The Amateur Poker Association and Tour (APAT) crowned its second female national main event winner when the tour stopped off in Luton for the English Amateur Poker Championship from 6-7 September.

Shirley Cole followed in the footsteps of Marie Sherwood, who won the European Amateur Poker Championship at Brighton in 2012, to become only the second woman to win an APAT national title by beating Dominic Ricepierse heads-up for the top prize of £4,063.

A total of 172 players competed in the event, creating a £12,900 prize pool with just 35 left in the running at the start of Day 2.

Adrian Filiczkowski led the way at the start of the day on 150k, with other big stacks including Ricepierse (146,000), Matthew Standring (127,000), Nikolaos Seretis (124,000) and Alan Ellis (123,000) and Cole ninth in chips on 101,000.

Filiczkowski and Standring both missed out on the money but Seretis did get paid, all be it the minimum cash for 18th place of £129. He was followed to the cashier by Matt Carter, Tom Clarke, Todd Priest and Ian Thompson – the last two eliminated in the same hand by Cole.

Ellis was the man to bubble the final table and soon afterwards Cole claimed her second double elimination of the tournament when Patrick Costello moved all-in with the AD-KC and Warren Jones called with pocket tens, along with Cole who had eights.

Cole shot into a huge lead on the QC-4C-8D flop after making trips and when the turn and river fell JS and 7C both Jones and Costello crashed out.

Next to fall was Frazer Bolt who only moments before his final hand had lost a 110,000 chip pot with pocket eights against Leonard Langridge's pocket tens, this time the tens holding up.

And six became five with the exit of Ben Naylor in fifth place, after Ricepierse opened to 38,000 and Naylor called with JH-10S.

Ricepierse continued with a 110,000 bet on the 9S-2C-JC flop and quickly called when Naylor raised all-in for 170,000. Ricepierse turned over the AS-2H for bottom pair, but the 2D on the river gave him trips and sent Naylor to the rail.

Anthony Pickering finished in fifth place when he lost a crucial coin-flip with Ricepierse and Kevin O’Driscoll followed him out of the tournament after running his pocket jacks into Langridge's AC-8H pre-flop, only for Langridge to spike an ace on the flop.

Langridge busted out in third getting his chips in with JH-9H on a JD-JS-5C flop and running into Cole holding KC-JC, with the 3C on the turn and 10C on the river improving her to an unnecessary flush.

The one-on-one battle between Ricepierse and Cole lasted less than five minutes with the final hand seeing a raise to 130,000 from Ricepierse and a call from Cole. Ricepierse led for 125,000 on the JH-7S-10H flop, Cole raised to 375,000 and then pushed all-in when Ricepierse re-raised to 625,000. Ricepierse called and flipped over QH-QD, much to the dismay of Cole and her KH-JC.

The 10D on the turn was a relative blank, but the KH on the river made Cole a full house that saw her become the 2014 APAT English Amateur champion.

APAT English Amateur Championship
1 Shirley Cole £4,063
2 Dominic Ricepierse £2,193
3 Leonard Langridge £1,419
4 Kevin O’Driscoll £1,032
5 Anthony Pickering £774
6 Ben Naylor £645
7 Frazer Bolt £516
8 Patrick Costello £451
9 Warren Jones £322