Season eight of the Amateur Poker Association and Tour got underway from 5-6 July at the Rainbow Casino in Bristol with the £75 Welsh Amateur Poker Championship, supported by a hold'em side event on Saturday and PLO on Sunday.
The main event, which attracted a field of 154, went the way of Jake Dursley, who picked up £3,670 for his efforts plus a coveted APAT gold medal.
Going into day two APAT stalwart Mark Porter led the field with a stack just short of 150k, but was closely followed by Dursley on 128k as 42 players returned to their seats.
Dursley arrived at the final table in the middle of the pack on 221,000, with Porter having failed to make it to the final stages.
Jack Kendall was the new chip leader on 416,000, followed by Andrew Watts with 398,000, Ben Naylor on 322,000 and Roger Smith on 274,000.
Dursley was next in chips and then came Dominic Hine on 207,000, Brendan Payne with 189,000, Dan Crabbe on 132,000 and Mark Morris the short stack with 122,000 chips.
Hine was the first to exit, followed by Naylor in eighth and Crabbe in seventh, with Morris sixth and Smith in fifth place.
Four-handed Kendall won a big pot with AH-JH after calling an all-in shove from Watts with AS-QC.
The board of 6S-KH-4C-7H-8H doubled up Kendall but left Watts with just 50k and the very next hand he exited in fourth spot.
As three-handed play resumed Dursley was sitting on 1.2m chips, Kendall 640k and Payne 360k. And not long into proceedings Payne shoved all-in with 9C-6C only to be quickly looked up by Kendall holding AC-8S, the 6S-8D-KD-4H-QC board bringing Payne's tournament to an end.
The heads-up battle lasted more than 90 minutes before Kendall raised to 150k and Dursley jammed back for 1.2m. Kendall made the call with pocket threes and was ahead in a race against Dursley's AH-10D.
But with the AS-2S-QS flop Dursley went into the lead and he raced away with the title after a two on the turn and a six on the river.
As well as an Apat gold and his prize money, Dursley also received the added value of entry to the APAT WCOAP main event at Aspers Casino, London, in April 2015.
Welsh Amateur Poker Championship
1 Jake Dursley £3,670
2 Jack Kendall £2,050
3 Brendan Payne £1,370
4 Andrew Watts £1,030
5 Roger Smith £740
6 Mark Morris £500
7 Dan Crabbe £340
8 Ben Naylor £280
9 Dominic Hine £230
