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

A record 222 players arrived at the Gala Casino in Bristol to compete in the South West & South Wales Regional Final with a record 18% of the runners being female. 15 of the competing pub champions were ladies.

The eventual winner, Daniel Mitchell from the Brookhouse Farm in Swindon qualified through the online Sunday afternoon Redtooth Tavern tournament. Daniel began the final table as chip leader with 300,000 in chips followed by Martin Brough of the Birchgrove in Cardiff with 205,000. These two players engaged in a long battle with Chris Drage from the Village Inn as the field narrowed down to the final three players. The lead was exchanged between all three players before Chris’s challenge ended in 3rd place and then Daniel and Martin battled it out with Daniel taking the first prize of £500 when his two pairs (10s and 7s) defeated Martin’s pair of 7s.

National Final Qualifiers & Cash Prize Winners
1st: Daniel Mitchell – Brookhouse Farm, Swindon
2nd: Martin Brough – Birchgrove, Cardiff
3rd: Chris Drage – Village Inn, Cardiff
4th: Jack Evans – Two Brewers, Brackla
5th: Mark Singleton – Star, Kingswood
6th: Adrian Knight – Sun Inn, Cheltenham
7th: Allan Vickers – William IV, Truro
8th: Perry Williams – Ebdon Arms, Wick St Lawrence

Other National Final Qualifiers
9th: Dave Chandler – Riley’s, Plymouth
10th: John Williams – Royal Oak, Gloucester

The Gala Casino in Sol Central, Northampton once again played host to the Redtooth Central England Regional Final. 177 players battled it out in their last opportunity to qualify for this year’s National Final.

Play started promptly at 2.00pm with almost everyone playing cautiously in the early stages. After the buffet break, the blinds began to have an effect with more and more players being eliminated as the afternoon went on.

The real stories of the day though, came on the final table where 10 players battled it out for 8 seats at the National Final. The final 10 were headed by Lee Girard of the Blue Boar in Wantage, who had over 1/3rd of the chips in play (330k), however the poker gods deserted Lee and he eventually finished in 6th place. The only other players on the final table with 100k+ chips were Craig Dunkley from the Squirrels in Northampton (160k), Sam Powell from the Blue Bell Inn in Northampton (130k) and Elizabeth Whitty from the Queens in Didcot (110k). The remaining six players all came to the table short-stacked; Steven Byrne from Kennington SSC in Oxford (60k), Richard Wardale from the Golden Hind in Cambridge (50k), Pippa Wilson from the White Lion in Hemel Hempstead (40k), Jon Ainsley from Trimley SSC in Felixstowe (40k), Tiago Nunes from Empress in Cambridge (30k) and Jamie Pedder from the Netherfield Tavern in Milton Keynes must all have been fearing an early exit.

The unlucky duo finishing 9th and 10th respectively, just missing out on National Final seats were Jon Ainsley and Jamie Pedder. Finishing in 7th and 8th were Richard Wardale and Elizabeth Whitty. It looked as though there would be two more casualties within minutes, with the blinds at 20k/40k Pippa was down to 20k with Tiago also under the 100k mark, however both recovered from this precarious position and it soon appeared that a long battle was in prospect with all five players having almost equal chips. On a very active table there were very few cheap flops, with Craig and Sam mainly responsible for keeping everyone “honest”.

Craig eventually finished in 5th place, with Sam coming a very creditable 4th, Sam, unfortunately, will miss out on the National as he will be away on holiday in Gambia, however he does have the consolation of beating his dad’s best finish, 14th at the previous Regional Final. Having disposed of Sam by hitting a straight, Tiago then proceeded to bring the event to a finish by eliminating Steven (3rd) and Pippa (2nd) in the next two hands, remarkably by completing a straight each time.

Congratulations go to Tiago on finishing as the Central England Regional Champion, good luck at the National Tiago. Pippa, the runner-up, will also be missing from the National as she will be honeymooning in the Caribbean, it must have been a tough decision – marriage or the Redtooth National Final!

National Final Qualifiers & Cash Prize Winners
1st Tiago Nunes – Empress, Cambridge
2nd Pippa Wilson – White Lion, Hemel Hempstead
3rd Steven Byrne – Kennington SSC, Oxford
4th Sam Powell – Blue Bell Inn, Northampton
5th Craig Dunkley – Squirrels, Northampton
6th Lee Girard – Blue Boar, Wantage
7th Richard Wardale – Golden Hind, Cambridge
8th Elizabeth Whitty – Queens, Didcot