a break with the Bristol 6 joining the remaining 12 making 18 players and play resumed about 10.30pm. At this stage there were over 3.34m chips in play and play tightened up somewhat.

The last 18 looked like this:-

Philip O’Donoghue 449,000

Nigel Reardon 122,000

Tim James 110,000

Lee Simons 153,000

Gary Coomber 44,000

Simon Findlow 164,000

Sarah Bateman 152,000

Matt Carpenter 138,000

Shaun Sharman 61,000

Bob Harknes 240,000

James Hamill 146,000

Matt Lincoln 201,000

Steve Ball 348,000

Peter Musgrave 432,000

Jonathon Reynolds 147,000

Richard Zolman 73,000

Stu Boddy 256,000

Philip Morris 108,000

Within minutes of play resuming Sarah Bateman lost most of her chips with KK which ran into AA and QQ (the Aces held this time) and was down to one big blind and 2,000 chips, which, were duly added to the pot blind. As luck (or skill) would have it Sarah doubled up and managed a remarkable 12^th place.

Play early in the event was the most aggressive we have seen for quite some time and after the 10.30pm restart was some of the most passive for the next hour. Things soon changed when players had a whiff of the increased prize money as players started to drop.

4^th place to 3^rd place took just over an hour, and there was a titanic battle when play reached heads up, with both Lee Simons & Stu Boddy swapping the chip lead several times throughout the 20 mins of heads up play.

We can confirm that this was the longest Main Event ever finishing at 4.04am (phew) with the final table lasting 3hrs 15min.

England / Wales National Champion – Lee Simons – Cardiff - £2,500 + £430 Genting Tour Seat

Runner up - Stu Boddy – Cheshire - £1,600

3^rd Phillip Morris – Berkshire - £ 1,000

4^th Simon Findlow – Wrexham - £800

5^th Peter Musgrave – Merseyside - £700

6^th Jonathon Reynolds – Norfolk - £600

7^th Matt Carpenter – Cardiff - £500

8^th Bob Harknes – Merseyside - £400

9^th Shaun Sharman – Suffolk - £300

10^th Nigel Reardon – Cardiff - £200

11^th Philip O’Donoghue – Hampshire – £180

12^th Sarah Bateman – Cardiff - £150

13^th Richard Zolman – Wrexham - £120

14^th James Hamill – Leicestershire - £100

15^th Steve Ball – Shropshire - £100

16^th Tim James – Norfolk - £90

17^th Matt Lincoln – Lancashire - £80

18^th Gary Coomber – Merseyside - £70

19^th Gary Hutchins – Manchester - £60

20^th Trevor Kent – Manchester - £50

We would like to thank all players for making the event a friendly and competitive one, and all of the volunteer dealers and casino staff. The casino would also like the thank everyone involved for their exemplary behaviour and good natured banter.

So congratulations to Lee Simons from Cardiff who is crowned England / Wales National Champion.