While obviously known more for cricket, Shane Warne has recently become quite involved with poker and charity.

Just one week from now marks the beginning of one of the year’s biggest tournament’s, the 2012 Aussie Millions. Based at Crown Casino in Melbourne — Aussie Millions features not only a prestigious $10,000 buy-in Main Event, but a multitude of compelling side events. Action kicks off on Thursday the 12th, with opening event offering a $1,100 deep stack tournament, with three available “flights” on separate days. The tournament plays like a “3x-chance” in the sense that it offers players three chances or “bullets”, enabling them the ability to re-register each new day independently regardless of whether they busted a previous day.  With a structure that features longer levels as day 2 begins, and a more workable buy-in, this is a great opportunity for many up and comers to make their mark in the live scene.

The next event on offer at Crown is the 5th annual “Joe Hachem and Shane Warne Charity Poker Tournament”, which features a $1,150 buy-in. Presented by the Shane Warne Foundation, the tournaments primary goal will be to raise funds for ill and underprivileged children all across Australia, and will feature an impressive array of both pro’s and well-known celebrities. There will also be live music, and an auction with major items available, with some of the proceedings also going to the charity. Continuing on, the following Monday — the 16th, introduces even more events. These include mostly buy-ins around $1,000, with Pot Limit Omaha, a NLH Shootout and a 6-handed no limit event available. Since side events occur in a similar fashion throughout the event, if you need specifics, the best place to look is at the Aussie Millions website, where a schedule can be found here.

The 2011 final table of Aussie Millions Main Event

Outside of the smaller side events, what many would call the ‘real action’ begins on Sunday the 22nd with the first of 3 flights involved in the $10,000 Main Event. The attraction of the Main Event has grown from year to year, with 2011 putting forward 721 entrants, and offering up a $2,000,000 first prize. To make matters more interesting, the final table in 2011 was shot inside a film set called “Studio 3″, which offered seating for more than 500 spectators, and a delayed live stream on the internet for those at home to watch the action. It seems that in this regard, Aussie Millions is following suit with the World Series of Poker, which was ablaze with discussion this year after live streams were made available online. Whatever the case, you can be sure that the action available this year will be top notch, and we’ll be sure to follow the progress of any kiwi players.

Like many other series of its like, Aussie Millions also offers a High Roller and Super High Roller tournament; catering to those who love high stakes action. The first of such events offered begins shortly after the first flight of the main event, with the “$100,000 challenge” scheduled for 2 p.m. on the 22nd. Following roughly a week later the series rounds off with the $250,000 challenge on the 27th of January, which sets players out with 250,000 chips, and blinds which start at 500/1000.

All in all, January is going to be a huge month to kick off poker in 2012. Whether it’s the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure or the Aussie Millions, or perhaps the resurgence of the online poker market, there is something on offer for everyone. Stay tuned to PokerNZ as we bring you the best of kiwi progresses in the coming months.

This year has seen a great deal of NZ based poker successes, with our players making some deep appearances at a number of key events. There was also some success in the online felts, though most of the regular performers were kept at bay by the variable nature of tournament poker. Since I myself am involved primarily tournament poker — and do a semi-decent job of spewing chips at mid-stakes, I can’t comment so much on cash; but would like to have a shot at summarizing some of this years most successful tournament players. Since it’d risk being unfair or missing something rating players from the top to bottom — the players listed here are in no particular order.

Phillip Wilcocks

Willcocks has had an amazing 2011, with the main focus being his second place finish at APPT Melbourne. Willcocks faced off against Australian veteran tournament grinder Leo Boxell for the title, eventually coming short but pocketing $207,000 AUD for his efforts. What was truly impressive however, was that just a few months later, Willcocks returned to the final table in Melbourne, after making another deep run in the ANZPT $2,000 Main Event.  The competition was tough, with kiwi Lee Nelson also a strong presence at the table, and it was with his soundly aggressive game that Willcocks’ demise came in 5th. While not quite the boost that his six figure score would’ve been, $34,100 is certainly not a bad day at the office. Moreover, Willcocks’ reputation has become as such that most regulars on the circuit have learned to fear him, which says a lot about his game.

Jackson Zheng

After winning the Auckland based NZ Open in 2010, Jackson begun 2011 with a bang, earning an early final table in a side $1,000 6-handed event at Aussie Millions. After tallying up another impressive 2nd place at a $500 teams event which netted him another five figures, Zheng walked away with nearly $40,000 in cashes at Crown Casino. This was to be only the beginning of Zheng’s outstanding year, as he returned to the NZ poker open to win it again, netting back to back titles and another $50,000 in the process. It was then on to APPT Melbourne, where he played with Willcocks but came short in 8th. Another impressive run, Zheng received one more five-figure score worth $36,000 for his efforts, totaling a significant amount of cashes in 2011. To top it off, he cut his way through a difficult field at APPT Queenstown, taking a brutal river beat to send him out in 10th; illustrating just how frequently he’d made the right decisions to put him in a position to win. Sometimes tournament poker isn’t about results — it’s about making the right decisions and seperating the results from the way you played, and more than anything , Jackson showed he is capable of just that. After winning a seat online — look out for Zheng this year at the Pokerstars Carribean Adventure.

Elliot “EeeTee2008″ Nicholls

Primarily a sit and go grinder, Nicholls has been killing the online felts since 2008, with his “breakout” year being 2009. Since then he’s kept up an impressive amount of volume, chalking up more than 40,000 games, which is comprised of both SnG’s and Multi Table Tournaments (MTT’s). This year saw his total cashes move over $1.5 million, with just $300,000 in profit, but no doubt a massive amount in bonuses.  Unlike some SnG players, EeeTee has had some great success playing some of the highest buy-ins online, with two impressive top 3 finishes in Pokerstars $1,050 “Super Tuesday.” This year he managed a post Black Friday 3rd place in the tournament, tearing through the hardest of fields online, and netting himself $20,000 in the process. Moreover, Nicholls sits atop the Pocket Fives sortable rankings for New Zealand, which while focused a little more on volume as opposed to “skill” (which is hard to quantify in cashes alone), is an impressive feat indeed. Expect to be see much more of Nicholls in 2012, as he continues to crush the online game, and branches out his action into live.

“Proto” — The Anonymous WCOOP Hero

While he declined to interview with us, and he was unknown until his WCOOP 2nd place — Prot0 is still deserving of a tonne of credit. Taking home $145,000 for besting a field of more than 8000 entrants in a $215 tournament is no small feat, and Prot0 managed it with class. Many players who make such final tables are often privileged with great luck but lack in the skill department –  but anyone who watched the final table with hole cards shown would realise that he had the skill to make it. Prot0’s second place finish represents the deepest run ever made by a kiwi in WCOOP, and to that end, we congratulate the unknown star. As if to prove that it wasn’t simply a lucky run, our anonymous hero then went on to claim 31^st in event #32, once again putting himself in a position to take down a massive score. Seemingly involved in a smaller amount of volume with a good amount of success, Prot0 appeared on the radar again in December, besting a field of hardened tournament regulars in a Pokerstars $100 rebuy tournament. Rewarded roughly $16,000 for his efforts, winning such a tournament is about more than money — as many tournament pro’s regard $100 rebuy’s as the pinnacle of online MTT competition. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a lot more of this up and coming grinder in 2012.

Lee “Final Table” Nelson

An old hand on the live tournament circuit, Nelson solidified his reputation by outright winning ANZPT Melbourne this year, pocketing a healthy $156,000 and change for his work. Perhaps more importantly, Nelson was heavily involved in the release of one of the year’s most well received tournament strategy books — “The Raisers Edge: Tournament-Poker Strategies for Today’s Aggressive Game.” The book covers a multitude of key tournament concepts, and follows as a sequel to the now renowned “Kill Everyone”, which provided many players with the baseline concepts important to consistently profit in MTT’s. You can guarantee that we’ll be seeing more of Lee — he’s proved himself time and time again to be one of NZ’s finest.

So there you have it — there’s my take on this years most successful tournament players.  It’s also worth mentioning that others had put in some great play, but fell short when matters were out of their control. Jason “Poker_Lord76″ Brown was certainly one such player, running near the final table in a number of WCOOP events, and chalking up a nice deep Sunday Million run to boot. Joel “Acesdreams” Davies was another notable player — who plays on Pokerstars under the screen name “AQUA RAIDER.” Davies managed to tally up around $100,000 in profit online alone, and took second in the Pocket Fives sortable rankings for NZ players. Let’s hope that 2012 can bring many more successes for New Zealand poker — and a happy new year to everyone.

Overviewing the agreement and advising employee's of the hurdles to come, Laurent Tapie himself was seen in Ireland this week.

Continuing the complicated process leading to Full Tilt’s re-emergence into the online poker market, Subject Poker today confirmed from multiple sources that Full Tilt’s shareholders have reached a two thirds majority vote to pass company assets onto french investment firm Groupe Bernard Tapie. The majority vote follows GBT’s agreement with the American Department of Justice, roughly one month ago. The deal allowed GBT to purchase Full Tilt’s forfeited assets from the DOJ for around $80 million, provided that FTP agreed to the transfer, and GBT pay back player funds internationally. While in terms of the American market, the DOJ itself will handle the repayment of around $150 million owed to U.S. based players.

Essentially the DOJ has acted as the mediator in this process, which, due to nature of the transaction, could also lead to some fairly heavy taxation for GBT. Regardless, Subject Poker confirmed that Laurent Tapie himself was present in Dublin to arrange the agreement, which looks now to two more steps before GBT can move more quickly with representing itself in the online scene. The next step would be for for actual asset forfeiture to take place, then for GBT to purchase for $80 million, and finally for the Department of Justice to drop all civil proceedings currently held against FTP. This does not, however, include individual indictments taken out against those such as Howard Lederer, Ray Bitar and Chris Ferguson.

The DOJ has acted as "the middleman" in GBT's aquisition of Full Tilt assets, and will be responsible for the repayment of U.S. based players once all steps are taken.

Also relating to Groupe Bernard Tapie, Poker-Red, Spain’s front-runner poker news website, also confirmed that GBT is undergoing efforts to pursue a Spanish gaming license, as the market there shall be regulated separately similar to France or Italy as of 2012. In total, 61 companies had reportedly shown interest in this specific license, with the Spanish market now being quite large and profitable to companies like Pokerstars, 888, and Party Poker to name a few. Presumably, GBT wishes to enter the Spanish market in the same fashion, as they have already made clear intentions that should everything go smoothly they would like to re-open Full Tilt as early as January.

Whatever the case, it seems clear that events are coming to their climax between the three factions, with the rest of the steps likely to take place in the coming weeks. As always,  Poker NZ will continue to follow the updates, and look forward to the diversification that re-opening a site like Full Tilt may bring to the current online poker climate.

Andy Lee is the winner of the Star City Summer Poker Series. Taking home $270,000 AUD for his efforts this year.

This previous week has been a busy one at Sydney’s Star City casino, where the city has been host to the Star City Summer Poker Series. Diversifying the annual series with a range of alternative events, Star City has put on Mixed Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, and Teams Events to name a few. The Focus of the series however, was the Main Event. Featuring a $5,000 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000, the Event came to an end yesterday when Australian Andy Lee was crowned the winner. Taking home $270,000 for his efforts, Andy “Dandy Andy” Lee emerged victorious, having carried his chip lead from day 3 to the climax on day 4.

The final table brought together some of the best Australasian talent available; featuring a table comprised almost entirely of familiar faces. Action begun with the early demise of well known ex Australian pro  Jonathan “MONSTERDONG” Karamalikis, who was unable to complete his shot at back to back titles, having won the event last year. Jonathan departed in 7th, taking home around $45,000 AUD for his efforts. One elimination later, it was time for another big name to be sent home, as reigning ANZPT Sydney champion Michael Kanaan got in all his chips with just a weak ace — being dominated by the AT off-suit of Tom Rafferty. Rafferty found a nice run-out for an easy hold, and Kanaan departed in 5th with an extra $67,500 for his play.

Looking for back to back titles, Jono Karamalikis was unlucky to be eliminated in 7th for $45,000.

As play continued throughout the final table to three handed, one of the biggest and most pivotal pots of the tournament would develop. Matviy Bilenky and Andy Lee were at each other again this time, with Andy Lee betting into Bilenky from position on a board of  J 2 3 9. Bilenky decided to put maximum pressure on his opponent and check raise all-in, and it now it was Lee’s turn to go into deep thought. After deliberating for more than five minutes, Lee made the call with just Ace high, showing the “nut” Ace high with AK off-suit, while Bilenky held 108, for just an open-ended straight draw that he had turned into a semi-bluff. The river brought no help for Matviy, and it was in momentous style that he was sent home, pocketing a cool $100,000 in the process.

The finale came quickly as two regular’s went on to start heads-up, with Tom Rafferty thirsty for the title having final tabled the event on two other, seperate occasions. Despite his massive support however — it was not to be, with the title to be decided in classic Hold’em style when all the money went in to decide things with a coin-flip of sorts. Rafferty had called Lee’s all-in with two 9′s, and Lee tabled AQ off-suit for a sweat involving an obscene amount of equity. The flop spiked Q Q 3 for Lee, and things didn’t change from there, with Lee crowned the champion shortly after. We have listed results for the main event below — for more info regarding other events and details around Star City’s poker room’s, please click here.

2011 Star Poker Summer Series Main Event Results

1st Andy Lee $270,000

2nd Tom Rafferty $170,000

3rd Matviy Bilenky $100,000

4th Peter Skouteris $80,000

5th Michael Kanaan $67,500

6th Mark Wright $55,000

7th Johnathan Karamalikis $45,000

8th Jay Malig $35,000

9th Dien Nguyen $27,500

Stay tuned to PokerNZ as we continue to bring you action from the Australasian poker scene and beyond. Aussie Millions isn’t too far down the road — and it’s the hottest tournament in all of Australasia, almost every year. We’ll be sure to keep up with the action from Melbourne.

As part of Pokerstars’ recent birthday, they have let out a number of promotions and new tournaments from which players can benefit.  Promotions thus far have included increased cash game rewards via leader-point bonuses, deposit rewards and other available benefits to players. Starting today however, is the first of the promotions special tournaments, which will begin today at 6:30 a.m. NZST with the $1 “World Record Tournament.” The micro buy-in guarantee’s a whopping $250,000, and features a classic turbo structure common on Pokerstars.

Continuing the celebration tournaments, Pokerstars fields their next big guarantee on December 11^th, also a Sunday, where the $11 “Sunday Storm” guarantees $1,000,000 in prizes and a massive field with many regulars and amateurs. The crown jewel of the series however – and the talk of many top players; is the 10^th anniversary Sunday Million. Promising more than $10,000,000 as a total prize pool, and more than $2,000,000 alone for first, this prestigious tournament begins on December 19.  For nine lucky players, it’s going to be a special kind of early Christmas.

The final tournament being offered as part of the promotion is the $10,000 high roller event. Tailored to be a battle of the best, the high roller event features a structure similar to WCOOP and SCOOP events hosted previously, with each player starting 10,000 chips deep, and 20 minute blind levels built in. With some of the best online pros in the industry already registered, it’ll be an interesting tale to see how this one unfolds.

For more information about Pokerstars promotions, and specifics about their 10^th anniversary tournaments, click here. With events and satellites catering to a wide range of players, there’s something for everyone this Christmas online.

It was through David Steicke that Nanonoko found his early double up, cracking Steicke's Aces with a Queen to go with his Queens.

Events came to an end this Sunday in Macau when Team Pokerstars Online pro Randy ‘Nanonoko’ Lew won the main event. Sitting at what Lew called “his first live final table ever”; the online cash phenomenon bided his time until he was able to turn his short-stack into a well paced run. For besting the biggest and perhaps toughest field in APPT history, Lew was rewarded HKD $3,772,000 or roughly $483,000 US dollars.

The final table began at a slow pace, with stacks short and post-flop play limited. Waiting patiently, Lew found a perfect spot early when he picked up pocket Queens. After opening with a raise, he was met with a 3-bet from Australian player David Steicke, who eventually called Lew’s all-in holding pocket Aces. As is often the case with tournaments, Steicke faced a bad beat when Lew found a Queen to save him, ultimately sending him to the rail shortly after.

As the action progressed Jeff Rossiter of Australia was another key contender, dispatching both Tan Tai Zheng and Danield Nordstrom of Sweden in the early stages. It wasn’t long after that Kay Yat Fam departed, using his short stack aggressively by moving all-in with A4 off-suit, though Yew made the call with pocket Tens to send the young hopeful home.

Australian Jeff Rossiter played an aggressive final table, and was rewarded for his efforts. He was unlucky to lose some key all-ins against Lew.

The next elimination came when Zuo Wang of China put in the last of his chips, and was met with calls by both Rossiter and Lew. The board ran out A 7 9 T 8, and while the first two streets were met with checks from both parties, on the river, Rossiter lead out for 700,000. Sitting with the immortal nuts, Nanonoko then moved to extract full value and made it 1,700,000 more. Rossiter eventually made the call with JTo, losing an unfortunate pot which sent Wang to the rail.

The action continued to develop between the aggressive remaining players, until it was Rossiter striking again to take the German’s bounty, where Rossiter held AQs to KTs all-in pre-flop. With action now 3-handed, each player moved up a gear, and it was in short notice that Lew was all-in again, this time holding a favourite with A7o against Rossiter’s KQ off-suit. Lew held once more, and after winning another flip with pocket Tens against Rossiter’s AJo, it was the Australian who saw his tournament life end next.

Heads up play was short and sweet, with an early hand setting up a simple cooler. Action opened with a raise, and both players saw a great flop with Q T 8. All the money eventually went in, and it was Jimmy Pan’s KQ that failed to improve against Lew’s top two pair, with QTo. The turn and river bricked out and it was all over, with all the chips in Lew’s hands. Here are the results and final payouts:

1st Randy Lew (Canada) PokerStars Team Online $3,772,000
2nd Jimmy Pan (Macau) $2,367,000
3rd Jeff Rossiter (Australia) $1,306,000
4th Fabian Spielmann (Germany) PokerStars Qualifier $1,019,000
5th Zuo Wang (China) $809,000
6th Kai Yat Fam (Singapore) $653,000
7th Daniel Nordstrom (Sweden) $498,000
8th Tan Tai Zheng (Singapore) $373,000
9th David Steicke (Hong Kong) $263,300

A poker legend with a menacing gaze, Johnny Chan was unlucky to depart early into the money.

Day 3 of APPT Macau came to an end yesterday in the early hours of the morning, with tournament officials resolving to end play for the day with just 15 players remaining. After facing a thirteen hour long day, players are now scheduled to begin play again today at around midday local time (5 p.m. NZST).

The long day action of saw the demise of a number of key players, as the money bubble loomed with 79 to be paid. Action slowed as the day progressed, and the first of the big casualties was claimed with the elimination of poker legend Johnny Chan. Also claimed before Chan’s departure was kiwi Jackson Zheng, whose A9o couldn’t improve after he put the last of his short stack in to be called by pocket Tens.

With nearly 2.5 million in chips, Sangeeth Mohan of India is the current leader.

As the evening moved on, players witnessed the departure of previous champion Victorino Torres, who put on a great show to cash the event immediately after the year that he won it. Unfortunately day 3 was not a day for kiwis however, with Thomas Ward being the next to depart to the rail. Ward found a monster behind him when he stuck in his final 10 blinds from the cut-off with JT offsuit. His opponent held QQ, and despite a Ten in the window, he could not improve further.

APPT tournament regular Daniel Francis was not long to follow, finding himself in an unlucky spot against Poker Stars Team Online pro Randy “nanonoko” Lew. With short stacks, Francis had all his money in pre-flop, and was called by Lew. Lew held 88 and Francis trailed with 77, and a board full of bricks sent another kiwi hopeful to the rail. The day ended nearly 5 hours later with champion jockey Shane Dye’s good run coming to an end in a double elimination. Dye’s last 260,000 chips went in from the button, and were met with a snap call from India’s Sangeeth Mohan, who held pocket Kings. Sangeeth now holds the chip lead going into the final day. Minutes after Dye’s elimination, chips were being bagged up for the day, with remaining players able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Here are the final 15’s chip counts, with a few notable appearances. Team Pokerstars Online’s Randy Lew will be looking to take a shot at his first international title, and David Steicke is no stranger to asia based live final tables. With another long day ahead and plenty of play to come, today should be interesting to say the least:

Sangeeth Mohan (India) PokerStars — Macau Qualifier 2423000

Kai Yat Fam (Singapore) – 2358000

Jimmy Pan (Netherlands) – 1586000

Zuo Wang China –1540000

Fabian Spiedelmann (Germany) — PokerStars Qualifier 1425000

Jeffrey Rossiter (Australia) – 1173000

Josh Barrett (Australia) — PokerStars Qualifier 1013000

Zheng Tai Tan (Singapore) – 985000

David Steicke (Hong Kong) — PokerStars Player 886000

Randy Lew (Canada) — Team Online 845000

Daniel Nordstrom (Sweden) – 786000

Daoxing ‘Bobo’ Chen (China) 672000

Tsugunari Toma (Japan) – 635000

Baton Fung (Hong Kong) – 338000

Sparrow Cheung (Hong Kong) — 238000

Singapore based cash phenom Nathaniel Seet holds an obscene chip lead after day 2.

Action ended tonight in Macau around 8 p.m. local time (1 a.m. NZST) — with around 100 remaining players bagging up their chips for the day. After creating a record APPT prize pool, with a diverse and large field, Singapore’s Nathaniel Seet was the story of the day, bagging up more than 770,000 chips at just 2000/4000 blinds.  While exact numbers on prizes seem unavailable at this stage, with more than 500 entries at $30,000 HKD, and 79 remaining players to be paid, 1^st equates to roughly $654,000 NZD or $3,772,000 HKD.

But Singapore cash phenomenon Nathaniel Seet was not the only story of the day, with a number of key players hitting the rail as the day progressed. The first to go was Team Pokerstars Pro Alex Kravchenko, who was busted shortly after losing a large pot to kiwi Phillip Wilcocks’ straight. Sadly, Willcocks himself followed shortly after, having his Aces cracked by an opponents’ KQ on Q 9 2 J, as they got the money in on the turn and the river spiked the ten of spades for a straight. Continuing the demise of Team Pokerstars Pro, Bryan Huang was the next to fall in Macau, offering only “3-bet Queen-Jack, out” as per his Twitter feed, finishing close to the money bubble.

Grinding the short stack for most of the day, it was not to be for Ivey, who exited the Macau card room immediately after being busted.

Then came probably the most momentous casualty of the day, with Phil Ivey busting after 3-betting all-in with K9 offsuit into a player who wound up making the call with AJ. Ivey couldn’t improve, and was gone from the card room in a matter of minutes. Having worked a short-stack from the beginning of the day, and clearly never really found the leeway he needed, Ivey came up short this time.

Fortunately, roughly 100 players still remain, and amongst them are some kiwi hopes and dreams. APPT regulars Daniel Francis and Jackson Zheng still remain; Daniel with an impressive 298,000, and Zheng working the short-stack with just 75,000. Also sitting on a nice stack is kiwi Thomas Ward, who bagged up just under 240,000 moving into day 3.  Shane Dye is still in the hunt too, and has plenty of room to continue his great run with 193,000 and around 40 big blinds to start tomorrow.

Stay tuned to PokerNZ as we continue our APPT coverage, and pay close attention to kiwis still in the running.  It could just be time to make our mark at the biggest APPT in poker history.