The PaddyPowerPoker Madchester festival has concluded with Shah Athar winning £27,000 and an Irish Open seat at the Manchester 235 casino.
The £500 + £50 main event, from 21-23 November, attracted 169 entries, just shy of the £100,000 guarantee, with 18 places officially paying out.
Down to 19 players shortly before the end of Day 2, a secret ballot among the players decided to take a saver off first place to award the 19th-place finisher their money back, meaning that Andrew Probyn, who’d taken the bubble-bubble spot after running K-J into David Gomez’ A-5 which flopped a full house, technically became the bubble.
The chips were bagged and tagged, with Soleiman Masud Janjua leading the field into Day 3 on 489,000, ahead of Robert Roper and Gerald “Skullman” David.
Doig Rudling – a victim of the silent but deadly Gomez – was the first to exit in 19th place, with former big stack Leonard Townsend out in 18th place, his Q-J dominated by Guy Taylor’s A-J.
Roper soon followed in 17th place, with Richard Kellett going out in 16th place, the victim of David’s pair of queens.
Positions 15 to 13 were claimed by Daniel Charlton, Mark Wilding and Mark Dyson, who each received £1,250 for their efforts.
Mark Stott went out in 12th place followed by short-stack ninja CK Lee, who had put his chips in the middle more than any other Day 3 player and survived every time until his pocket sevens were out-flipped by Athar’s A-J.
Athir Ali, holding A-5, failed to outdraw Desmond Marsh’s pocket jacks to finish in 10th place to set up the final table.
Day 1 chip leader Gomez was by now back in pole position on 1,400,000, with Guy Taylor second in chips on 1,100,000 and Desmond Marsh third on 670,000.
Next came Athar on 540,000, followed by Sue Benson on 380,000, David on 350,000, Janjua with 301,000, Declan Connolly on 300,000 and Mark Davey now the short stack on 130,000.
Davey was the first to depart, his micro-stack going in with Q-T against Gomez’ K-5, and although Davey hit a queen, Gomez hit a four-flush to send him to the rail in ninth place for £2,250.
Connolly was next out, moving all-in with pocket kings on a 10-high board but getting a call from Gomez holding a Q-J flush draw which hit on the river. His eighth place finish netted him £3,000.
Taylor, short-stacked after getting his kings cracked by Benson, got his remaining chips in with Q-T against the A-K of Gomez. Taylor failed to hit, and had to settle for seventh place and £3,750.
Benson didn’t manage to hang on to her chips for long, either – she took sixth place for £5,500 when her A-3 failed to hold against Janjua’s K-Q.
David – who had been nursing a tiny stack for most of the day and had already doubled up several times, on more than one occasion with the worst hand – was next to go when his A-Q was suddenly outdrawn by Athar’s A-4. David netted £7,500 for fifth place.
Start-of-day chip leader Janjua was the next to bust, getting it in good with pocket sevens against Athar’s A-7, but an ace from space sent him packing in fourth place for £10,000.
Marsh finished third, making his last stand with K-Q but running into Gomez’ pocket tens. Marsh took home £12,750, to leave Athar and Gomez heads-up for the title with Gomez holding a big chip lead.
But Athar soon doubled up to even with a pair of threes on the flop against Gomez’ open-ended straight draw, and not long after the two got it in on a massive coin-flip – Shah’s K-10 against Gomez’ pocket eights.
The flip went Shah’s way and moments later Gomez took a desperate short-stacked shot with 10-6 and was finished off by Athar’s Q-J.
Gomez had to settle for £17,000, while Athar picked up £27,000 for his efforts and an Irish Open seat.
Madchester Poker Open
1 Shah Athar £27,000
2 David Gomez £17,000
3 Desmond Marsh £12,750
4 Soleiman Masud Janjua £10,000
5 Gerald David £7,500
6 Sue Benson £5,500
7 Guy Taylor £3,750
8 Declan Connolly £3,000
9 Mark Davey £2,250
