Nineteen teams from all around the UK hit the newly refurbished G casino Newcastle on 1st and 2nd May for the Newcastle Poker Forum UK Team Challenge 2010.
The event was set to be the best to hit Newcastle after the success of last year and every team that played last year expressed an interest to play again. With the same format of 10 person teams, same structure and points for the top 50 players meant only the best teams would come out on top.
Proceedings kicked off at 1pm with teams mingling in the new bar area and team photos being taken at 1.30pm everything went according to plan. At 2.40pm teams were greeted by music from Craig ‘Mr Entertainment’ Forggo introducing the MC and tournament director for the weekend, Steve ‘the card guard kid ‘Wills.
Each team was introduced by player names followed by 2 pieces of music before seating which made the atmosphere elctric in the G Casino. View the opening ceremony on the newcastlepoker youtube channel.
With a shuffle up and deal just after 3pm, it was not long before we lost the first player of the tournament which was last year’s final tablist and very own NPF member Trevor Routledge with his aces being kracked by kings with a king on the river.
Players were gradually knocked out during day 1 with all the hands being commentated on by MC card guard. It was not clear which teams were in front with a few teams still having atleast half of their team towards the end of the day. With some big pots won at the end of the day Wayne Tinnion of Geordie Poker was the chip leader with a huge 198,900 chip stack. A very hungover Raise the River team were the first team to exit without scoring any points despite being 2nd last year. View all end of day 1 standings here.
Day 2 saw 31 players return and it was still very close with atleast 10 teams still within a chance of winning but with walkers sensations having 30 points banked and still with 3 players left, they were looking the favourites. With lots of short stacks, day 2 progressed quickly and it was not long before we were closing in on a final table with 5 teams still in with a chance to win but with Ace of Clubs, Monkey Hangers, losing players in the last 20 it was going to be a two horse race between Walkers Sensations and Teamdobbs for the win.
Steve Gibson of Walkers Sensations was the marginal chip leader going into the final table only having to outlast Dave Collins of teamdobbs to take the win for the walkers sensations, see final table standings here. By the start of the final table, the rail was 3 people deep with plenty of noise around the stage area in the G casino. Michael Carr of Monkey Hangers exited in 8th leaving the team standing on 104 points. This meant that Ace of Clubs could nick third place provided they finished 2nd but if Darren Roe from Breakers came 1st they would take third for the team. There was definitely all to play for with 1st place undcided and a three way battle for third the atmosphere was intense.
One of the great potential turn arounds when Steve Gibson exited in 5th place leaving the competition unsecured with Dave Collins needing to win the tournament to nick the team title. However this was not to be with Dave exiting in 4th place when his AQ could not hit against Darren Roe’s 33 and Walkers Sensations were crowned the winners of the NPF UK team Challenge 2010.
The tournament was not over with third place still being played for and of course the individual title up for grabs. Darren Roe of Breakers exited in 3rd meaning Phil Scott secured overall third for his team, Ace of Clubs.
Heads up only lasted 3 hands with Phil having a huge chip lead. Wayne Tinnion of geordie Poker pushed with Q2 only to be called by Phil Scott’s K8 which held proceeded by huge cheers from the Ace of Clubs team on the rail.
Here are the final standings:
Position Team Points
1 NPF – Walkers Sensations 127
2 NPF – Teamdobbs 119
3 Ace of Clubs 109
4 Monkey Hangers 104
5 Breakers Poker Club 96
6 NPF – Northern Lights 93
7 Geordie Poker 91
8 KrackedKings (B) 78
9 KrackedKings (A) 78
10 Queens Callahead 74
11 UK Sharks 70
12 A.W.O.P. Teesside 49
13 FISO.co.uk 48
14 NPF – Cubs 45
15 Nelly’s Heroes 44
16 NPF – s2c’s Elite 39
17 Team Furness 25
18 NPF – Team Radgie 9
19 Raise The River 0
You can view all the photos from the weekend in the NPF photo gallery and catch up on the text updates for day 1 and day 2.