The Amateur Poker Association & Tour held the first event of its second season, the English Amateur Poker Championship in Walsall's Grosvenor Casino, over the weekend of 3-4 November.

The event had 200 runners plus alternates, who qualified through high finishes in the first round of APAT Regional Events, online satellites and direct payment.

The successful structure of a £75 freeze-out with 10,000 starting chips and a slow clock was continued, with £3,500, trophy, medal and Player of the Year ranking points. going to the winner.

In addition new tour sponsors BlueSquare.com stumped up a seat for a the 2008 GUKPT event in London worth $3,000 to the winner.

Initial progress was slow with few exits and solid play seeming to be the order of the day. Post dinner several players began to emerge from the pack as Day One drew to a close.

Amongst these were 18-year-old Jon Spinks from Devon, Darren Shallis, Steve Talbot and Rich Offless, a finalist at the last APAT National Championship.

Play down to the final table on the second day did not take long with a series of short-stacked players forced to be active.

Darren Shallis was the player who made the most substantial progress, eliminating Mark Williams with AA versus KK whilst elsewhere the likes of Andrew Tracey (finding AA versus JJ to double up and then QQ versus Alan Armitage's AA, only to river a Queen) and Rich Offless were managing to negotiate their way through a couple of levels of push or fold poker.

As the final table convened With blinds beginning at 6,000-12,000, play was always going to be fast. Mike Young went on the first hand to Dan Bradbury.

Paul Davis had seemed to be card-dead for long stretches of the second day but then received a crucial boost when his AA held versus Bradbury's AK to knock Dan Bradbury out in 7th.

Meanwhile Shallis had maintained a strong chip-lead with Offless challenging in second and the remainder relatively short-stacked

With four players remaining, the key hand of the tournament occurred between the two chip leaders Shallis and Offless.

Both saw a 9-4-3 rainbow flop and the betting took off with Shallis check raising Offless and then pushing in on a seemingly blank Jack turn. Offless seemed worried that he had trapped himself when he called and flipped AA. Shallis had a flopped pair and his hand did not improve on the river and he exited in 4th, giving Offless 75% of the chips in play and a big chance of wining.

Neither Neil Walsh or Paul Davis were able to make inroads into Offless' lead three handed. Davis was knocked out by Offless in third before a one hand heads-up contest with Walsh having only 80,00 of the 2m chips in play.

Final results:
1. Rich Offless, Mold, £3,500
2. Neil Walsh,Cannock, £2,250
3. Paul Davis, Essex, £1,250
4. Darren Shallis, Newport, £600
5. Brendan Duffy, Accrington, £600
6. Andrew Tracey, London, £600
7. Dan Bradbury, Bath, £600
8. Alan Armitage, Halifax, £600 9. Mike Young, Cardiff, £600