This is what it's all about, playing week in week out, 4000 players, 84 pubs, 4 quarterly regional finals and all that remains are 134 of the UK's top pub poker players! With 5000 chips and a 30 minute clock, the marathon wasn't quite over for our lucky National Finalists!

As the day commenced all the players congregated in the excellent venue that is Dusk Till Dawn, Europe's finest card room. A fitting venue for the last ever Pokerdownthepub.com National Final. The champagne reception got the players warmed up and in the mood as they arrived. With 134 players plus guests, the atmosphere was really starting to build up!

At 2pm, all the players were sat waiting for tournament director Simon 'Aces' Trumper to say those words that poker players love to hear. "Dealers, shuffle up and deal!" It was very quiet all of a sudden except for the clicking of poker chips until we lost our first player in the first level. Paul Vidler from The Varsity, Manchester was the first player who managed to get all his chips in first with Ace King on a King high board only to have been out flopped by his opponents two pair. Paul had chips left but soon found himself all in again only to lose this hand too. That was it for Paul, but for the rest of the players things were very much still in the balance.

Play resumed after a round of applause for Paul and by level 15, after seven and a half hours play we were down to our final nine players. Here's who were lucky enough to make the money:

Seat 1: Sean Wheatley from The Talbot, Mansfield with 22,400 chips.
Seat 2: Alex Chippendale from The Hornblower Tavern, Ripon with 5,100 chips.
Seat 3: Lynne Marsden from The Queens, Wallasey with 53,200 chips.
Seat 4: Colin Smith from The Charlton Arms, Chorley with 46,500 chips.
Seat 5: Phillip Cotterill from The York Hotel, Bexhill on Sea with 29,400 chips.
Seat 6: Colin Fletcher from The Baydale Beck, Darlington with 155,100 chips.
Seat 7: Gordon Barraclough from The Varsity Huddersfield with 104,500 chips.
Seat 8: Gary Colclough from The Devonshire Arms, Sutton in Ashfield with 142,200 chips.
Seat 9: Kevin Jones from The Queens Vault, Cardiff with 110,700 chips.

The final 9:

9 Players Remain:

Tense play resumed on level 15 with the blinds at 4,000/8,000 with an 800 ante only for Alex Chippendale in seat 2 to be forced to be all in, in the first hand as he didn't have enough chips to cover the big blind. With a raise coming from Colin Fletcher in seat 6 to 25,000 Alex knew he was going to be in trouble. He looked at his hole cards of 6d 2d vs Colin's Jh 10s and wasn't in quite as bad of an underdog as he first thought. However, on a board of 4AQJK Colin's straight eliminated Alex in 9th place with prize money of £104.

8 Players Remain:

It wasn't long until we had another all in and a call. This time it was Kevin Jones in seat 9 vs Colin Smith in seat 4. Kevin who had originally raised to 24,000 called Colin's all in with A10c. Colin was holding 5h5s. Colin's five's looked like they were going to hold up until a jack on the river completed a straight for Kevin on a board of KK2QJ. Colin received £156 for finishing 8th. Well played Colin.

7 Players Remain:

Play continued with quite a bit of positional raising with the rest of the players folding until this hand. Sean Wheatley raised in Seat 1 to 18,400 and was all in. Gordon Barraclough in seat 7 called. Sean showed AdJc and Gordon turned over 54s. The board of 9K5Q4 was no help for Sean who had shown a lot of patience throughout the day and finished in 7th place taking home £208.

6 Players Remain:

The blinds were increased in level 16 to 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante. There had been some good play between Sean getting knocked out and us losing another player. Two players had been all in and survived. In this hand Lynne Marsden in seat 3 moved all in short stacked for 14,500 and Kevin Jones in seat 9 called for 4,500 more on top of his big blind for a pot of nearly 30,000. One of, if not the longest standing Pokerdownthepub.com players Lynne Marsden turned over A9h while Kevin Jones turned over Qd4h. Another unhelpful board of 10QK84 saw Lynne on her way home in 6th place with £260. Thanks for your support over the past 3 years Lynne!

5 Players Remain:

Play resumed with quite a few double up's for the short stacks and even a split pot with two of the bigger stacks. However just before the end of level 16 Gordon Barraclough was knocked out with A8 vs Gary Colclough's pocket 9's. Gordon failed to improve his hand and went away in 5th place for £364.

4 Players Remain:

The players were now on level 17 with blinds at 8,000/16,000 with an ante of 1,500 when Colin Fletcher, one of the funniest but one of the loudest players we have ever met got eliminated. Short stacked Colin in seat 6, limped in, in the small blind only to be raised all in by Kevin Jones in Seat 9 on the big blind. Colin was holding 10s7c whilst Kevin held Ac8s. Unfortunately for Colin the board of 25J58 didn't improve his hand and he was knocked out in 4th position winning £468.

3 Players remain:

With the prize money starting to make serious jumps now, play became increasingly tighter and it wasn't until the end of level 18 that we saw our next elimination. Phillip Cotterill in seat 5 who impressively was only playing his first season of poker and had traveled nearly 220 miles via train and buses from before 6am to attend the National Final was all in against Gary Colclough in seat 8. After a long day the short stacked Phillip's 56 was busted by Gary's 79 and Phillip was taking a well earned £728 which we know will help towards the recent news that his partner is pregnant. Good luck Phillip!

Head's Up!:

Head's up resumed at 1:05am with Kevin Jones in seat 9 having a 3/1 chip lead over Gary Colclough in seat 8. We were now on level 19 with the blinds at 10,000/20,000 with an ante of 2000. Gary at first managed to double up through Kevin but then play returned to Kevin dominating. Gary then doubled through again! However, at 1:24am Kevin got the better of Gary to take the tournament down. Gary moved all in with pocket 5's and Kevin called with the two over cards of A7. With an Ace on the flop Gary was knocked out in a very respectable 2nd place taking home £1092 whilst Kevin was crowned the Pokerdownthepub.com National Champion. He collected his trophy and cash prize of £1820.

Pokerdownthepub.com National Champion - Kevin Jones, Queens Vault - Cardiff: