Simon Turton has won the Amateur Poker Association and Tour
UK Amateur Poker Championship in Manchester's G Casino, beating more than 200 runners to pick up the £3,500 first-place prize, plus an entry into a
Grosvenor UK Poker Tour event in 2008.
Turton, from Huddersfield, started day two of the event at the bottom of the 23 remaining players with 26,000 chips and made a remarkable comeback to scrape into the final table, which was comprised of:
- Mark Hayter (Southampton) - 370,000
- Rob Plaistow (Weston-Super-Mare) - 310,000
- Graham Wills (Caerphilly) - 255,000
- Lee Baron (Bradford) - 213,000
- Kevin Davies (Cardiff) - 203,000
- Stuart Hopkin (Nottingham) - 200,000
- Simon Aukland (Solihull) - 191,000
- Simon Turton (Huddersfield) - 151,000
- Lee Smith (Huddersfield) - 134,000
Baron and Davies both qualified for the
Championship for £20 in APAT's regional championships in November and with blinds starting at 6,000/12,000.
Turton faced an uphill battle as the second-shortest stack at the final table and with six players left. Chip leader Plaistow had almost 50 percent of the chips in play after knocking out the first three players.
Turton took most of Hayter's chips, and Hayter exited soon after in sixth, while Plaistow's lead was overturned and he slid to a fifth-place finish. At this point, Turton was second in chips, and with the elimination of Davis in fourth, he cemented his fine run by busting Aukland with A-K vs. 8-8.
Heads-up saw stacks of 1.2 million for Hopkin and 800,000 for Turton, and the tide turned irrevocably in the latter's favour when his top pair held up against an overcard and nut-flush draw. Shortly afterwards, Turton's A-10 suited held up in the final hand of the night, and he was crowned champion, becoming the APAT
UK Amateur Poker Champion for 2007.
