ANZPT

Admittedly this update has been slow to come. Queenstown was amazing, the mountains were insane, the weather was beautiful and….oh that’s right, there was a poker tournament there too!

First things first, the venue.

Sky City Queenstown is probably one of the smallest casinos in Australasia. Theres only a handful of tables, a few dozen machines and a couple of bars and a restaurant. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a beautiful place, but it is a little different to what most players would have been used to.

The staff at Sky City and from ANZPT were top notch as always. While the players all do their best to look staunch and uninterested, I know the staff were appreciated for their care and professionalism.

The poker room was a smaller function room off to the side of the casino, and TBH, probably not the most inspiring room, but hey, who needs to be inspired while playing poker huh? I reckon the Sky City team did the best with what they had.

The tournament itself was almost secondary to the other awesome activities happening around the place. For starters, all the players who had won satellites to the game were loaded up with amazing gifts. A PokerStars scarf and beanie set, a special players BBQ on Coronet Peak, various tourist activities and a PokerStars Limited Edition SNOWBOARD and BAG!!!! I saw a few guys boarding with them on Coronet Peak, I’m not sure how well they rode, but they looked really impressive.

I really think ANZPT and PokerStars have completely outdone themselves on this event, they’ve really raised the bar.

Danny Chevalier wins ANZPT Q'Town

So on to the tournament, it was ex-Queenstown resident, Australian Danny Chevalier who took out the very first Alpine Adventure Championship, outplaying 134 rivals over six days to take home the 2009 NZPT Queenstown – SKYCITY Alpine Adventure trophy and $87,435.

The Final Table began with 9 players left from an original starting field of 134 battling for a total prize pool of more than $300,000. Over 40 of the starting field were made up of locals, and six of the final nine were New Zealand-based players.

Danny took the title from Andrew Hinrichsen from Australia with a 7 and Ace of hearts giving him a ‘nut flush’. Andrew takes home $57,285 for second place.

The NZPT Queenstown – SKYCITY Alpine Adventure poker tournament attracted a world-class field of some of the sport’s finest talent, including International professionals including Eric Assadourian, Grant Levy, Celina Lin, Tony Hachem, Emad Tahtouh and New Zealand-based Lee ‘Final Table’ Nelson.

The final standings were as follows:

1. Danny Chevalier – Melbourne, Australia – $87,435NZD

2. Andrew Hinrichsen – Melbourne, Australia – $57,285NZD

3. Glen Maiden – Queenstown, New Zealand – $33,165NZD

4. Mark Walker – Cambridge, New Zealand – $27,135NZD

5. Steve Smith – Auckland, New Zealand – $21,105NZD

6. John Guthrie – Queenstown, New Zealand – $15,075NZD

7. John Pye – Auckland, New Zealand – $12,060NZD

8. Will Mauga– Brisbane, Australia – $9,045NZD

9. David Bradford – Wellington, – $6,030NZD

Next on the ANZPT calendar are the Queensland legs of the tour in the awesome Jupiters and Treasury Casino’s kicking off this week from Aug 5th.

If you don’t have an account at PokerStars yet, sign up here and get an extra $50 for your $50 deposit.