Peter McCusker Takes Down 2025 World Championship of Amateur Poker

Peter McCusker is the new World Champion of Amateur Poker, having taken down the Main Event of the 2025 World Championships of Amateur Poker (WCOAP) at Nottingham’s Dusk Till Dawn.

The Irishman topped a field of 475 entrants, to claim the Amateur Poker Association & Tour’s (APAT) World Championship bracelet, a gold medal and £13,000 prize money in the £210 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event. He faced-off against Jonathan Rees heads-up, after a hard fought final table, which included last year’s champion, Nick Bowyer, attempting an unprecedented title defence. 

With two tables left, Welshman Rees held a huge chip lead and maintained the advantage throughout most of the final table. Contrastingly, McCusker was short-stacked going into the final, but managed to double-up early on and continued to build his stack as the final progressed. The two played a hard fought heads-up battle for close to two hours before McCusker, holding pocket queens, finally closed out the contest.

In the immediate aftermath of the final, McCusker revealed that while he used to play more frequently during his university days, he is now purely a recreational player, partaking in live events just three or four times per year. When asked what he will be doing with the prize money, McCusker quipped that his wife had already picked out a new handbag.

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1st	Peter McCusker	Ireland	£13,000
2nd	Jonathan Rees	Wales	£8,500
3rd	Kevin Smith	England	£5,500
4th	Mark Langdale	England	£4,000
5th	–	Unknown	£3,300
6th	Nicolas Bowyer	England	£2,800
7th	Gary Colclough	England	£2,400
8th	Edward Johnson	England	£2,100
9th	Edward Tilbrook	England	£1,800

Unfolding the WCOAP Main Event Final Table

Unusually, the final table did not begin on the live streamed feature table, as the Mystery Bounty Shootout Championship was still in play, with three players left. By the time that event ended, the Main Event had already been reduced to seven players, with the two Edwards, Tilbrook and Johnson busting in 9th and 8th places respectively. 

As the follically challenged author of this article was celebrating his Mystery Bounty victory off-camera, the live stream refocused on the conclusion of the Main Event. Team Bald was also well represented on this final table, with four fully fledged (but lightly hedged) members of the “I’ve lost my hair” club still in their seats at this point in the proceedings. 

Just after the cameraman, commentator and APAT CEO Leigh Wiltshire had introduced the remaining seven players to the live stream viewers, their number was reduced to six, with a bald-on-bald encounter delivering the next exit.

Gary Colclough might have fancied his chances of going further, as his pocket sevens improved to a set on a flop, however the turn put him behind again as the pocket tens of his anonymously smoothed domed opponent made a straight on the turn. But there was no miracle re-grow on the river and “El Baldie” hit the rail in 7th place for £2,400.

Unfortunately for Nick Bowyer, he would not achieve his dream of going back-to-back. He was taken out of the equation in 6th, when his [invalid notations] failed to hold against McCusker K♠J♠. He went further than anyone has ever gone in an attempt to defend his title, collecting £2,800.

While Team Bald held the balance of power with seven left, their chances soon receded, when the anonymous vanquisher of Colclough became the next to depart. “Baldrick,” as we shall call him, became McCusker’s next victim, earning him the tongue-in-cheek nickname of the “Donegal Destroyer.” 

Next to hit the rail in 4th was Mark Langdale, who got it all in with A♠3♦ and was called by Jonathan Rees, holding K♣5♣. The board ran out 4♠9♥8♣3♣K♦ with the river sending Mark out of the tournament with £4,000, leaving three players left to fight it out for the title. 

Just a few hands later Kevin Smith became McCusker’s latest victim after the final remaining bald player moved all-in on a board of 7♦4♥5♥A♣ McCusker bet 1m, Smith moved all-in and McCusker insta called, having flopped a straight holding 8♦5♦. Smith held A♥7♣ so still had outs, however the 6♥ on the river wasn’t a hair raising moment and he exited with the bronze medal and £5,500 in prize money.

With the last Englishman out, the heads-up began as an Ireland v Wales contest and at this point, the fast pace of the final began to slow. Having taken out most of the players so far, McCusker held the chip lead and kept the momentum going, pulling away from Rees during the early stages of the final match-up. The game continued cagily, with mostly small pots being played, McCusker chipping away at Rees’s slowly dwindling stack. 

After a lengthy session of heads-up play, Rees began to fight back, taking down a few hands in which he moved all-in to open from his Irish opponent. With the blinds going up to 600k/1.2m and failed attempts at starting a Mexican wave by the onlookers on the rail, Rees still had the lead, holding a 27m v 20m advantage. 

However on the very first hand of the new level, McCusker doubled up with A♦8♦ versus A♠6♥, leaving Rees with just 7m chips. It was all over on the very next hand when Peter moved all in with [invalid notations]  and was called by Jonathan holding K♦2♥. The board ran out 2♣8♥A♦4♣A♠ and with that Peter McCusker became the 2025 World Champion of Amateur Poker. Jonathan Rees took the silver medal and £8,500, while the new champion collected the gold medal, winners’ bracelet and £13,000 prize money.

APAT Approaching 20th Anniversary

APAT has been going since 2006 and is fast approaching 20 years in existence. This is the tour’s 18th full season and at this festival, many new World Champions of Amateur Poker emerged, each securing a gold medal and bracelet, in addition to varying amounts of poker’s usual prize mechanism, cash.

There were 22 events in total on the tournament schedule, with a varied itinerary of poker variants on offer. In addition to Texas Hold’em, there were Pot Limit Omaha Events, stud games, mixed games and an international team event. While only fifteen of these were designated as world championship events, all were fiercely competed for, but in a friendly way, with many regulars and newcomers in attendance. 

England Snatch Team Victory

The week began with the Team Event, with Netherlands as the defending champions. It was an extremely tight finish with host nation England coming up trumps, ending on 159 points, just two ahead of Portugal, Romania and Germany, who were all tied on 157 points. Portugal had gone into the final day in the lead and looked well placed to take the title, however all four team members were first to bust on their respective single table tournaments and they fell just short. All four members of Team England received gold medals and winners bracelets for their efforts.

Bald Eagles Soar High In Championship Events

The biggest group win during the week was achieved by Team Bald, with a significant number of bracelet winners rocking the smooth look. Andrew O’Neil kicked things off, taking down the first gold medal of the week, securing £3,900 in the PLO Championship, beating fellow baldster Mark Hopton heads-up. 

Another team member, James Buck, banged in the second bracelet of the week, taking down the TORSE Championship for £2,915.

But with Daniel Williams claiming the 6-Max Championship for £4,000 and Jonathan Douglas-Davies bagging the 2-7 Triple Draw Championship bracelet, Team Hirsute had drawn level, at 2-2. The hairier bunch then took a commanding lead with victories for Melanie Parkar (Bounty Championship), Matthew Parker (8-Game Championship) and Matthew Leather (ROE Omaha8/Stud8 Championship). 

But the festival ended up with a flurry of victories for the slapheads, beginning with my own (Jonathan Raab) bracelet success in the Mystery Bounty Shootout Championship for £2,250.

Ky Hutchinson secured his second bracelet of the week in the PLO8 Championship for £3,745 (he had also been a member of Team England in the Team Championship).

Mohammed Fatemi stood on top of a podium entirely perched on by bald eagles in the PLO 4/5/6 Card Championship.

Finally, Charles Mason booked the 6th individual bracelet win for Team Bald, taking down the Mixed Limit Championship.

All 2025 WCOAP Event Winners

Event #	Event	Champion	Prize
1	£200 World Amateur Poker Championship (Main Event)	Peter McCusker	£13,000
2	WCOAP International Team Championship	England	£2,720
3	£140 WCOAP TORSE Championship	James Buck	£2,915
4	£70 NLHE Turbo	Scott Meredith	£1,345
5	£140 WCOAP PLO Championship (4-card)	Andrew O’Neill	£3,900
6	£70 NLHE Mini Main	Ben Haynes-Tate	£3,000
7	£140 WCOAP 6-max NLHE Championship	Daniel Williams	£4,000
8	£140 WCOAP 2-7 Triple Draw Championship	Jonathan Douglas-Davies	£2,740
9	£70 WCOAP Crazy Pineapple	Sanjeev Kumar	£2,363
10	£140 WCOAP 8-Game Championship	Matthew Parker	£3,850
11	£350 WCOAP NLHE High Roller Championship	Samuel Coltman	£6,080
12	£140 WCOAP NLHE Bounty Championship	Melanie Parker	£2,826
13	£70 WCOAP ROE (NLHE/PLO) Championship	Stephen Sharpe	£1,875
14	£140 WCOAP ROE Omaha8/Stud8 Championship	Matthew Leather	£3,090
15	£140 WCOAP Mystery Bounty Shootout Championship	Jonathan Raab	£2,253
16	£140 WCOAP PLO8 Championship	Ky Hutchinson	£3,745
17	£70 Win The Button	Anonymous	£2,210
18	£70 Mixed Triple Draw	Jonathan Douglas-Davies	£777
19	£140 WCOAP NLHE Mix Max Championship	Rui Vieira	£1,670
20	£140 WCOAP Mixed Game Limit Championship	Charles Mason	£2,210
21	£140 WCOAP PLO 4/5/6 Card Championship	Mohammed Fatemi	£3,050
22	£70 NLHE Closer	Andrew Murphy	£1,415

Next APAT Events

The World Championships may be done for another year, but there are several further APAT events still to come in 2025. The first of these is in less than two weeks’ time at Grosvenor Portsmouth, where from 5-7 September, the £115+£25 APAT Championship will take place, along with three side events, all costing £58+£12 to enter. 

A fortnight later, an identical schedule will be run in Glasgow from 19-21 September, at Grosvenor Casino Merchant City. Events in Czechia, Leeds, Malta and London before the tour returns to Nottingham once again, to round off the year.

Dates	Event Name	Location	Venue
5–7 Sep 2025	APAT Portsmouth	Portsmouth	Grosvenor Casino
19–21 Sep 2025	APAT Glasgow	Glasgow	Grosvenor (MC) Casino
1–5 Oct 2025	German Amateur Poker Championship	Asch	Grand Casino
10–12 Oct 2025	APAT Leeds	Leeds	Grosvenor Casino
1–2 Nov 2025	APAT Maltese Open Championship	Malta	Portomaso Casino
19–23 Nov 2025	UKCOAP	London	Aspers Casino, Stratford City
5–7 Dec 2025	APAT Poker Squads Live	Nottingham	Dusk Till Dawn