Over the weekend and the period briefly prior to it, Christchurch Casino hosted its annual November Champs, along with the NZ Masters. The events were of great success, with good turnouts in a number of fields, and a nice take home prize of $18,000.00 to the winner of the NZ Masters main event. Sporting a buyin of $1,100, action was underway around 11:30 early Sunday, with players starting deeply stacked at 15,000 chips. As the day wore on and the money bubble finally burst, seven players remained to be paid at the final table – with Stephen Hodson emerging victorious.

Here are the results from each of the events:

2011 Christchurch NZ Masters Main Event

1st Stephen Hodson $18,000.00
2nd Greg Lochhead $12,000.00
3rd Ned Quill $8,000.00
4th Matthew Mitchell $6,000.00
5th Malcolm South $4,500.00
6th Mike King $3,000.00
7th Mark Hepi $2,500.00

2011 November No Limit Championship

1st Shane Foglietta $7,000.00
2nd Scott Hamilton -Hill $5,500.00
3rd Mike King $4,000.00
4th Tony Bainbridge $3,000.00
5th Terry Choi $2,000.00
6th Scott laming $1,500.00

2011 November No Limit Turbo Championship

1st Richard Hone Morrison $5,500.00
2nd Jae Do Nam $4,000.00
3rd Ryan Peters $2,900.00
4th Silva Chitral $2,100.00
5th Jack Efariamo $1,500.00
6th Mike King $1,100.00
7th Eamonn Hylanel $850.00
8th Shane Wilson $650.00

2011 November Champs Womens Event

1st Selina Smith
2nd Nicky Edwards
3rd Trang Harris

After a successful NZ Champs earlier this year, and another good weekend behind them, Christchurch Casino is great venue for poker this year, whether it’s tournaments, cash, or a combination of NLHE and PLO. Stay tuned to PokerNZ as we follow events from their end, and be sure to check out the Casino’s Facebook page as they keep the public updated on the availability of games.

Events at Christchurch Casino came to a close around midnight last night, with Jamil Dia being crowned the winner of the NZPC Main Event. The day started around 1pm with 20 remaining, and the dreaded final table bubble looming. Poker NZ’s Brooke Howard-Smith was one of the earliest bubble boys to depart, as an Ace spiked the flop when he held 88 to his opponents AJ. Shortly after, the possibility of reigning champ Soren Eriksen taking it down again was snuffed out. Eriksen was all in with Doug Giles who held the same hand, AQs, though Doug picked up running flush cards to bust the former champ in 10th.

In the end, after nearly 12 hours of play, Dia put on a commanding lead during the final 3, and eventually took home the title for roughly $35,000. Taking second was Doug Giles, and 3rd, Jeff Baucher. The final placings for the table were as follows:

NZPC 2011 Main Event

NZPC Main Event Champion Jamil Dia.

1. Jamil Dia – $35,700

2. Doug Giles – $23,000

3. Jeff Bucher – $15,000

4. Kevin Clark – $13,000

5. Shane Hicks – $10,000

6. Martin Cardno – $9,000

7. Fern Webber – $7,500

8. Steve Smith – $6,400

9. Selina Smith – $5,100

10. Soren Eriksen – $3,800

11. Andrew Yee – $2,500

12. Aaron Peters – $2,500

Aside from the Main Event, the weekend also saw the South Island and Wellington Champs played out. The South Island champs was, in the end, chopped up three ways. The top 3 were Shane Foglietta, Kevin Clark, and Jeff Baucher — who had an amazing weekend, taking two top 3′s. The official results read:

The Wellington champs were taken down by well-known kiwi comedian Mike King, who took home $11,000 for his efforts. Also taking place during the week, were the Canterbury champs, the Pot-Limit Omaha champs, and finally the Deep Stack Turbo. Below are the results of each individual category:

NZPC 2011 Wellington Championships

1. Mike King – $11,000

Comedian Mike King is the 2011 NZPC Wellington Champion.

2. Graham Freeman – $8,400

3. Graeme Putt – $6,000

4. David La – $4,000

5. Bob Sova – $2,500

6. Jackson Chan – $1,700

NZPC 2011 Cantebury Championships

1. Adrian Robinson – $14,000

2. Aaron Peters – $9,100

3. Kanniga Morgan – $6,200

4. Geoffrey Newman – $5,100

5. Dan Foote – $4,100

Close to claiming a third title, Soren Eriksen was unlucky to bubble the final table in 10th.

6. Andy Domigan – $3,500

7. Paul Bielby – $3,000

8. Geoff Smith – $2,500

9. Nick Hood – $2,000

NZPC 2011 Pot Limit Omaha Championships

1. Andrew Dimock – $7,500

2. Lyndon Armstrong – $5,000

3. Jeremy Kay Wah – $3,500

4. Joe Chiu – $2,000

5. Andrew Yee $1,000

Graeme Putt Won the 2011 NZPC Turbo Deep Stack.

NZPC 2011 Deep Stack Turbo Championships

1. Graeme Putt – $6,700.00

2. Hayden Jackson – $4,400

3. Lui Fai Cheung – $2,900

4. Tuan Mai – $2,500

5. Ellie Sawma – $2,000

6. C J Driver – $1,700

7. Tolu Tuilagi – $1,500

8. Benjamin Sloane – $1,200

9. Shane Ching – $1,000

According to the feedback from many players, and the turnouts above — the series was a great success. Special thanks to Christchurch Casino for running such a fantastic event, while always providing excellent service to the players. Amongst the posts on the Casino’s Facebook feed, were the thanks of many competitors who had success at the event, including Selina Smith and Jackson Zheng, who made comment regarding the in-tournament catering specifically. Keep Poker NZ bookmarked for the up-coming Snowfest in Queenstown.

With Christchurch Casino’s NZ Champs well underway, and five unique events in the dust, all eyes now move toward the crown jewel: the Main Event. Set to attract a field larger than ever before, the Main Event will begin this Saturday at 12:30 pm, August 13th. With around 100 entrants currently registered, 1st place is guaranteed to yield over $35,000 — an impressive sum indeed. At the Casino’s last news update, only 7 seats still remained at the championship event, which look to fill up by the end of today.

Jackson enjoying his victory at the NZ Poker Open.

New Zealand’s finest will be out in force at the event, with such well-respected players as Cole Swannack, Koray Turker and Graeme Putt. Also coming straight from the final table of APPT Melbourne are the likes of Jackson Zheng, who finished 8th, and Phillip Willcocks, who finished an impressive 2nd for $218,319.  Jackson comes off a streak of recent wins, which include taking down the NZ Poker Open earlier this year in Auckland, chalking up back to back titles.

Thus far Christchurch Casino has been thrilled with the turnout. Along with the attraction created by the Media Charity Event, the city is buzzing with energy — a welcome diversion since encountering harder times earlier this year when the quake hit. NZPC”s spokesperson, Alesha Stefanissin, expressed her enthusiasm earlier today in a press release:

“Many of the events have been sold out and we have even had to add extra tables to cope with the demand. It really has shown us how strong a legacy the tournament has.”

Phillip Willcocks at the Final Table of APPT Melbourne.

Also worth mentioning, and perhaps of less potential risk to those managing a smaller bankroll, are the smaller events still coming up, which have generated a great deal of interest too. The South Island Champs take place early on Friday, and The Wellington Champs start alongside the second day of the Main Event on Sunday, around midday. With a $775 buy-in and a set small field, these events cater well to those not necessarily involved in the Main Event, or looking to prove themselves on a regional level.

Finally, if you’re more interested in cash, The High Stakes Cash Game, which boasts $25/$50 blinds and a $2,000 – $10,000 buy-in, is certainly a must see. Starting from  8pm Saturday, it’s unclear exactly who will be playing. You can be sure that there will be some serious action, and the best will be there to rake in the largest pots.

A full schedule of events and their time frames can be found here at Christchurch Casino’s website.

So, if you’re nearby, or simply interested in all the commotion, drop into NZPC this weekend and have a look. Otherwise, keep us bookmarked for comprehensive coverage of the event as it unfolds.

It’s going to be an exciting weekend.

You can win the Ultimate NZPC Main Event Package worth over $3000 – including your Main Event buy-in, flights and accommodation.

There are 12 packages up for grabs, 2 to be won every Sunday from this weekend until the end of July.

Every tournament is a $150+$13 Real Money Qualifier Tournament, NLHE.

OR, you can try and get to the RMQT by playing one of the satellites ($24+$2).

To find out more about how to win these packages, check out the full info page here.

Remember to use the promo code ‘GOKIWI’ when you register, so we know you’re a PokerNZ member.

Best of luck!

Sunday night saw Soren Erikson emerge as the new NZ Poker Champ after a heads up battle with last year’s winner David Borg.

After an exciting few days at the NZ Poker Champs and the field of 101 being whittled down, it was Erikson’s KsQh that beat Borg’s Ah7H in the final hand.

Erikson has only been in New Zealand for three years, moving from Denmark and this is his first major tournament win in Aotearoa.

Pork spokesman Mike King managed to take 3rd place and Kiwi G, Graeme Putt took home $14,000 for his 6th place.

Auckland favourite Dan Sing was also in the money, managing to squeeze $8,000 for his 9th placing.

The main event finished off 9 days of poker action at Christchurch Casino, the home of the NZ Poker Champs.

With many poker celebs in town and plenty of media coverage, it wasn’t unusual to see the standard level of ‘talking it up’, especially from the Aussies. After a brave statement on NZ national television earlier in the week that he would “win this tournament”, Eric Assadourian didn’t manage to finish in the money.

Here’s how the final players were placed:

The NZPC is one of those events which always attracts the biggest names in poker in our region, and with a schedule as big as this year’s, you can be sure all the famous players will be out in force.

Christchurch is easily one of NZ’s most beautiful cities and the casino is certainly one I would describe as ‘pleasurable’ to play in.

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NZ Poker Champs

The NZ Poker Champs celebrates 11 years this March and promises to be their biggest one yet.

With a prize pool of up to $720,000, it’s no surprise that many of the region’s top poker players make the journey down to Christchurch for the week-long poker carnival.

Last year saw a number of poker’s big names in the Garden City for the big prize that was eventually taken out by David Borg. Other popular players in the money included Martin Cardno, Tony Hachem (Joe Hachem’s brother) Auckland’s Dan Sing and 2007′s NPC winner, Eric Assadourian

Christchurch Casino are offering a number of satellite opportunities to secure your seat in the NZPC, full details can be found on their site www.nzpokerchamps.co.nz

For those who can’t make it to Christchurch before the big week, you can try your chances at a 888Poker.com satellite! For as little as $4.40 (micro satellite) or $24 (sub satellite) you could win a great package to the NZ Poker Champs!

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