APAT Announce Season 4

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT & DISCUSSIONS HERE

APAT ANNOUNCE DETAILS OF SEASON FOUR

February 17th, London: The Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT) is delighted to announce details of the fourth season of its critically acclaimed tour for developing poker players.

Seasonal highlights include:-

New Tour Sponsor: Betfair.com will become the headline sponsor of APAT in Season 4; in a partnership that will bring a tremendous amount of additional value and opportunity for APAT members. Betfair.com will exclusively host all APAT National Championship and National League fixtures online, and satellites for APAT’s live schedule of tournaments.

Added Value: The tour will offer APAT members the chance to win thirty three seats to GUKPT main events and twenty three seats to APAT Professional League tournaments. In addition, each of the season’s seventy five amateur, professional and online tournaments will be run completely registration free for players.

APAT live tournament events will now typically comprise three events.

Amateur Championship: APAT’s core schedule will feature seventeen international amateur ranking events including three stops in continental Europe; in Austria, Estonia and Spain, with the undoubted highlight being the seven event World Championship Of Amateur Poker (WCOAP) at Dusk Till Dawn in August, which will feature the debut of the sixteen country World Amateur Team Championship, plus Heads Up, Six Max, Stud, Omaha and HORSE Championship events, in addition to the 414 runner World Amateur Poker Championship main event.

Professional League: The PL will feature seven events capped at fifty players utilising a deep Pot Limit Hold’em structure, which will bring skill to the fore. Featuring a registration free buy in of £250, each event will have a GUKPT main event seat added for the winner and be open to APAT amateur and professional members. Played on a Saturday alongside the Amateur Championship event.

Specialist Series: A six event series in mixed poker disciplines, capped at 50 players. Featuring a registration free buy in of £25 with added value seats to APAT Professional League events for the winners of each leg. Played on a Sunday alongside Amateur Championship event.

Online Championship: Ten Championship events with a $50 buy in, each with added GUKPT seats for the winners, plus ten Omaha side events with a $20 buy in; each with added value seats to the APAT Professional League.

National Online League: Three divisions featuring thirty poker clubs from cities across the United Kingdom and Ireland offering fantastic prizes including seats to GUKPT, APAT Professional and APAT Amateur Championship events for winning teams.

Sponsorship Packages: The winner of the Professional League will win a £20,000 APAT sponsorship package for 2011. In addition, the winners of the Online and National Amateur Rankings will join the 17 Amateur Champions from season four and the player with the most points finishes across Amateur and Online events, to compete in the APAT Champions Final, to play for a second APAT £20,000 sponsorship package in 2011. This event will be held in February 2011 and venue details will be announced closer to that time.

Increased Profile: A number of APAT Amateur and Professional Championship events will be streamed live through APAT tv during season 4 while reports from APAT live and online events will appear in APAT Magazine, which will be launched this month and distributed to over 20,000 APAT members online.

For a complete schedule and a free APAT membership, please see www.apat.com.

AMATEUR CHAMPIONSHIP

2 day events - £75 buy in - unless stated

20/3 - Welsh Amateur Championship - Aspers, Swansea

17/4 - United Kingdom Amateur Championship - Grosvenor Victoria, London

15/5 - Central European Amateur Championship - Austria

19/6 - Scottish Amateur Championship - G, Aberdeen

31/7 - Northern European Amateur Championship - Estonia

27/8 - World Amateur Heads Up Championship - DTD, Nottingham - 1 day - £50

27/8 - World Amateur Team Championship - DTD, Nottingham - £100

28/8 - World Amateur Stud Championship - DTD, Nottingham - 1 day - £50

29/8 - World Amateur Omaha Championship - DTD, Nottingham - 1 day - £50

30/8 - World Amateur Six Max Championship - DTD, Nottingham - 1 day - £50

29/8 - World Amateur Poker Championship - DTD, Nottingham - 3 day - £100 - 414 runners

31/8 - World Amateur HORSE Championship - DTD, Nottingham - 1 day - £50

25/9 - Irish Amateur Championship - Dublin

23/10 - English Amateur Championship - G, Luton

27/11 - European Amateur Championship - G, Coventry

8/1 - Southern European Amateur Championship - Spain

29/1 - United Kingdom Team Championship - G, Bolton

PROFESSIONAL LEAGUE

1 day events - Pot Limit Hold'em - £250 buy in - 10,000 chips - 40 minute clock

20/3 - Professional League Swansea - Aspers, Swansea

17/4 - Professional League London - Grosvenor Victoria, London

19/6 - Professional League Aberdeen - G, Aberdeen

28/8 - Professional League Nottingham - DTD, Nottingham

25/9 - Professional League Dublin - Dublin

23/10 - Professional League Luton - G, Luton

27/11 - Professional League Coventry - G, Coventry

SPECIALIST SERIES

1 day events - £25 buy in - mixed structures to be advised a month prior to events.

21/3 - Specialist Series Pot Limit Omaha - Aspers, Swansea

18/4 - Specialist Series Razz - Grosvenor Victoria, London

20/6 - Specialist Series NLHE - G, Aberdeen

26/9 - Specialist Series Omaha Hi-Lo - Dublin

24/10 - Specialist Series Stud - G, Luton

28/11 - Specialist Series Draw - G, Coventry

ONLINE CHAMPIONSHIP

1 day events - $50 buy in (main events) $20 buy in (Omaha) - Saturday 8pm (main) 9pm (Omaha)

27/2 - Welsh Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

27/2 - Welsh Online Championship - Betfair

27/3 - United Kingdom Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

27/3 - United Kingdom Online Championship - Betfair

1/5 - Central European Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

1/5 - Central European Online Championship - Betfair

22/5 - Scottish Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

22/5 - Scottish Online Championship - Betfair

3/7 - Northern European Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

3/7 - Northern European Online Championship - Betfair

23/7 - World Online Six Max Championship - Betfair

24/7 - World Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

25/7 - World Online Poker Championship - Betfair

14/8 - Irish Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

14/8 - Irish Online Championship - Betfair

21/8 - UK Online Team Championship - Betfair

2/10 - English Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

2/10 - English Online Championship - Betfair

6/11 - European Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

6/11 - European Online Championship - Betfair

11/12 - Southern European Online Omaha Championship - Betfair

11/12 - Southern European Online Championship - Betfair

ONLINE NATIONAL LEAGUE

Three Divisions - $10 buy in - Sunday 8pm - 2 leagues run over course of Season 4

7/3 - National League 1 - 1 - Betfair

14/3 - National League 1 - 2 - Betfair

28/3 - National League 1 - 3 - Betfair

11/4 - National League 1 - 4 - Betfair

25/4 - National League 1 - 5 - Betfair

9/5 - National League 1 - 6 - Betfair

30/5 - National League 1 - 7 - Betfair

13/6 - National League 1 - 8 - Betfair

27/6 - National League 1 - 9 - Betfair

11/7 - National League 1 - 10 - Betfair

8/8 - National League 2 - 1 - Betfair

22/8 - National League 2 - 2 - Betfair

5/9 - National League 2 - 3 - Betfair

19/9 - National League 2 - 4 - Betfair

10/10 - National League 2 - 5 - Betfair

31/10 - National League 2 - 6 - Betfair

14/11 - National League 2 - 7 - Betfair

5/12 - National League 2 - 8 - Betfair

19/12 - National League 2 - 9 - Betfair

2/1 - National League 2 - 10 - Betfair

Further details to be advised and a full Festival pack will be created a month prior to each series of events. Side events to be allocated half ranking points.

A couple of things to say.

Many APAT players have come of age through playing affordable multi day tournaments with us over the last four years. We feel the time is right to offer those players an opportunity to step up with the introduction of the APAT Professional League. With the outstanding prizes on offer, this is certain to attract some strong professional players and our existing players will learn more quickly playing alongside them. We look forward to charting your continuing success. To answer a question that will be asked, we're not going to allow multi tabling of amateur and professional events.

An end of season Champions final will identify our player of the year and what a prize he or she will win. A £20,000 APAT sponsorship package for 2011. This event will feature the best of our players from live and online and it should prove an incredibly fitting end to a superb season.

We've also added a series of fun specialist events on Sunday's and we hope to see Pot Limit Omaha, Stud and Razz feature in those schedules. With a £25 buy in and a seat in the next APAT Professional League event up for grabs, we're sure these will prove very popular.

One further point on our live schedule of events. The clickfest has always proved problematic and wildly expensive to host in merchandising fees. Clickfest seats will now be sold through a special Betfair tournament lobby, which will go live at exactly 9pm on the advertised clickfest night. This will save us a great deal of effort and should be a far smoother process for members. The Seat Exchange and player list will be managed as in all previous years.

We've listened to member feedback on our online schedule, where a Pot Limit Omaha Championship event has been added alongside every online National main event during the season. Every main event winner will win an added GUKPT seat while every PLO event winner will win an APAT Professional League seat. Their will now be two National Leagues during the season, split into three divisions based on finishing positions last season. Every online event will be registration free to APAT members, as will our 28 live Championship events - which will represent a huge saving for each of you over the season.

So to Betfair. They have ceased their sponsorship of the World Series of Poker Europe and we will be their key poker focus in 2010. I would like you all to welcome Betfair into APAT with open arms, because there are a number of further initiatives that we have planned during this season and the support of our members in playing with Betfair is key to their delivery. This is a fantastic win win partnership, so please ensure you do your bit.

We will make some further announcements over the weekend and we hope to launch APAT Magazine at that time also.

Have a great season everyone.

Des Duffy

Managing Director

Amateur Poker Association & Tour.

Rest in Peace Bro

I haven't updated my blog in ages, too much going on here for me to even consider it. Poker is just something I "do" to fill in the gaps at the moment, no real structure to what I am playing, it will change tho in the near future.

My wee bro passed away yesterday, cancer finally took him from us at the ridiculously young age of 36. I was fortunate enough to be there when he came into the world, and was there when he left this world, and it really was such an honour for me to have had him as my little bro, one of the best people you could ever meet. I will miss him greatly and love him forever. R.I.P Bro xxx

Thank you so much to all the support I have received from my friends in the poker community, seriously, it overwhelms me, it is so wonderful to have you all as my friends, and some new friends recently too.

If you would like to you can sponsor me HERE as I am doing the Race for Life for cancer research in memory of my mum and my brother (update will be forthcoming on the sponsor page soon).

Anyways, short and sweet, only because I've been up since the crack of dawn and felt the urge to update.

Take care

xxx

New Year, New Start

First of, Happy New Year everyone. I do hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and a mighty jolly New Year.

Ive decided to start off the new year with a completely new challenge and that is to play micro stakes cash. 0.01/0.02 will do just fine to start me off, and will start with $50 (25 buy ins) and see how one progresses.

My plan is to download and install Holdem Manager and keep a real good log and progress of how I am doing and basically get my teeth sunk into it.

Learn, learn, learn and learn some more is my motto for January, start of slowly, see how I get on and whether it is something I would like to do long term.

This new challenge will be done on Full Tilt, and will leave my BR in Pokerstars for any stt's or mtt's I fancy for a change every now and then.

We have the APAT team event on 23 January, which I am very much looking forward to. I am playing for Ace of Clubs this year, Lou Saban is the Captain and she will be a great leader in encouraging us all to bring that trophy home.

Season 4 will be announced "soon" on APAT Forum hehe and I can't wait to see what is planned and the dates etc, so that I may start to plan my calendar.

So, having just installed Windows 7 Pro, I am off to download a few programmes, get Holdem Manager and get myself sorted out.

Good luck at the tables all and will be back soon with an update.

xx

Bloggerment

Nothing much to report. Ive moved over to the Boss network and been playing there, seem to do better playing cash than I do tournaments, but will plod on and hopefully build up a roll.

Anyways, just thought I'd post that I won the Bloggerment 2 weeks in a row...so that is all ;)

GL at the tables

xx

Its Sunday again

Well I have had a nice relaxing day with the family, love Sundays.

Had an oldish PC that isnt all that slow really but Stan had been bugging me to set it up for him and get him online as the lappy broke last month and he been crying he didnt have a PC LOL. Anyways I set it up for him and he was one happy chappy this evening when he went online for the first time.

Now...not so sure he is as happy LOL we both registered for the Britbloggerment and Stan gets dealt AA and this other chap raises, comes round to Stan and he re-raises and the chap pushes all in, of course Stan calls. Chap shows KK and K on flop knocked Stan out and guess what??? LOL he has the monkey this week, nothing like keeping it in the family eh hehe.

Also, over on RTR, I am part of a syndicate whereby 7 of us are playing the $55 tourney on Stars. Each week one of us plays it by shipping $8ish over to the other players. 2 guys have played their game so far with no cashes unfortunately and I am 5th in line to play it. So the other night thought I would give it a bash to see what the field was like and get a feel for the game.

I was actually doing not too bad, getting some decent pots and staying above average, midway through I made a few mistakes, but managed to pull back, but as it got close to the money I was seriously short, and tbh I had no fold equity whatsoever. I just had to sit back with 12 to go to the money and cash then try n make some moves. Eventually the bubble burst and I was ITM so managed to double up a couple of times, once I pushed with 99 and was called, 9 on flop and 9 on river for Quads LOL. Managed to hang in there and get myself a few steps up the ladder and went out scooping $100 for my troubles. Was surprised I lasted that long to be honest I strugged on 2 BB's and even with the couple of double ups it was tough going.

Anyways, nothing much else to report, busy week ahead, christmas shopping, school runs, etc and hopefully some poker in the evenings when the kids settle down to sleep.

GL at the tables all.

x

Britblog n Stuff

I played the Britbloggerment on Sunday evening, haven't played with the guys for a long time and was looking forward to the good craic. Didn't go down to well when I thought dD was bluffing and my 2 pair on flop didnt quite meet the boat against his flopped straight..oops...first out and I am the monkey for a week.

APAT are at Luton this week/weekend for the European Team and Individual Championships. Unfortunately I am unable to attend but I wish my cuz Geo the very best of luck.

Had a nice win online and withdrew 90% of it for christmas and spoiling the family a bit. Was great to see their faces today with their surprise gifts.

Overall, good week and looking forward to spending the weekend with Stan and the kids.

GL at the tables all but xxxxxxxxxxx GL to myself.

x