Grand Final Season 3 - Sunday, 29 April 2007
What can we say? Season 3's Grand Finals delivered another awesome day jam packed full of Poker for our WA Poker League Members!
In a day which saw lots of bad beats, great stories, happy players and more than a few lucky runs of cards, here's the most important info from the Grand Finals!
Pro League - In yet another huge line up, we saw 210 runners battle it out for their share of the ~$60,000 Prize Pool! With the top 21 players getting in the money, the competition was fast and furious. We saw some early chip leaders get dragged back down to the pack in the midgame, as the excitement built! Hours later, we had a very short break at the final 24 to consolidate to the final 3 tables, and to send those players who forgot to sign out to the bottom of the rankings.
The lovely Kerryn Kane was the "bubble girl" for the day, going out 22nd to a huge round of applause and cheering! The rest were in the money!
Play continued down to the final 8, where we paused for the spectacular WAPL Final Table, dealt, recorded and surrounded by scores of players who'd missed out on their seat at the table this time around...
With even 8th position set to win over $1600, and the top 3 spots paying out over $4200, $6500 and a massive $20,100 + $5000 WAPL Medallion for first, noone was going to make any rash decisions!
We saw a couple of the short stacks go out relatively early, then proceeded to see a couple of good calls and lucky flops for Hayden Tangyuk, who streaked into the chip lead and stayed there till heads up with Leon Dawson!
Leon had a hard job ahead of him, massively short stacked and up against the apparently insurmountable luck Hayden had brought to the tournament! After having his Ace 7 cracked by Hayden's 5 7 Club flush, Leon's day seemed to be over... He then won a couple of crucial hands, which almost levelled their chip stacks, until the final hand where Hayden emerged victorious, his Ace 9 of Diamonds dominating Leon's King 9 offsuit when he caught an Ace on the flop!
Another Pro League Grand Final, another WAPL Champion! Congratulations Hayden, it was a great performance on the day, and made for some very entertaining cards!
Over in the Free League event, we saw 68 runners battle it out for the top spot in Free League! Including a great contingent from Kalgoorlie which we were absolutely delighted to welcome down for the big event, they set off on the gruelling task of making it to Free League Grand Champ!
In another tight tournament, we saw one of the Kalgoorlie boys, Caine Cotter, end up 4th with a great deal of support from his fellow Kal players, Richard Wilson in 3rd, leaving two left for heads up, being William Wilson and Steven McCarthy, William being a far North player, Steven being a South player, incidentally!
After a heads up which swung both ways, William called Steven's Ace 9 offsuit with a 7 6 offsuit to take the tournament with a straight! William finished his season off the same way he started it, with a win! Congratulations William and Steven for such a great heads up battle that kept everyone on the edge of their seats!
The Free League Results from the day can be found here!
So, another season over, another awesome grand final spectacle, and another season set to start next week with more players, more venues, bigger prizes and no doubt more fun to come!
Thanks to all who participated on the day, and we look forward to hosting you at many more events and grand finals to come!
We'd also like to thank our awesome staff for putting on yet another professionally run and entertainment packed Grand Final! This is the hardest part of our season, and many hours of sleep were missed in order to make this the great day that it was. We know everyone appreciates it, but we need to say "Well Done!" nonetheless! Thanks also needs to go to the South Fremantle Football Club for being the best Grand Final Host Venue we've had so far! Unbelievable venue, and we hope to see many of you down to their regular Wednesday joint Free and Pro League events during season 4 now that you all know how good it is!
Thanks also to Buck from Budget Cabinets for his astounding help and work as usual. This time the great (HUGE!) cash tables were made by him for the day! For all his support since the beginning of WAPL, we're overjoyed to offer Buck Life Membership to the WA Poker League! Please when you see him, make sure you thank him for the contributions he's made towards making our League even better. Penny Wells was also offered Life Membership for all her help and support throughout last Grand Final and our seasons! These awards were both made on the day, to commemorate these special individuals. Thanks for the support given to the two prize draws on the day, the winners being Matt King (#27) in the poker wheel spin, and Elizabeth Regnault (#81) in the lucky number draw! Matt won a 500 set of poker chips, and Liz won $162.50! Alan Shewan won the 2nd place in the lucky number draw, taking home a carton of Hofbrauhaus Lager!
Last but definately not least, it nearly slipped all our minds (since we've been so busy!) but WA Poker League celebrates 1 year of bringing the best Poker to Western Australia on May 15th, which was our first official Pro League Season Tournament at the Paddington Alehouse last year! Since that time, we have welcomed nearly 4000 members to our ranks, and have paid out well over $420,000 in prize money directly back to our members! We are very proud of this achievement and look forward to bringing the best Poker to WA for many years to come! We hope many of you come down to the Paddington on Monday the 14th to help us celebrate this historic occasion!