20/05/2007 5:33:17 PM
WAPL Member wins Nathan and Nat's Poker Face!

You heard correctly! We're very proud to announce that one of our long time members, Murray Boyne, has taken out Nova 937 Nathan and Nat's Poker Face competition!

It started with Murray holding a perfect poker face and reciting bad jokes while Nathan scribbled on his face with pens, winning his way through to the "final tables" on Friday 18th. Here, 14 winning contestants played on 2 final tables against each other and Nathan and Nat (8 players per table) for a maximum of 1 hour, with the winner of each table taking $8000!

Should Nathan or Nat win their table, the $8000 would be split between all players on the table...

With a great contingent of WAPL Members down to cheer Murray on, we knew he was in with a big chance due to his poker experience and his plan of attack for the very fast paced tournament!

Taking a couple of beats early, Murray had a big job ahead of him! He scraped back with a couple of wins, but was still under his starting stack till late in the game. At this point, Nat was by far the chip leader, and it was looking like the table would be splitting the $8000 pot!

He made an awesome laydown of Ace 10 offsuit to save himself from a huge Pocket Jacks hand which hit trips on the flop, which took down another player who had Ace 10!

Getting to within 5 minutes of the end, Murray knew he had to get some big wins to end up on top. With 3 minutes remaining, he pushed all in with pocket 8s, and managed to triple his stack when he hit another 8 on the turn card to beat Nat's Ace Jack with a Jack on the flop, and another player who called his all in!

He was now the only player who could catch the near-invincible stack of Nat!

With 1 minute 40 seconds remaining, Murray was dealt his last hand. Not looking, he pushed all in immediately. Nat had a think about it and folded, which he didn't want to see happen! One player, Danae called him, Murray turned his cards, to see a King 5 of Diamonds!

Looking over, Danae turns over pocket queens, and we thought it was all over!

Standing up now, and at the end of time, we awaited the flop...

The flop shows Ace Clubs, 2 Diamonds, 7 Diamonds. Nothing for either player, but a flush draw for Murray!

The all important Turn then came.... Believe it or not, a Queen of Diamonds! Danae jumped out of her seat, thinking she had just taken the tournament with trip queens! That was until everyone else (especially the WAPL supporters!) started cheering for Murray, who had just hit his Flush! It was almost all over!

The only cards which could beat him was another queen, or if the board paired to give her a full house. Fortunately the River showed an 8 of spades, no help for Danae, and Murray took the pot down with no time to spare!

At this point, we had no idea whether Murray had won overall, since the final winner was to be determined by chipcount, and Nat still had a LOT of chips left.

The dealer Ashley (who did a great job, as usual!), set about counting the stacks of Nat and Murray.

Of 8000 chips on the table, Nat's chipcount came in at 3475, and Murray's chipcount was 3875! He won by just 400 chips, and took down the $8000 prize!

Murray with girlfriend Liz straight after the big win!

We were all ecstatic, as you can imagine, and the partying ensued shortly after the prize presentations!

We'd like to congratulate Murray on his big win, and commend Nova 937, Nathan and Nat for putting on their Poker Face Competition!

Also, Danae has a wedding coming up, so we'd like to wish her all the best, too!

Since catching up with Murray, he's had this to say to us all -

"There is no way I would be here today, winning this tournament, if it wasn't for all the support and poker that WAPL has provided me over this past year. Thanks to everyone from WAPL who turned up to support me and thanks to all involved."

Nova's Nat with Murray, celebrating his $8000 win!

When you see Murray at a WAPL Tournament next, please remember to congratulate him on his big win!

For those of you who'd like to see the videos leading up to the Poker Face finals, head over to the Nova 937 Poker Face website!