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.

If you haven’t got your seat booked yet, try your luck at 888.com. The next satellite is on March 12, tournament number 22697013, kicking off at 21:30 (9:30pm). It’s only $24 to buy in and could be your ticket to the Qualifier!

The Qualifier tournament (22575517) kicks off at 21:30 (9:30pm) March 15, is $110 to buy in and winner receives a $2750US package to the NZ Poker Champs!

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888.com have kindly put on some satellite games to help you win your seat at the NZ Poker Champs.

Upcoming games as follows:

(22315636) NZ Poker Champs Satellite Feb 3rd, 08:30 – $24 / $2 REGISTRATION OPEN!

(22315576) NZ Poker Champs Qualifier Feb 7th, 08:30 – $110 / $10 REGISTRATION OPEN!

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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!

Great to see online players ‘sampleOG’ and ‘downtrou’ recently won VIP Packages to the ANZPT in Adelaide via satellites like these, so why not have a crack yourself? Visit 888 Pacific Poker to sign up and enter one of their satellite tournaments today!

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