Led by a mystical cowboy and his trusted American wrangler, the Black Belt Poker team ambushed the APAT UK Team Championship at the tail end of January with just one goal on their mind: lassoing their foes on route to victory and capturing the illustrious title and Championship Cup.
For Team Captain Jon 'The British Cowboy' Woodfield, this was far from his first rodeo, yet he was left with the increasingly difficult responsibility of forming a team. Despite a few of the cattle escaping in the weeks leading up to the event - most notably, Aussie Millions finalist Sam Razavi, who had cantered Down Under after winning Grading III - Jon made a few last-minute substitutions to showcase a formidable and gritty line-up of card-slingers, and one that included not one, but two former League Champions:
Jon 'The British Cowboy' Woodfield (Captain)
Carey 'Careybear' Hollick (Vice Captain)
Jon Ourkid888' Laight
Julie 'Joobie538' Holness
Niall 'Firaldo87' Farrell
Mark '99Ranny' Ranson
Ebrahim 'HenryDaHaddock' Razavi
Mark 'russellhansen' Brassington
The ranch of choice was the G Casino, Bolton with 200 players competing over a £10,000 prize pool, with 50 percent of the gold going to the winning team and the rest landing in the lap of the individual winner, along with a seat into a GUKPT Main Event. With 25 teams stumping up the £400 (£50 each) buy-in - including the likes of blonde Poker, Northern Ireland Poker, Gambling Network, Live Pub Poker League and Punters' Lounge - and with a 10,000 starting stack with 45-minute blind levels, the journey was going to be a long, dogged one, with only the most resilient band of men (and ladies) coming out on top.
Although Jon led admirably from the front, and was joined on Day 2 by Julie, it was Niall whose guns were a-blazing as the team's sole representative on the final table. But heading in, Niall was sitting comfortably with 340,900, and second only to Mark Trett of the Newcastle Poker Forum who had 465,200.
Despite eliminating blonde Poker's Hugh Black on route to three-handed play, London Poker Meet-Up had already sealed team victory, thus leaving Black Belt Poker vying for the silver medal at best. Niall, however, remained focussed on the highest tier of the podium, and following a rugged battle with Helen Godfrey, finally desaddled his foe with K-2 versus K-8 all in on a K-2-x flop. As such, Niall was crowned the individual Champion - a title which was accompanied by a £1,200 treasure chest - while the Black Belt Poker team finished the weekend in a highly credible second place.
"After weeks and weeks of getting volunteers," commented Team Captain Jon Woodfield, "then replacing the ones who couldn’t get time off work and those who decided they’d rather play the GUKPT, and, of course, finding a replacement because Neil stole the team’s best player to take to Australia (although, I suppose, that ended up quite well), we finally arrived in Bolton with a team of eight players to take on the rest of the UK poker world.
"I had completely failed to appreciate Niall’s skill / luck, though," he continued, "He always seemed in control of the situation at the final table and the truly surprising element was that he never got caught out (too much) by any outdraws which could have finished him off in one blow; this held him through to the final hand where his luck gave him an outdraw with a dominated hand – but his skill advantage was illustrated by the fact that it was after he’d already hit that the chips went in. We didn’t win, but we did OK. Next year we’ll win it all."
"I have now 'adopted' Niall as my new son," added Vice Captain Carey Hollick. "He's such an amazing player; right around the bubble he raised 14 consecutive hands in a row. Listening to him talk about poker is mind-blowing and I'm very grateful for meeting him this weekend. APAT is definitely going to be attended by me more this year; the people were amazingly friendly and I haven't had more fun at a live event in so long!"
1st London Poker Meet-Up -- £2,500
2nd Black Belt Poker -- £1,500
3rd Gambling Network Forum -- £1,000
1st Niall Farrell -- £1,200
2nd Helen Godfrey -- £650
3rd Mark Trett -- £400
4th Michael Martin -- £250
5th Hugh Black -- £250
6th Andrew Cairns -- £250
7th Matthew Carter -- £250
8th Andrew Young -- £250
9th John Murray -- £250
10th Steve Redfern -- £250
11th Scott Wilson -- £100
12th Tom Stewart-Fielding -- £100
13th Richard Baker -- £100
14th Dave Stephenson -- £100
15th Kevin Ridley -- £100
16th Iain Wilson -- £100
17th Andrew Walker -- £100
18th Rob Spencer -- £100
19th Al Rayner -- £100
20th Kevin Bloor -- £100
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