Event Five: Stockport

MICHELLE SEALS STOCKPORT SUCCESS

Michelle Bricknell became the fifth player to qualify for the Grand Final of the 2009 Betfred Ladies’ Poker Tour by winning the Stockport leg at Casino 36.

 

The 36-year-old from Birmingham got the better of a heads-up with Shelley Postchild and will now have the chance to win a £20,000 poker sponsorship package for 2010 from Betfred at the Grand Final in November.

 

A field of 71 contested leg five and the game had lasted for 12-and-a-half hours when it came down to just Michelle and Shelley on the final table with Monica Martinsen, who had travelled over from Denmark especially for this tournament, having just been eliminated in third place.

 

The heads-up lasted only a few minutes before Shelley pushed all in with pocket sixes. She made three of a kind on the flop, but Michelle had Queen-10 suited and with the flop also yielding an Ace and a Jack, she hit a straight with a King on the river to capture the first prize of £2,580.

 

“It felt great to win and it was also a relief because I had arrived in Stockport with high hopes for myself,” said Michelle, a professional poker player who also owns a children’s day nursery.

 

“I really wanted to win this event and I had a feeling it might be my day because I had been playing well recently without getting the rewards. I went into it with a very positive attitude and made sure I gave plenty of thought to the hands I played.”

 

Michelle joins Emily Curzon, Mel Lofthouse, Kim Jagger and Helen Firth in securing her seat for the Grand Final, in which half of the 10 places available have now been filled.

 

They will be joined by the winners of the three remaining monthly legs of the tour, plus the player who finishes top of the points standings for the most consistent non-winner and also the victor of an online satellite tournament.

 

The points leaderboard is now extremely tight at the top with Sue Adams, who has contested both previous Grand Finals in the tour’s history, taking over at the top thanks to her eighth-place finish in Stockport.

 

But Shelley Postchild is up to second, just one point behind, due to finishing runner-up at Casino 36, with Angela Evis only one point further adrift.