Nephew Nelson crowned as the latest champ

A slow played pair of nines, heads up, landed Jonny Nelson the latest Weekly Poker Club main final against Nicky Brown. He had flat checked Brown's call in small blind with ten eight diamonds. The flop came 5D, 7D and 8H. Nelson checked the flop and Brown pushed all in having hit the top pair, had the flush and the outside straight draw. Nelson called, having an over pair to the board. Two black cards Q and 3 on the turn and river secured his title.

Nelson, who plays his poker at the Cinque Ports Club in Uckfield, Sussex, bagged £1,000 for his efforts, in a 62 player field. His tournament had not come to life until the last four tables and had only 12k chips by the time the field was halved and the average stack was about 20k. A series of brave moves had increased his pile to 105k (fourth place) by the time the players had been wittled to the top table of eight. Nelson must have realised his luck was in when his JJ beat pocket aces by way of a flush early in the final phase.

Jonny's uncle, Dave, started the tournament as chip leader, being the UK points champion for the previous season. And his mum, Sue, also competed in the 2850 event. Great bragging rights in the Nelson family.

It was a stunning performance by Essex player Nicky Brown, appearing at the final for the first time. He had learnt his play at The Drill, Romford. He played a roller coaster style on top table, losing a significant proportion of his 100k stack early in the proceedings, but aggressively getting his way out of trouble.

Other top finishers were 8th June Mills of The Legion Club, Lancing; 7th Jay Loudon of The Royal George, Shoreham-by-Sea; 6th Luke Hornsby of Yates, Brighton; 5th Dennis Mills of The Royal Oak, Worthing; 4th Floyd Langridge of the Royal Coach, Shoreham-by-Sea (the player who had his aces bust) and 3rd Keith Grady of The Paper Makers, Ilford.

This main final was competed by players whose starting stacks reflected the league points that they had accumulated in the preceding season.

The event, held at Brighton Racecourse, also had an even start tournament, where 31 players battling for a £250 cash prize. This was won by Kelly Mansell of the Lancing Legion Club. The penultimate hand of the tournament was unlucky for Antony Kirk, who also plays at the same venue. Kirk K9 flopped a straight, with TJQ, but Mansell had pushed all in after hitting the ten and then hit runner runner tens for quads. This sealed the game for Mansell, whose next hand AT held against Q4.

Other finalists in this tournament were 8th Tim Kent, of The Windmill Southwick; 7th Nigel Cradduck of Hill Park Working Men' Club; 6th Lennie Scott of the same venue; 5th Carly McKenna of The Harbour View, Portslade; 4th Martin Ansell of Lancing Legion and 3rd John Sebbah of The Exchange, Hove.

Three ring games were won by Ryan Beard of The Swan, Edenbridge; Lee Eastment of The Drill, Romford and Pio Delelis of The Piltdown Man, Uckfield.

The Weekly Poker Club operates in Sussex, Kent, Surrey, Hampshire and Essex in about sixty venues, mainly pubs and clubs. All tournaments are professionally hosted by trained Venue Managers.

Key stats of final:

Full Name Starting stack Last 30 stack % of starting stack Last eight stack % of starting stack2 Result
John Nelson 8,950 12,000 134% 105,000 1173% 1st
Nick Brown 5,350 60,000 1121% 100,000 1869% 2nd
Keith Grady 23,400 26,000 111% 120,000 513% 3rd
Den Mills 22,850 34,000 149% 170,000 744% 4th
Floyd Langridge 20,950 51,000 243% 125,000 597% 5th