The APAT’s World Championship Of Amateur Poker’s (WCOAP) Omaha Championship event at the Grosvenor Victoria in London has been won by Dave Howard who beat Linda Iwaniak to win the gold medal and £1,400 in prize money.

The tournament which was limited to a field of 70 players and Kieran O’Leary was the unfortunate player to be knocked out first when, after hitting top two pair on the flop he was beaten by the straight held by Chris Webber. He still had outs for the nut flush but unfortunately for him, the cards he needed never came and he was eliminated.

Runner up and silver medallist Linda Iwaniak took a massive chip lead midway through the tournament winning an incredible pot which saw her deal Ah Ad 10s 10c and her opponent As Ac 10d Ks. The flop saw the remaining 10h from the deck hit the board and gave Iwaniak the 75k pot.

She managed to retain this lead going through to the final table as you can from the standings below…

Final Table

Seat 1 - Linda Iwaniak - 130,500
Seat 2 - Rich Stevenons - 53,500
Seat 3 - Thomas Cardoso - 40,000
Seat 4 - Warren Jackman - 29,500
Seat 5 - Richard Bard - 42500
Seat 6 - Tony Ross - 26,500
Seat 7 - James Mitchell - 45,000
Seat 8 - Jim Lynott - 99,000
Seat 9 - Dave Howard - 55,000

Eventual winner Howard was involved in the first big pot at the final table as Tony Ross and Richard Bard both went all-in against him. They both had pocket Aces to Howard’s Kings and Tens. The board failed to improve any player’s hands leaving Ross and Bard to chop the pot and Howard reduced to short stack.

He would however turn things around just a few hands later when with just 14k in chip he pushed all-in and was called by Thomas Cardoso and Tony Ross, he hit quad 8’s to treble his stack to 42k and put himself back in with a shot at the title.

Out on the bubble was James Mitchell who went out in 8th as his mid-pair proved inferior to Jim Lynott’s top two pair.

The chips continued to move around the final table until Linda Iwaniak now heads up against Dave Howard, called an all-in bet with 2h 5h Js Jc versus 2s 5s Qh Kh on a flop of 9d Qs 6s. The turn and river of 10s and 3h respectively gave Howard the title.

For a more detailed report of the entire WCOAP event, interviews with the winners and much more, simply click on the banner below…



Picture courtesy of APAT

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