209 players gathered at the Alea Casino in Leeds for the latest West Yorkshire Regional Final.

Play started promptly at 2.00pm with the first casualty of the day being eliminated in the very first hand, bravely, Neil Metcalfe of the Grange Hotel in Leeds took to the stage for a well deserved round of applause. With the pressure off from being the first out, everyone settled down to the task of making the final table and qualifying for the National Final on March 28th. At the buffet break, only 16 people had been knocked out but soon after more and more players started to hit the rail.

With eight qualifiers needed for the National Final, the pressure was off for all nine of the players who made up the final table as Lee Tyson from the Hornblower Tavern in Ripon had already booked his place at the previous Regional Final. Lee has certainly been in good form this year, winning his pub league in three out of four seasons, (His dad, Eric, won the other one!!), and making the final table at two Regional Finals. He’s certainly hoping his good form lasts until after the National Final.

The hot favourite at the final table was Daniel Barber from the Station Hotel in Leeds who came onto the table with a commanding chip lead. His aggressive style of play saw his chipstack continue to rise and at one point he had almost 800,000 in chips! A more patient approach adopted by Mike Fletcher from the Ainsty Hotel in York and Brian Welsh from The Fox in York paid off eventually, with Daniel finally being eliminated in 3rd place. After a tense head’s up battle Brian fought off a strong challenge from Mike to finish up as the eventual winner.

National Final Qualifiers & Cash Prize Winners
1st Brian Welsh – The Fox, York
2nd Mike Fletcher – Ainsty Hotel, York
3rd Daniel Barber – Station Hotel, Leeds
4th Danny Blackburn – Airedale Heifer, Mirfield
5th Richard Hoyle – The Gate, Wakefield
6th Lee Tyson – Hornblower Tavern, Ripon (Already qualified)
7th Wayne Kelly – Carpe Diem, Leeds
8th Darren O’Shea – Halifax Snooker Club, Halifax

Other National Final Qualifiers
9th Danny Greenwood – Royal Oak, Keighley

NB: Unclaimed raffle prize, if anyone has ticket numbers 301 -305 (and the colour and serial numbers match!) please send them into the office along with your name and address and your prize will be despatched.

The Circus Casino in Newcastle saw increased numbers from last season as nearly 160 players prepared themselves for a shot at six National Final places and a share of £1000.

It turned out to be a fantastic day as all involved were in great spirits throughout as we got down to a final table of eight. Matthew Graham from the Wheatsheaf in Darlington would start as the chip leader with 148,000 in chips, closely followed by Andrew Stevenson from the Fox Cover in Ashington with 119,000. The story of the weekend almost belonged to David Ridley from the Crows Nest in Seaham after he lost a big pot that left him with only a small blind. Just as everyone thought all hope was lost, David made a miraculous recovery to make the heads-up match against Ian Hetherington from the New Delavel Newsham WMC in Newsham. Unfortunately for David, the victory was a step too far as he found himself dominated as the chips went into the middle. David’s A6 was up against Ian’s AK as the board only further improved Ian’s advantage as David was drawing dead with a K turn after the flop came TT8. The meaningless river was a J as Ian took the North East Regional Final title.

National Final & Cash Prize Winners
1st Ian Hetherington – New Delavel Newsham WMC, Newsham
2nd David Ridley – Crows Nest, Seaham
3rd Matthew Graham – Wheatsheaf, Darlington
4th Andrew Stevenson – Fox Cover, Ashington
5th Ron Booth – New Derby, Sunderland
6th Bryan Snowball – Times Inn, Seaham

Other Cash Prize Winners
7th Ian McKay – New Crown, South Shields
8th Kevin Stuart – Joiners Arms, Blyth

The Circus Casino at Star City in Birmingham was again the venue for the second West Midlands Regional Final. 177 runners took part in the tournament this time around.

Craig Brown from the Bull & Anchor in Coventry started the final table as the chip leader with 232,000 in chips, ahead of Michael Lowe from the Cat & Fiddle in Great Barr with 161,000 and Dez Flynn from the Bagot Arms in Erdington. These were the players who eventually made the final three places before Dez went out to Michael, who became the new chip leader. After a few hands, the final moment came when Michael had 8h9c and Craig had 7d2d. The flop was Jc 7c Qc and Craig immediately went all in. After what seemed like an eternity, Michael called. The turn was the Ac giving Michael the nut flush to claim the first prize of £500 and the crystal trophy.

National Final Qualifiers & Cash Prize Winners
1st Michael Lowe – Cat & Fiddle, Great Barr
2nd Craig Brown – Bull & Anchor, Coventry
3rd Dez Flynn – Bagot Arms, Erdington
4th Chris Gibson – Coundon, Coventry
5th Adrian Ford – Chase Hotel, Nuneaton
6th Graham Wynn – New Inn, Birmingham
7th Sam Ho – Riley’s, Solihull
8th Michael Bacciocchi – Cat & Fiddle, Great Barr

Meet Norman and Jean Higgins (both aged 71 and a half!) who are back at the North East Regional Final.

Jean has won two different pub leagues this time and has been at 6 regional finals as a player, Norman has qualified 4 times and they are regular faces at the event. They’ve been married for 28 years and are our only couple to qualify for so many finals! Jean’s finished 20th and Norman 6th place in the past but this year both haven’t quite made it to the National Final…. but I’m sure we’ll see them both back here in three months time!

The three players from the Corner House in Burton-upon-Trent ran breathlessly through the card room at Star City in Birmingham just before the tournament started. The explanation was that the driver Dave couldn’t follow the one straight road from Burton to Spaghetti Junction.
Things didn’t get much better for Dave during the tournament when he went out in 135th position.

Everyone at Redtooth knows how well we get looked after at the Circus Casino at Star City. Richard Halford was making a long awaited debut at the venue and after a bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast, here he is tucking into a steak sandwich and chips during the interval.

After finishing in the qualifying positions on the last two West Midlands regional finals, Janet Page from the Golden Hind in Kingstanding is looking to make it a hat-trick at the Circus Casino at Star City in Birmingham.
This time Janet had qualified as pub champion, having previously won through to the regional as play-off winner and runner-up in the pub.

The excellent Circus Casino at Star City in Birmingham hosted first of two West Midlands Regional Finals. The venue is a big favourite amongst Redtooth and it’s players and they certainly delivered once again.

A tactical battle ensued on the final table as one would expect after over six hours of play to get there. The final table short stack Chris Dorricott from the Peacock in Shrewsbury performed a minor miracle to have his 23k starting stack carry him through to fourth place. The final table chip leader, Daniel Careless from the Britannia in Tewksbury ended up in third place after quite a three way tussle with the chip lead changing hands on a number of occassions. With the clock past 9pm, Peter Webb from the Raglan Arms in Rugby was crowned the West Midlands One Regional Final winner when his QJ defeated the J8 of Ashley Dace, though with a board of Q7T K, Ashley still had a number of outs but the river 4 sent him away a gallant loser with two hundred quid to boot!

National Final Qualifiers & Cash Prize Winners
1st Peter Webb – Raglan Arms, Rugby
2nd Ashley Dace – Bar NV, Walsall
3rd Daniel Careless – Britannia, Tewksbury
4th Chris Dorricott – Peacock, Shrewsbury
5th Aled Jones – Red Lion, Wales
6th Steve Slade – Rose & Crown, Hereford
7th Gary Titley – Merry Boys, Wolverhampton
8th Ben Huskisson – Amber Tavern, West Quinton

Regional Final weekend saw a small drop in numbers for week 5 of the Red Tavern, macian1957 took full advantage by claiming the 100 points. The win puts him up to 7th place overall.

Here are the current Regional Final qualifying positions.

For the league table in full, click on the thumbnail below.

Elephant41 won a nice $127 from just a $3 buy-in in our $200 added money tournament on Sunday afternoons. Betfred are giving away $500 every weekend to Redtooth members in our very small stakes tournaments.

To join in the fun then simply click here to download Betfred and to create an account!

The Stanley’s Circus Casino in Manchester hosted our North West One Season 4 Regional Final, with 127 players in attendance.

The top eight would receive cash prizes totaling £1000 with the top six receiving a National Final invite.

10 players would take their seat for the final table meaning two unlucky players would be leaving empty handed. Eric Bradbury from the Dog & Partridge in Morcambe would start as the chip leader with 135,000 in chips with Daniel Birch from the Golden Lion in Todmorden starting as the short stack with only 10,000. A comeback never materialized for Daniel as he was to be the first player out in 10th place.

The heads-up match would come down to Craig Knight from the Waggon & Horse in Wilmslow and Carl Ringland from the Spring Inn in Rochdale. The final hand of the night saw Craig’s 67 flop an open ended straight draw with Carl flopping top pair holding J9, a 10 on the turn would give Craig the straight but also giving Carl a chance of a re-draw to a bigger straight. The river bricked which left Craig as the North West One Regional champion. £500 goes to Craig along with a Redtooth glass trophy and a National Final invite.

National Final Qualifiers & Cash Prize Winners
1st Craig Knight – Waggon & Horse, Wilmslow
2nd Carl Ringland – Spring Inn, Rochdale
3rd Rod Williams – Royal Hotel, Atherton
4th Andy Taylor – Royal Hotel, Atherton
5th Aaron Bailey – Blue Bell, Manchester
6th Eric Bradbury – Dog & Partridge, Morcambe

Other Cash Prize Winners
7th Sam El-Barbisi – Varsity, Manchester
8th Paul McGarry – Bowling Green Inn, Oldham