 Hi All Welcome to the November edition of your newsletter. It has been brought to our attention that those of you using Microsoft Outlook 2007 may have problems viewing this newsletter. Both ourselves and Vertical Response are looking at ways to solve this problem, but meantime you can view the newsletter by clicking the link above to view in a browser.
This newsletter is brought to you in associaltion with BLUFF Europe
Christian Osbaldeston from Southport is crowned Champion for England & Wales.
NATIONAL FINALS FINAL TABLE REPORT
At about 11:00pm, following a hard fought Day 2 at the Circus Casino, the final 5 took their places alongside the Day 1 final 5, to fight for the prizes and glory.
The November 10 Final Table
Chris “Chally” Challinor - Merseyside 174,000
Allan “Fast Al” Duffin- Lancashire 145,000
Ian “Britney” Spiers- Merseyside 181,000
Naiomi Roper - Wigan 79,000
Christian “Going to the Nationals Nov 2009” Osbaldeston - Southport 217,000
Pete Candy from, Cardiff 270,000 (adjusted)
Mike Cruickshank from Rugby 222,000 (adjusted)
Dom “The Godfather” Delegate from Southampton 167,000 (adjusted)
Andy “Aces” Agius from Cardiff 55,000 (adjusted)
Alex “alexV3T”Fuller from Braintree 71,000 (adjusted)
Despite being the second lowest chip stack, Andy made a positive start significantly increasing his chip stack, determined to improve his position. This was short lived however after pushing all-in pre-flop with AK. After being called with J 9, a J on the flop was enough to end his tournament.
A car crash 3-way hand saw Mike lose pocket 8’s to a split pot of AK and AK when an A came on the river. He wasn’t out but put a significant dent in his chip stack.
Naomi called all-in to A 7, but her 10 and 6 of clubs didn’t hit and so the last female players was out.
Mike took a further big hit to his stack when his pocket 10’s were called by pocket 9’s, only to see a 9 on the turn. Pocket 10’s seemed to be a jinxed hand on this final table as Alex called all-in with them, to be called by pocket K’s, and failing to hit.
Pocket 9’s however, was the hand to have. They were responsible for the only double take-out of the final table when a 9 on the river took out Ian with his pocket Q’s and also Alan with pocket A’s.
Suited cards were also doomed to failure on this table as following Naomi’s demise, Don pushed all-in with Q and 7 of Spades. Called by AK, he failed to improve and left the table.
Undeterred by the apparent hex, Peter got involved in a monster 400,000+ chip pot to lose his Q and 10 of Spades to KQ belonging to Christian. Down but certainly not out, Peter set about reinstating some of his lost chip stack. After pushing all-in several times in the following dozen or so hands, it wasn’t clear whether he was on tilt, stealing blinds and raises, or just hitting playable hands. One all-in too many came when his pocket 4’s were called by A 10, once again by Christian. He hit K Q J for the straight, eliminating South Wales’s last remaining player.
Christian was the man on the move now but was getting frustrated with his blinds being stolen almost every time to big bets made by Chris. Composure and self-discipline prevailed however, when Christian waited for his moment. This arrived when he held pocket 2’s. Chris predictably raised, Christian pushed, and was called with a massive pot of 786,000 chips. Chris’s K 6 didn’t improve and he went out leaving Christian and Mike to battle it out heads-up.
Christian was by far the chip leader starting heads-up but Mike, despite suffering two major hits previously, had managed to pick up some chips. His intelligent and patient play had seen him recover whilst everyone around him were fighting their own battles. With nobody else left, he started to attack Christians chip stack in earnest. Stealing blinds, re-raising, and out-playing Christian at every turn, Christian could do no more than to watch his stack diminish and eventually become the short stack. Determined to stop the rot as he could see the title of National Champion ebbing away from him, Christian started to fight back. Clawing back little by little, he eventually took over as chip leader once again, but the margin was never a large one.
Then, after what seemed like a lot longer than the 30 minutes that it was, came the final hand. A 7 8 on the flop saw Christian with 7 8 make a stab at the pot. Mike held 7 and 4 of Spades, and despite suited cards not fairing well, he re-raised. Christian responded by pushing all-in, which Mike duly called. The turn and river didn’t see any improvement and Christians 2 pairs finally won him the well deserved Champion title.
Speaking after the game was over, Christian paid tribute to all players saying that it was an extremely tough final table. Particular praise was extended to Chris, whom he was pleased to have been lucky to take out in 3rd place with pocket 2’s. Christian said that he was an extremely good player, not relishing the possibility of having to play him heads-up.
The heads-up battle was something else though. Talking about it, he couldn’t praise Mike enough. Christian said that Mike had him every way he could. He seemed to have the perfect read on him and couldn’t stop the decimation of his chip stack. He had to re-think and change every aspect of his play to try and stop him.
The final table was extremely entertaining with many twists and turns, producing a superb quality of play. Mike had suffered big blows but didn’t allow them to put him on tilt, giving him the well deserved heads-up place. Although Christian dominated most of the action, this could well have been his downfall as Chris and Mike had extremely good reads on him in the final stages. In the end, there can only be one winner, and the Nuts Poker League now has a worthy Champion in Christian Osbaldeston. He has set a standard by which even he will be pushed to live up to.
Good luck in defending your title.
The Nuts Poker League England & Wales Champion
Christian Osbaldeston from Southport
who is Crowned Champion and wins £2,500 + $250 sponsored by Circus Poker
Runner up Mike Cruickshank £1,800 + $150 sponsored by Circus Poker
3rd Chris “Chally” Challinor £1,100 + $100 sponsored by Circus Poker
4th Pete Candy £900
5th Dom “The Godfather” Delegate £700
6th Allan “Fast Al” Duffin £550
7th Ian “Britney” Spiers £480
8th Alex “alexV3T”Fuller £400
9th Naiomi Roper £320
10th Andy “Aces” Agius £250
Also a special mention to all of the volunteer dealers from both days who really made a difference to the players and smooth running of the event. Big thanks also to Doug, Katie, Sian, Steve Fowkes and all of the casino staff.
If you fancy playing against The New Nuts Poker League Champion for England & Wales, then you may find him in the following venues in Southport:-
Southport Railway Mens Club
The Foghorn
Blundell Arms
The Plough
The Coronation
photos |
|
Special £1,000 on-line Freeroll with Sky Poker We are pleased to announce that sky poker have offered to stage £1,000 freerolls purely for Nuts Players who currently do not have a Sky account.
These will be held on Sky Poker on Sunday 29th November and Sunday 13th December 2009.
If you currently do not have a sky account, and would like to play in the events, you have to click on the link below, to open an account and then register for the events.
click here to register |
 |
|
A TNPL exclusive – The Badger Bounty – Yes Its Back!!! Circus Poker has teamed up with The Nuts Poker League to offer you the very best in welcome bonuses and great offers. You might recognise Circus Casino as the venue for several of our regional finals.
A TNPL exclusive – The Badger Bounty – Yes Its Back!!!
To celebrate our arrival on Circus Poker we’re re-launching the famous Badger Bounty tournaments. Every Sunday evening at the usual time of 19:30 TNPLBadger will put his scalp up for grabs. The buy-in is $5+$0.50 and The Badgers scalp is worth $25.
That’s not all, every week until December 27th the nice folks at Circus Poker have agreed to add $100 to the prize pool.
To access the tournament you MUST register by clicking here.
Existing Player?
If you are an existing Circus Poker player you may have difficulty entering TNPL exclusive tournaments. However, do not despair. If you email your Circus Poker User and Nickname to vipmanager@circuspoker.co.uk they might be able to help. You’ll usually hear back within 24 hours, whilst It may not always be possible but the Circus team assure us that they will do the best they can to enable your account access to our exclusive tournaments.
|
 |
The Nuts Poker League England & Wales Main Event - Day 1 & Day 2 Report
DAY 1 REPORT
The Nuts Poker League National Main Event Day 1 for England & Wales took place on Saturday 7th November at Circus Casino, Stoke-on-Trent with 157 qualifying players battling it out to reach the final 5 places. They will be joined by the final 5 players from Day 2 to form the “November 10” scheduled for 14th November.
This was the biggest ever field for the Main Event with over 300 qualifying players striving to be crowned The Nuts Poker League Champion of England & Wales 2009.
The Dealers were told to “Shuffle up and deal” at 1.15pm and the action began in earnest. It wasn’t long before players started to be eliminated, and after collecting their National Final medal, the usual bad beat stories began to appear in conversations.
The highlight of the early blind levels was Kat Griffiths from Leominster hitting a Royal Flush whilst being “all in” with a short stack, and of course managed to double up. A very welcome buffet was provided by the casino when the players had a well deserved break from the action. The event ran without any problems or issues which is testament to the quality of the card room and the staff of Circus Casino. A special mention to Katie, Kate and Sian who worked like a true team balancing tables and chipping up amongst everything else they did on the day.
The final table was reached just as David Haye was entering the ring to fight Nikolai Valuev so a brief 10 min break seemed appropriate. Play resumed and the final table looked like this:-
Chris “Chally” Challinor from The Weld Blundell, Merseyside 65,000
Allan “Fast Al” Duffin from The Union Exchange, Colne, Lancashire 60,000
Ian “Britney” Spiers from J.D.Wetherspoon The Fallwell, Merseyside 131,000
Andy Hobbs from The Lamb Inn, Telford 80,000
Naiomi Roper from The Boars Head, Wigan 90,000
Matthew “Old No 7” Wellock from The Waldorf Hotel, Manchester 87,000
Christian “Going to the Nationals Nov 2009” Osbaldeston from Southport Railway men’s Club, Southport 79,000
Lesley Smith from The Church House, Congleton 43,000
Gareth “Gaz” Wrigley from Astley Arms (Top Astley), Duckinfield 50,000
Dave “Biz Boy” Jones from The Cunliffe Arms, Wrexham 111,000
It took about one hour to get down to the final 5 players with players getting eliminated as follows:-
10th - Andy Hobbs
9th - Matthew “Old No 7” Wellock
8th - Lesley Smith
7th - Gareth “Gaz” Wrigley
6th - Dave “Biz Boy” Jones
The 5 players returning for The Nuts Poker League “November 10” on Day 2 are:-
Chris “Chally” Challinor - Merseyside 174,000
Allan “Fast Al” Duffin- Lancashire 145,000
Ian “Britney” Spiers- Merseyside 181,000
Naiomi Roper - Wigan 79,000
Christian “Going to the Nationals Nov 2009” Osbaldeston - Southport 217,000
DAY 2 REPORT
The Nuts Poker League National Main Event Day 2 for England & Wales took place on Saturday 14th November at Circus Casino, Stoke-on-Trent with 140 qualifying players battling it out to reach the final 5 places. They will be joined by the final 5 players from Day 1 to form the “November 10” each striving to be crowned The Nuts Poker League Champion of England & Wales 2009.
The Dealers were told to “Shuffle up and deal” at 1.30pm and the action began in earnest. Play seemed to be a lot tighter this week and was conducted in the same friendly manner.
The dominance of the North West players on day 1 was nearly repeated by the players from South Wales on day 2 with 10 players in the last 17. In a matter of minutes 7 of the players from South Wales fell in 17th to 11th place leaving 3 players on the final table.
The final table looked like this:-
Pete Candy from Llanishen RFC, Cardiff 94,000
Steve “The Vest” Thomas from The Old White Hart in Llantwit Major 31,000
Philip Vyner from The York House Inn, Minehead 32,000
Philip “Pod” O’Donoghue from Winnal Social Club, Winchester 74,000
Graham “Mr Grumpy” King from The Joly Abbott, Rugby 102,000
Mike Cruickshank from The Holly Bush, Rugby 63,000
Dom “The Godfather” Delegate from Bosuns Locker, Southampton 101,000
Andy “Aces” Agius from Llanishen RFC, Cardiff 52,000
Sean “Smoove” Worrall from The Hairy Dog, Minehead 65,000
Alex “alexV3T”Fuller from Waggon & Horses Braintree 93,000
It took about one and a half hours to get down to the final 5 players with players being eliminated as follows:-
10th - Philip “Pod” O’Donoghue
9th - Philip Vyner
8th - Steve “The Vest” Thomas
7th - Graham “Mr Grumpy” King
6th – Sean “Smoove” Worrall
The 5 players returning for The Nuts Poker League “November 10” are :-
Pete Candy from , Cardiff 244,000
Mike Cruickshank from Rugby 202,000
Dom “The Godfather” Delegate Southampton 152,000
Andy “Aces” Agius from Cardiff 44,000
Alex “alexV3T”Fuller from Braintree 61,000
Click for pictures |
|
The Nuts play with Pro’s  The Nuts Poker League are giving away 2 exclusive seats to The International Poker School’s next seminar on the 12th of December.
T.I.P.S. offers all levels of poker players a chance to not only improve their game and go on to the next level, but also to play against Europe’s best poker pro’s and have a chance to win some great prizes. Poker teachers will look at Single Table Tournaments (STT), Position, Hand selection plus live hand debates, Focus and Preparation for playing poker, Advance Tells and Online hands. The seminar will finish on a Multi Table Tournament where you’ll have the chance to win bounty prizes and put your new skills to the test.
Paul “Actionjack” Jackson, Marc “Mr Cool” Goodwin, James Browning and Poker ace Paul “The Marbella Kid” Zimbler who recently broke the world record for playing poker continuously for 78hrs at WSOPE 2009 will all be attending.
Q. What is the highest made hand in Texas Hold’em Poker?
A, Full House
B, Straight Flush
C, Royal Flush
Once you think you know the answer, send your full name, contact details and the word NUTS to info@theinternationalpokerschool.com and a seat will be picked at random from all the successful e-mails.
For more information please go to www.theinternationalpokerschool.com
Don't forget to mention NUTS in your email so you will be entered into the draw.
click here |
 |
|
ROYAL FLUSH - HALL OF FAME  Congratulations to the following players who hit The Nuts last month:-
Flo Wood from the Red Lion Hotel in Tarvin got a royal flush on Tuesday 20th Oct (see picture)
Ray ‘BoBo’ Batchelor, playing at The Imperial Hotel, Rugby, hit the top hand on the last day of the season. Picking up an A, 10 unsuited, the flop showed K, J, 10 of Diamonds. The turn was a ‘rag’ 7H, and the River, Q, ‘Filling his boots’ making the much sought Royal.
Gary "Gooner" Bonner had a royal flush (diamonds) at the Crichie Inn, Stuartfield, on sunday the 25th October.
Steve ‘JAZsDad’ Fowkes hit a Royal Flush with the Ace of Spades on the river at Fagins, Thomastown on 8th November. He then went on to win the tournament after an epic heads-up match spanning 5 blind levels (big respect to Daniel Atmore).
Well done to Kat Griffiths from Leominster hit a Royal Flush at the Circus Casino, Stoke-on-Trent on Day 1 of the National Main Event (see picture).
Well done to John 'jonboy' Wilson who hit The Nuts at Winnall Social Club, Winchester, on 4th November
Play live at a venue near you |
 |
Finally, we would like to wish you all good luck in your games and in qualifying for your next regional event.
Sincerely,
The Team at The Nuts Poker League |
