Poker NZ

Interview with Daniel ‘Hesbluffingx’ Francis

Jub — Sat, 12 May 2012 03:55:04 +0000

On March 11^th PokerStars was celebrating its 6^th Anniversary. Over the last few years PokerStars has celebrated various achievements by giving back to the players, by creating insane promotions that all players can take advantage of. This time PokerStars upped the ante and gave the Sunday Million a whopping $6 million dollar guaranteed prize pool.

In total 33,732 players entered, and navigating all his way to the final table was New Zealand’s own Daniel ‘Hesbluffingx’ Francis. With 8 players remaining they made a deal that saw Daniel lock up 552,973.00$. Despite not taking the win, ultimately coming in 3^rd place, it is an outstanding achievement.

We managed to pose some questions to Daniel.

Could you provide a brief poker intro (have you always played tournaments?)

I first started playing regularly when SkyCity, Auckland opened their poker room quite a few years ago. The games started at around 7pm and it was always full, so I’d usually get there around 6, put my name on the waiting list and then read poker strategy books until the tables opened. I’ve always played cash games and tournaments, both online and live.. I think being a specialist at one game would be more profitable in the short term, but if you can’t adapt to new environments you won’t last long in poker.

Do you play the Sunday Million every week?

Not if I’m broke… I’ve actually been travel ling around Asia for a few years and the Sunday Million starts at 3am here, so I don’t play it often.
How did the Sunday start out for you?

I was in Philippines at the time and the online tournament schedule is pretty harsh with the time zone difference. I remember pretty clearly getting ready this Sunday, because the prize pool was going to be huge – I wanted to play good. I spent most of the afternoon at the beach trying to make myself extra tired before having an early dinner at around 5pm and going to sleep. At 11pm my alarm went off, I got up and started playing a bunch of tournaments – The Sunday Million started at around 3am I think… and we kept playing until maybe 6pm? I really can’t remember anything about the other tournaments I played that day… I was pretty much just clicking buttons on 20 tables.

There was some crazy bubble action I hear from Brooke, can you give a hand history or two perhaps?

I don’t remember anything really crazy, the short stacks were playing tight trying to move up the pay ladder and some of the big stacks would have been abusing them. I was just making the plays I thought were best, after taking everything in to consideration.

————-
t125000/t250000 Blinds + t25000 – 9 players

HesBluffingx is BB with 9h 9c
7 folds, SB raises to t5825567 all in, HesBluffingx calls t2319392 all in

Flop: 2h 4d 7d
Turn: 3c
River: 3h

SB shows Js Td (a pair of Threes)

HesBluffingx wins t5363784
————-

This is a really easy call under normal game conditions, but when this hand took place there were about 13 players left with prize money of around $30,000 for 13th and $80,000 for 9th ? so you can understand why some people might opt to fold it and collect an extra $50,000 risk free. I definitely take all of this in to consideration, it would be a huge mistake to forget about the payouts and just play your normal strategy – but still a pretty easy call with 99 anyway.

When did you realise you could make the final table?

Before the tournament started I sent this message to Phillip Willcocks. “..ends up to be a 24 hour session if I go deep, will start a bit later today coz I plan to final table it”. There was never any doubt, but next time I’ll plan to win it.

Hesbluffingx, 2nd in chips

What was your thought process for the deal?

Firstly, it seemed obvious that a deal would take place with 6, 7 or 8 players remaining.. so this influenced my play quite a lot heading in to the final table. I can’t say how exactly, but it was just another thing that I took into consideration when making decisions during hands. Regarding the money specifically, I wanted to lock up 350k.. so if at any point they could offer me more than that I would take it. I’m really happy with the way I played at the end, I feel like I manipulated the situation to get the most money with the least amount of risk.

How long did it take to sink in you had a big 6 figure score/how has life been since?

I had to wait a while for PokerStars to do security checks before I was able to cash-out the money, so that changed things a bit. I didn’t feel like partying or anything. Now, since receiving the money I’ve just had more time to relax and start learning other things. I’ve been reading a lot about different investment opportunities and looking more deeply into the real estate market.

Will you be playing the WSOP?

I won’t be playing any of the side events, not sure about the Main Event. I’ll decide about a week before, if I really feel like playing.. I’ll go.

What are the most important ingredients for a beginner tournament player in your mind to give them the best chance of success?

There’s a ton of strategy and math to learn, but if you just pay attention to what is happening at the table and think about things logically you’ll put yourself in a good position to get lucky. Poker is just so weird, two players playing completely different strategies can both be winners.. it’s stupid to try tell someone THIS is the correct play. The most important thing is to eliminate emotions from your decision making process – just make the play you think is correct.

There is some great insight there for players of all levels. We thank Daniel and hope that it can provide the foundation for another Kiwi to make a deep run in a massive event, either live or online.

New Zealand Poker Open comes to Auckland – Queens Birthday Weekend

Brooke Howard-Smith — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:51:52 +0000

The New Zealand Poker Open comes to Auckland – Queens Birthday Weekend

The SKYCITY Poker Room will play host to New Zealand’s top poker players This Queens Birthday weekend with the cards being dealt in the SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open. The SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open will run from Monday 28 May until Monday 4 June with The Main Event (12.30pm each day) from Saturday 2 June until Monday 4 June.

With only 180 spaces available this event will sell out fast. with players showing their best poker faces for a chance to take home the trophy and the title of 2012 SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open Main Event winner.

Satellite tournaments allow players to win their way into the main event through mini tournaments and are now on at SKYCITY Auckland’s poker room for the SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open. Entry into the Satellites is from as little as $20 with $20 re-buys up to a $320 satellite event.

The Main Event will be run as a repechage event allowing players who buy into Day 1a and do not make the cut to buy into Day 1b for the full buy-in price – thus giving them another shot at making it through. The buy-in for the Main Event of the SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open is $1500.

Side events held during the tournament include:

Ladies Tournament on Friday 1 June (7.15pm) with a $120 buy-in

Pot Limit Omaha event on Saturday 2 June (2.00pm) with a buy-in of $550

No Limit Texas Hold’em High Stakes event on Sunday 3 June (2.00pm) with a buy-in of $3000

No Limit Texas Hold’em Deep Stack on Monday 4 June (4.30pm) with a buy-in of $330

For the tournament structure and more details on the tournament including prize money breakdowns see www.skycityauckland.co.nz/poker .

Carlsson collects the Cash at the ANZPT Perth

Brooke Howard-Smith — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:40:18 +0000

ANZPT Perth 2012 Champion Mathew Carlsson

The ANZPT Perth 2012 has been decided and for the first time the trophy will be staying in Perth.Mathew Carlsson outlasted 309 players to become the 2012 ANZPT Champion winning$78,275.

Mathew let out a huge cheer when he realised he was champion. The 22 year old plays regularly here at Burswood and had a strong contingent supporting him throughout today’s play. In fact with five of the nine players from Perth, the rail was packed and every hand was met with raucous reactions from a very partisan crowd.

The final hand of the tournament took place after over an hour of heads up play between Carlsson and Anthony Marenko, another Perth local. The lead had gone back and forth between the two players but Carlsson had begun to dominate, having a four to one chip lead before the last hand. It was Carlsson’s pair of sevens against Marenko’s king two offsuit and the board was no help to Marenko. Carlsson with his sevens took down his first major tournament title.

The ANZ Player of Year saw some movement at the top of the table. A great result for Canberra’sAnthony Aston has seen him take a big lead at the top of the table. This is Aston’s second 3rd place finish, this time he takes home $27,590. Anthony’s room mate for the trip has also moved up the standings, Didier Guerin has moved into third place. A cash in ANZPT Sydney has been follwed here in Perth with a sixth place finish for $13,950. The winner of the ANZ Player of the Year receives sponsorship to the APPT. For more details click here

The next event where players can earn points is the ANZPT POY Winter Poker Tournament fromJune 9-11 with a $1,100 buy-in at Casino Canberra. The top ten players will receive points toward theANZ Player of the Year.

The ANZPT Perth 2012 has been a great week of poker with more players taking part than ever before. The 310 players built a prize pool of $310,000 with some big names making the trip to take part. There was Team PokerStars PRO Bryan Huang, Australian Poker Hall of Fame member Leo Boxell, ANZPT Sydney Champion Gordon Huntly and Aaron Benton.

Head to the PokerStars Blog for the all the details of the tournament.

For the ANZPT Perth 2012 Payouts download here

For the ANZ Player of the Year table download here

NZ’s Online Tournament lowdown Saturday 21st April – Friday 4th May

Brooke Howard-Smith — Sun, 06 May 2012 18:35:46 +0000

NZ’s Online Tournament lowdown Saturday 21^st April – Friday 4^th May

SCOOP

With the 4^th edition of SCOOP starting on Sunday the 6^th many online players are either putting in lots of preparation looking for momentum heading into SCOOP or are taking a break before playing very long hours over the two weeks and a total of 120 tournaments with buyin’s ranging from $11 all the way up to the High Roller Main Event $10,300. It really is a chance for anyone to turn a small buyin into good six figure scores (there are even FPP satelittes!)

New Zealand has taken down one SCOOP event previously, with Shaun Goldsbury (jakehekejnr on PokerStars) winning the 2010 215$ Event 20-M (215$ No Limit Holdem) for 270k after a deal was made at the final table.

Tournament Victories

Once again many players around New Zealand put up plenty of final tables in the last two weeks with a few wins scattered throughout.

KillerNorbit was again in the winner’s circle, this time with three victories all on PokerStars, making for a total five victories in under a month. Winning the $16.50 NL Hold’em [6-Max, $4K Gtd] was good for $1,257.78, 408 players falling before KillerNorbit was crowned victor. The next two tournaments both came on May 2nd with the tournament s starting just 15 minutes apart! They were the $3.30+R NL Hold’em [$7.5K Gtd] and the $22 NLHE [6-Max,500 Cap, $2.5K Gtd] good for a combined $2078.

Not too be out done, Snowman888 also added three victories this week in addition to his two victories in the previous update. On PokerStars, he took down the $5.50 NL Hold’em [2R1A, $5K Gtd] which had 605 players generating a prize pool of $8790 which let him take home $1,648.46.

The other two victories were on Titan Poker, part of the iPoker Network, currently the 2nd biggest site in number of total active players. Playing as Houusnurhh, he took home $334.14 in the $1,250 GP Freeze out on May 1^st which had 347 players, and the last victory was in the $1,000 GP Freezeout which meant his 11$ entry turned into $310.55 outlasting 134 players in the process.

Also notching multiple victories was EeeTee (EeeTee2008 on PokerStars), taking home $435.25 for victory in the $5.10 NL Hold’em [Hyper-Turbo, $1K Gtd]. Although no other PocketFives members were at the final table, Team PokerStars Online member TalonChick just missed out in 10^th place. The 2^nd victory was the $8.80 NL Hold’em [Turbo,2X Chance, $2K Gtd] with PocketFivers taking out the top 3 spots. The win was good for $517.72.

Interestingly mstark87 ply’s his trade on the smaller networks, with Carbon Poker (part of the Merge Network) being the site of all his cashes the last few months. mstark87 (CrazyPakeha on Carbon Poker) had finished runner up 3 times before finally notching a win on May 2^nd in the 22$ $3,000 Guaranteed Freeze out which saw him take home $1,058.14.

Last but not least, SeanHellmuth (great screen name!), managed to defeat 5854 players in The Bigger $2.20 on PokerStars, making a deal 3 handed, which saw him take home $1,572.43. No small feat right there, and goes to show that despite the small buyin it is definitely possible to collect a nice score and kick start your bank roll building.

Current Top 10 in New Zealand

The top 10 this week saw the addition of zebkiwi in 5^th place, who has been putting up results consistently all year in the low – medium buyin tournaments on PokerStars however for some reason, was only just added to the New Zealand overall rankings. This meant a drop for the lower half of the top 10, with SSG falling out of the top 10.

New Zealand maintained its ranking of 30^th in the Country rankings.

1. BluffingX (-)

2. KingPaulie (-)

3. EeeTee (-)

4. mstark87 (-)

5. zebkiwi (new entry)

6. emufart69 ( 1)

7. KillerNorbit (-)

8. Siac0 ( 2)

9. Snowman888 ( 1)

10. faecal matter (-)

Vietnam get’s there first APPT Champ in Cebu

Brooke Howard-Smith — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 18:27:54 +0000

Hoang Anh Do has just been crowned the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu 2012 Champion. After three days of play he has out lasted 245players to claim the title.

Hoang Anh Do is the first APPT Champion to come from Vietnamand he will take home PHP 5,927,000. Hoang Anh Do is a 27 year old banker who came to Cebu to holiday on the beaches but thought he would also like to give the APPT a try, having only taken up poker six months ago. He has certainly started in style.

In contrast to the long back and forth drama when play was three handed the heads up battle was a relatively short affair. The end came with a pre-flop raise from Do being called by Nick Wong. The flop showed 5d 8d 5s and Wong raised to 220,000which was quickly called by Do. Both players checked the 4s turn and when the Ah hit the river Do checked and Wong announced all-in. After a lengthy deliberation Do called and showed As 8s for two pair. Out doing Wong’s Ad 10h.

PokerStars.net APPT Cebu 2012 Champion Hoang Anh Do

For all the results from the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu 2012 click here

There were two side events which took place today. The PHP 25,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Deepstack is still in progress. There were 94 entrants making for a prize pool of PHP 2,051,550. The other event has been completed. The PHP 250,000 buy-in High Roller saw 14 take part for a prize pool of PHP 3,191,900. Due to a deal done there were four places paid.

1st Alan Engel – Canada – PHP 1,200,000
2nd Marcus Lau – Malaysia – PHP 1,200,000
3rd Mike Marvanek – Australia – PHP 600,000
4th David Steicke – Hong Kong – PHP 191,300

Head to the PokerStars Blog for the all the details of todays play.

PokerStars.net APPT Cebu End of Day 3

Brooke Howard-Smith — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:44:13 +0000

Chip leader Amit Varma

The Final Table for the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu is set and Indian Amit Varma is the chip leader with1,241,000.

APPT Cebu has been a showcase for the Indian poker scene. Compatriot Sameer Rattonsey joins Amit tomorrow as second in chips with 908,000. The two have been carving up the field between them.

Sameer and Amit travelled as part of PokerGuruwhose members have seen success in a number of events at PokerStars Macau. They will definitely be primed for the Goa India Casino Royale Cup which is going to be held June 21 to 24. There are satellites for event being now at PokerStars. For more details clickhere.

The final table has respresentatives from six countries and some very fine poker players amongst them. There is the ANZPT Sydney 2011 Champion, Australian Michael Kanaan one of the shorter stacks with 399,000 chips. There is the reigning APPT Macau High Roller Champion Nicholas Wong who is also short with only 192,000 and there is our shortest stack Antoine Amourette he came fifth in the APPT Sydney 2010. Antoine has only 50,000 chips. He had his queens beaten by jacks on the second last hand of the day when Jacky Wong made a straight. Jacky is from Australia and has a much healthier402,000.

For a list of the Final table draw and chip counts click here

For the list of all those who cashed today click here

There were two other tournaments in progress as we headed towards the final table. The $20,000 PHP buy-in No Limit Hold’em had 84 players taking part making for a prize pool of 41,466,640 PHP. The other tournament today is the Six Handed No Limit Hold’em a $50,000 PHP buy-in which was very well subscibed to with 73 players building a prizepool of $3,257,260 PHP. The full results of both of those tournaments will be available in tomorrow’s report.

Yesterday’s Knock Out Bounty saw 109 players sit down to make a $2,309,710 PHP prizepool. The winner was Japanese player Maeda Azusa for a list of all the winners click here.

Head to the PokerStars Blog for the all the details of todays play.

Kiwi Smitty in the money as Day 2 of Cebu wraps up

Brooke Howard-Smith — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:10:19 +0000

Chip leader Amit Varma

Day 2 of the PokerStars.net APPT Cebuhas come to a close as the bubble burst.

The unlucky player who achieved the ignominious title of ‘bubble boy’ was Mikko Turtiainen from Finland. A spontaneous cheer erupted around the room as the remaining players realised they were in the money. They can now go relax and enjoy the player party which is taking place tonight at Cebu’s premier nightclub.

The chip leader Amit Varma from India has amassed a very impressive 545,500chips. Amit has had a few good results in the Pokerguru Tour and Indian Poker Championship but this is his first time he has gone deep in a major poker tournament outside of the sub-continent.

There is daylight between him and the number two in chps. Ho Anh Do the lone representative of Vietnam has 330,000chips.

There is one woman remaining but do not count her out. Hui-chen (Kitty) Kuo has done exceptionally well in the last few years. From Taiwan, Kitty was the 2009 Asian Player of the Year and her most recent result was in the last APPT, the APPT Seoul High Roller Event where she came third.

Other players to watch for tomorrow, include: Antoine Amourette with 195,000, he has made the final table of the APPT Sydney 2010 and also has a second place finish in a WPT event. There is ANZPT Canberra 2011 Champion Sammy Huang with 214,500 in chips and Daoxing (Bobo) Chen with172,000 chips. Bobo is from China and saw success in APPT Macau 2009 where he came third.

Some of the notable players to miss out today included: the remaining Team PokerStars PROs Vivien Im, Celina Lin and Raymond Wu, Filipino poker legend Wally Sombero, the reigning Asian Player of the Year Hung Sheng ‘Shaq’ Lin and the reigning ANZ Player of the Year Danny Chevalier.

For a list of all players remaining, their chip counts and table draw for Day 3 click here

There was a host of side event action taking place today alongside the Main Event. The Knock Out Bounty saw 109 players sit down to make a $2,309,710 PHP prizepool. Play was down to the final table at the time this report was sent and full results will be available tomorrow’.

The Ladies Event was hotly contested by 12 women, with Team PokerStars PRO Vivien Im leading the charge. The eventual winner was Tei Yoshikawa from Japan.

For a list of all the winners click here

Head to the PokerStars Blog for the all the details of todays play.

APPT CEBU 2012 DAY 2 DRAW

First Name	Last Name	Table	Seat	Country	Player Status	Chip Count
Takayoshi	Akimoto	4	3	Japan		44800
Antoine	Amourette	2	4	UK	Pokerstars Qualifier	35700
Mishel	Anunu	8	6	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	64300
Sungsik	Bae	14	7	Korea	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	50300
Stewart	Ballard	4	1	Australia		32400
Daniel	Bang-ortmann	12	1	Qatar	Pokerstars Qualifier	66500
Nachman	Berlin	6	1	Canada	Pokerstars Qualifier	43000
Claudine	Bernacer	7	6	Philippines	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	26300
James	Bills	7	5	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	18000
Andre	Bouchard	1	9	Canada		25900
Rami	Boukai	11	9	Usa		28000
Robert	Browning	5	6	Usa		56300
Florencio	Campomanes	2	7	Philippines		45500
Mario	Castro	1	7	Macau		21200
Janno	Cazemier	8	1	Afghanistan	Pokerstars Qualifier	21200
Dhanesh	Chainani	9	3	Singapore	Pokerstars Player	25900
Justin	Chan	1	4	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Qualifier	50700
Christopher	Chau	1	5			23300
Alvin	Cheam	4	7	Australia	Pokerstars Player	33100
Daoxing (Bobo)	Chen	14	10	China		67900
Park Yu (sparrow)	Cheung	4	9	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Player	54000
Danny	Chevalier	7	7	Australia	Pokerstars Sponsored Player	25000
Yujung	Choi	4	5	Korea		29100
Sebastien	Clot	8	5	France	Pokerstars Player	30400
Craig	Cockburn	2	3	Australia	Pokerstars Player	24900
Martin	Dahle	4	4	Norway	Pokerstars Player	14900
Victor	de Guzman	13	4	Philippines		70800
Hoang Anh	Do	7	9	Vietnam		46900
Cameron	Duff	11	2	Australia	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	39500
Christopher	Edgar	2	9	Australia		32700
Stefan	Fransson	5	8	Sweden		25600
Carter	Gill	7	1	Thailand	Pokerstars Player	41600
Petr	Glasko	11	8	Russia		63000
Jarrod	Glennon	5	9	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	23400
Han Ruo	Goh	9	4	Singapore	Pokerstars Qualifier	84300
Roman	Grigoryev	11	6	Russia		42200
Frederick	Hallen	8	4	Sweden		12600
Julian	Hasse	8	3	Germany	Pokerstars Qualifier	97600
Emi	Hibuse	8	9	Japan		63800
Paul	Higgins	14	9	Uk	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	7800
Xiuming	Huang	6	3	Australia	Pokerstars Player	29700
Jung Wei	Huang	12	7	Taiwan	Pokerstars Player	20400
Kazuki	Ikeuchi	12	6	Japan	Pokerstars Qualifier	28400
Vivian	Im	2	2	Korea	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro	9400
Yuri	Ishida	10	6	Japan		45300
Amit	Jain	2	1	India		12700
Loo	Junzhong	8	7	Malaysia	Pokerstars Qualifier	55400
Michael	Kabristante	8	8	Philippines	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	3800
Michael	Kanaan	3	5	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	47500
Gap Young	Kim	5	2	South Korea	Pokerstars Player	16900
Daejang	Kim	9	2	Korea	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	42700
Andrey	Kobov	6	9	Russian Federation	Pokerstars Qualifier	18900
Wei Zhong	Kua	3	6	Singapore		99500
Hui-chen	Kuo	4	8	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	49500
Hung Hui	Lai	14	2	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	74800
Daniel	Laidlaw	6	5	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	6300
Charles	Lam	14	1	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Qualifier	55800
Yipo	Lee	9	5	Taiwan		21800
Sang Yong	Lee	9	8	Korea		106400
Chun Tat	Lee	12	3	China	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	30700
Kenneth	Leong	3	9	Hong Kong		90000
Hung Sheng	Lin	3	7	Taiwan		19800
Celina	Lin	10	8	China	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro	18000
Kuan Lung (Desmond)	Ling	13	9	Malaysia		36600
Pakinai	Lisawad	2	6	Thailand		38500
Sam	Lor	1	3	Combodia		64200
Shang-te	Ma	4	2	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	12100
Shigehiro	Makino	5	5	Japan		23600
Antonio	Martins	3	1	Macau		119000
Mike	Marvanek	13	7	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	22400
Edwin	Marzan	6	7	Philippines		7100
Edison	Marzan	13	6	Philippines		36600
Jesse	Mckenzie	7	4	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	19400
Antonio	Metaxiotis	14	4	Greece	Pokerstars Qualifier	20200
Kaveh	Mohammadi	10	3	Iran		15500
Sangeeth	Mohan	12	4	India	Pokerstars Player	37500
Adam	Monaghan	3	4	Australia		57900
Katsuhiro	Muto	1	1	Japan		20700
Andrej	Nagy	1	2	Slovenia	Pokerstars Player	31700
Junichi	Nakagiri	9	7	Japan		1800
Ljubisa	Nedimovic	8	2	Slovenia	Pokerstars Qualifier	20500
Andrew	Nguyen	5	3	Canada	Pokerstars Player	22900
Karsten	Nielsen	4	6	Thailand	Pokerstars Player	30100
Kostas	Nikolaidis	11	5	Greece	Pokerstars Qualifier	13600
Hans Daniel	Nordstrom	5	1	Sweden	Pokerstars Player	61700
Artyom	Novikov	13	3	Thailand		61300
Mark Anthony	Ortiz	14	6	Philippines		33500
Xue Bin	Pang	11	1	Singapore	Pokerstars Qualifier	40800
Sergei	Panuk	11	4	Ukraine	Pokerstars Player	18200
Vyacheslav	Poskonin	13	8	Russia	Pokerstars Player	32100
Philip	Prentiss	1	8	Usa	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	13600
Kimmo	Puusa	10	9	Finland		72000
Sanneer	Rattonsey	7	8	India		42300
Mani	Rezaei	13	5	United Arab Emirates	Pokerstars Player	600
Czardy	Rivera	12	8	Philippines		30900
Mikael	Rozen	11	3	Sweden	Pokerstars Player	13500
Vincent	Rubianes	14	8	Usa		17000
Benjamin	Schopick	7	3	Usa	Pokerstars Player	15700
Hyung Kook	Shin	13	2	Korea	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	29800
Jae Kyung	Sim	3	8	Korea		54400
Gurdeep	Singh	12	9	Uk	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	31800
Careme Joseph	Sita	10	4	Germany	Pokerstars Qualifier	33600
Steven	Smith	11	7	New Zealand	Pokerstars Qualifier	17900
Wally	Sombero	14	5	Philippines		75700
David	Steicke	6	2	Hong Kong		37400
Makoto	Takahashi	10	5	Japan		22700
Steven	Tegnelia	9	6	Uk	Pokerstars Player	27400
Linh	Tran	13	10	Canada		14800
Tetsuya	Tsuchikawa	1	6	Japan	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	38700
Mikko	Turtiainen	9	1	Finland		37700
Amit	Varma	10	1	India		75500
Daniel Palau	Vicente	13	1	Spain	Pokerstars Qualifier	50100
Octavian	Voegele	7	2	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	56300
Song	Wang	3	3	China		26500
Ping Yuan	Wang	5	7	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	21700
Ted	Wang	6	4	China	Pokerstars Player	44100
Jacky	Wang	12	2	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	77900
Takayuki	Watanabe	10	7	Japan		19700
Kenneth	Wong	2	5	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Qualifier	40600
Nicholas	Wong	9	9	Hong Kong		55000
Yoke Wei	Woon	10	2	Malaysia	Appt Satellite Winner	27500
Anthony	Wright	2	8	Uk		21200
Raymond	Wu	3	2	Taiwan	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro	24100
Daren	Yoon	6	6	Malaysia	Pokerstars Player	12000
Sekiya	Yosuke	5	4	Japan		30900
Jude	Zambrano	6	8	Philippines		13300
Bobby	Zhang	14	3	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	27200
Feng	Zhao	12	5	Singapore	Pokerstars Qualifier	41800

APPT Cebu Day 2 Draw

Brooke Howard-Smith — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:49:19 +0000

Steve Smith of Auckland remains in the hunt for the APPT Cebu crown.

APPT CEBU 2012 DAY 2 DRAW

First Name	Last Name	Table	Seat	Country	Player Status	Chip Count
Takayoshi	Akimoto	4	3	Japan		44800
Antoine	Amourette	2	4	United Kingdom	Pokerstars Qualifier	35700
Mishel	Anunu	8	6	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	64300
Sungsik	Bae	14	7	Korea	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	50300
Stewart	Ballard	4	1	Australia		32400
Daniel	Bang-ortmann	12	1	Qatar	Pokerstars Qualifier	66500
Nachman	Berlin	6	1	Canada	Pokerstars Qualifier	43000
Claudine	Bernacer	7	6	Philippines	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	26300
James	Bills	7	5	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	18000
Andre	Bouchard	1	9	Canada		25900
Rami	Boukai	11	9	Usa		28000
Robert	Browning	5	6	Usa		56300
Florencio	Campomanes	2	7	Philippines		45500
Mario	Castro	1	7	Macau		21200
Janno	Cazemier	8	1	Afghanistan	Pokerstars Qualifier	21200
Dhanesh	Chainani	9	3	Singapore	Pokerstars Player	25900
Justin	Chan	1	4	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Qualifier	50700
Christopher	Chau	1	5			23300
Alvin	Cheam	4	7	Australia	Pokerstars Player	33100
Daoxing (Bobo)	Chen	14	10	China		67900
Park Yu (sparrow)	Cheung	4	9	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Player	54000
Danny	Chevalier	7	7	Australia	Pokerstars Sponsored Player	25000
Yujung	Choi	4	5	Korea		29100
Sebastien	Clot	8	5	France	Pokerstars Player	30400
Craig	Cockburn	2	3	Australia	Pokerstars Player	24900
Martin	Dahle	4	4	Norway	Pokerstars Player	14900
Victor	de Guzman	13	4	Philippines		70800
Hoang Anh	Do	7	9	Vietnam		46900
Cameron	Duff	11	2	Australia	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	39500
Christopher	Edgar	2	9	Australia		32700
Stefan	Fransson	5	8	Sweden		25600
Carter	Gill	7	1	Thailand	Pokerstars Player	41600
Petr	Glasko	11	8	Russia		63000
Jarrod	Glennon	5	9	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	23400
Han Ruo	Goh	9	4	Singapore	Pokerstars Qualifier	84300
Roman	Grigoryev	11	6	Russia		42200
Frederick	Hallen	8	4	Sweden		12600
Julian	Hasse	8	3	Germany	Pokerstars Qualifier	97600
Emi	Hibuse	8	9	Japan		63800
Paul	Higgins	14	9	Uk	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	7800
Xiuming	Huang	6	3	Australia	Pokerstars Player	29700
Jung Wei	Huang	12	7	Taiwan	Pokerstars Player	20400
Kazuki	Ikeuchi	12	6	Japan	Pokerstars Qualifier	28400
Vivian	Im	2	2	Korea	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro	9400
Yuri	Ishida	10	6	Japan		45300
Amit	Jain	2	1	India		12700
Loo	Junzhong	8	7	Malaysia	Pokerstars Qualifier	55400
Michael	Kabristante	8	8	Philippines	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	3800
Michael	Kanaan	3	5	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	47500
Gap Young	Kim	5	2	South Korea	Pokerstars Player	16900
Daejang	Kim	9	2	Korea	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	42700
Andrey	Kobov	6	9	Russian Federation	Pokerstars Qualifier	18900
Wei Zhong	Kua	3	6	Singapore		99500
Hui-chen	Kuo	4	8	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	49500
Hung Hui	Lai	14	2	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	74800
Daniel	Laidlaw	6	5	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	6300
Charles	Lam	14	1	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Qualifier	55800
Yipo	Lee	9	5	Taiwan		21800
Sang Yong	Lee	9	8	Korea		106400
Chun Tat	Lee	12	3	China	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	30700
Kenneth	Leong	3	9	Hong Kong		90000
Hung Sheng	Lin	3	7	Taiwan		19800
Celina	Lin	10	8	China	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro	18000
Kuan Lung (Desmond)	Ling	13	9	Malaysia		36600
Pakinai	Lisawad	2	6	Thailand		38500
Sam	Lor	1	3	Combodia		64200
Shang-te	Ma	4	2	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	12100
Shigehiro	Makino	5	5	Japan		23600
Antonio	Martins	3	1	Macau		119000
Mike	Marvanek	13	7	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	22400
Edwin	Marzan	6	7	Philippines		7100
Edison	Marzan	13	6	Philippines		36600
Jesse	Mckenzie	7	4	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	19400
Antonio	Metaxiotis	14	4	Greece	Pokerstars Qualifier	20200
Kaveh	Mohammadi	10	3	Iran		15500
Sangeeth	Mohan	12	4	India	Pokerstars Player	37500
Adam	Monaghan	3	4	Australia		57900
Katsuhiro	Muto	1	1	Japan		20700
Andrej	Nagy	1	2	Slovenia	Pokerstars Player	31700
Junichi	Nakagiri	9	7	Japan		1800
Ljubisa	Nedimovic	8	2	Slovenia	Pokerstars Qualifier	20500
Andrew	Nguyen	5	3	Canada	Pokerstars Player	22900
Karsten	Nielsen	4	6	Thailand	Pokerstars Player	30100
Kostas	Nikolaidis	11	5	Greece	Pokerstars Qualifier	13600
Hans Daniel	Nordstrom	5	1	Sweden	Pokerstars Player	61700
Artyom	Novikov	13	3	Thailand		61300
Mark Anthony	Ortiz	14	6	Philippines		33500
Xue Bin	Pang	11	1	Singapore	Pokerstars Qualifier	40800
Sergei	Panuk	11	4	Ukraine	Pokerstars Player	18200
Vyacheslav	Poskonin	13	8	Russia	Pokerstars Player	32100
Philip	Prentiss	1	8	Usa	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	13600
Kimmo	Puusa	10	9	Finland		72000
Sanneer	Rattonsey	7	8	India		42300
Mani	Rezaei	13	5	UAE	Pokerstars Player	600
Czardy	Rivera	12	8	Philippines		30900
Mikael	Rozen	11	3	Sweden	Pokerstars Player	13500
Vincent	Rubianes	14	8	Usa		17000
Benjamin	Schopick	7	3	Usa	Pokerstars Player	15700
Hyung Kook	Shin	13	2	Korea	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	29800
Jae Kyung	Sim	3	8	Korea		54400
Gurdeep	Singh	12	9	Uk	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	31800
Careme Joseph	Sita	10	4	Germany	Pokerstars Qualifier	33600
Steven	Smith	11	7	New Zealand	Pokerstars Qualifier	17900
Wally	Sombero	14	5	Philippines		75700
David	Steicke	6	2	Hong Kong		37400
Makoto	Takahashi	10	5	Japan		22700
Steven	Tegnelia	9	6	Uk	Pokerstars Player	27400
Linh	Tran	13	10	Canada		14800
Tetsuya	Tsuchikawa	1	6	Japan	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	38700
Mikko	Turtiainen	9	1	Finland		37700
Amit	Varma	10	1	India		75500
Daniel Palau	Vicente	13	1	Spain	Pokerstars Qualifier	50100
Octavian	Voegele	7	2	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	56300
Song	Wang	3	3	China		26500
Ping Yuan	Wang	5	7	Taiwan	Pokerstars Qualifier	21700
Ted	Wang	6	4	China	Pokerstars Player	44100
Jacky	Wang	12	2	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	77900
Takayuki	Watanabe	10	7	Japan		19700
Kenneth	Wong	2	5	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Qualifier	40600
Nicholas	Wong	9	9	Hong Kong		55000
Yoke Wei	Woon	10	2	Malaysia	Appt Satellite Winner	27500
Anthony	Wright	2	8	Uk		21200
Raymond	Wu	3	2	Taiwan	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro	24100
Daren	Yoon	6	6	Malaysia	Pokerstars Player	12000
Sekiya	Yosuke	5	4	Japan		30900
Jude	Zambrano	6	8	Philippines		13300
Bobby	Zhang	14	3	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	27200
Feng	Zhao	12	5	Singapore	Pokerstars Qualifier	41800

PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Day 1C

Brooke Howard-Smith — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 19:32:24 +0000

Day 1C Chip leader – Sang Yong Lee

The final Day 1 flight has come to an end in the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu.

Which means we can now confirm the total number of players taking part this week is246. An increase on last year’s field continuing the steady growth of the APPT in the Phillippines.

The prizepool for the tournament is $21,953,040 PHP meaning the winner will take home$5,927,000 PHP and 28 players will make the cash.

There are a massive 42 countries represented at the tournament. The majority coming up from Australia but there were also big Japanese and Korean contingents. There was also a big showing from the Indian, Malaysian, Chinese and Russian poker enthusiasts.

The godfather of Filipino poker – Wally Sombero

Today 119 players took their seats and by the end of the day there were 59 remaining. Th e chip leader at the end of play isSang Yong Lee with 106,400 chips, he is from Korea.

One of thse who made it through to Day 2 is a legend of the Filipino poker scene Wally Sombero with a healthy 70,000chips. Wally kicked off proceedings with a short speech and those all too familiar words; shuffle up and deal. He has worked tirelessly in the Philippines to grow the game he loves and is a big reason why the game is so beloved in the islands.

Other players who will be back tomorrow include: popular high stakes tournament player David Steike, winner of the 2010 Macau Millions, Justin Chan and the reigning ANZPT Canberra Champion Sammy Huang.

We lost a number of big name players today Team PokerStars PRO Bryan Huang will have to wait a little longer for his first APPT title. Gordon Huntly was not able to follow up his win down at the ANZPT Sydney last month. Both the first and second place in February’s Macau Poker Cup Nicky Tao Jinfrom Singapore and Indian Abhishek Goindi. There was a part time Mixed Martial Arts combatant inTerence Chan and Raiden Kan from Malaysia, second place in last year’s Asian Player of the Yearrace. All headed to the rail in a very tough day of play.

For a full list of all the players click hereand the prizepool click here

For tomorrow’s Day 2 table draw click here

For all the survivors from today click here

Head to the PokerStars Blog for the all the details of todays play.

APPT CEBU 2012 DAY 1C END CHIP COUNTS

Last Name	First Name	Country	Nationality	Chip Count
Lee	Sang Yong	Korea		106400
Kua	Wei Zhong	Singapore		99500
Leong	Kenneth	Hong Kong		90000
Sombero	Wally	Philippines		75700
Varma	Amit	India		75500
de Guzman	Victor	Philippines		70800
Hibuse	Emi	Japan		63800
Monaghan	Adam	Australia		57900
Browning	Robert	Usa		56300
Wong	Nicholas	Hong Kong		55000
Sim	Jae Kyung	Korea		54400
Chan	Justin	Hong Kong	Pokerstars Qualifier	50700
Bae	Sungsik	Korea	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	50300
Do	Hoang Anh	Vietnam		46900
Campomanes	Florencio	Philippines		45500
Ishida	Yuri	Japan		45300
Akimoto	Takayoshi	Japan		44800
Rattonsey	Sanneer	India		42300
Grigoryev	Roman	Russia		42200
Duff	Cameron	Australia	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	39500
Tsuchikawa	Tetsuya	Japan	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	38700
Mohan	Sangeeth	India	Pokerstars Player	37500
Steicke	David	Hong Kong		37400
Marzan	Edison	Philippines		36600
Ling	Kuan Lung (desmond)	Malaysia		36600
Cheam	Alvin	Australia	Pokerstars Player	33100
Edgar	Christopher	Australia		32700
Poskonin	Vyacheslav	Russia	Pokerstars Player	32100
Singh	Gurdeep	Uk	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	31800
Yosuke	Sekiya	Japan		30900
Rivera	Czardy	Philippines		30900
Lee	Chun Tat	China	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	30700
Clot	Sebastien	France	Pokerstars Player	30400
Huang	Xiuming	Australia	Pokerstars Player	29700
Choi	Yujung	Korea		29100
Ikeuchi	Kazuki	Japan	Pokerstars Qualifier	28400
Boukai	Rami	Usa		28000
Tegnelia	Steven	Uk	Pokerstars Player	27400
Zhang	Bobby	Australia	Pokerstars Qualifier	27200
Bernacer	Claudine	Philippines	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	26300
Cockburn	Craig	Australia	Pokerstars Player	24900
Makino	Shigehiro	Japan		23600
Chau	Christopher			23300
Nguyen	Andrew	Canada	Pokerstars Player	22900
Takahashi	Makoto	Japan		22700
Panuk	Sergei	Ukraine	Pokerstars Player	18200
Rubianes	Vincent	Usa		17000
Schopick	Benjamin	Usa	Pokerstars Player	15700
Mohammadi	Kaveh	Iran		15500
Dahle	Martin	Norway	Pokerstars Player	14900
Prentiss	Philip	Usa	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	13600
Zambrano	Jude	Philippines		13300
Jain	Amit	India		12700
Hallen	Frederick	Sweden		12600
Higgins	Paul	Uk	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	7800
Marzan	Edwin	Philippines		7100
Kabristante	Michael	Philippines	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner	3800
Nakagiri	Junichi	Japan		1800
Rezaei	Mani	United Arab Emirates	Pokerstars Player	600

Day 1B of PokerStars.net APPT Cebu 2012

Brooke Howard-Smith — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 19:38:44 +0000

Day 1B Chip Leader Antonio Martins

Day 1B of PokerStars.net APPT Cebu 2012 has come to a close. Today saw an increase on yesterday’s field with 76players sitting down. By the end of play today only 42 remained.

The chip leader is Antonio Martins with119,000 chips. Julian Hasse from Germany is not far behind with 97,600chips and there is a big gap between these two and the rest of the field.

There were 25 nations represented at the tables from as far a field as Canada and Sweden but the big majority have come in from across Asia.

While there were only seven women in today’s field they are some of the most feared poker players in Asia. Led by the defending champion Team Poker Stars PRO Vivien Im who finished with 9,400chips and her fellow Team PokerStars PRO, Celina Lin who ended the day with18,000 chips.

Joining those two formible poker talents was PokerStars Sponsored Player Cathy Hong who unfortunately was not able to make it through to Day 2. There was also Jay Tan fresh from her fourth place finish in the lastMacau Poker Cup who also did not manage to keep her good run going.

Winning the Asian Player of the Year or the ANZ Player of the Year is proof that a player is at the peak of their skill as a poker player so it was no surprise that both Hung Sheng ‘Shaq’ Lin, 19,800chips and Danny Chevalier, 25,000 chips came through today’s play unscathed.

Some of the other big names to get through today included: Huo Chen (Kitty) Kuo from Taiwan with49,500 chips, Daoxing (Bobo) Chen from China with 67,900 and Daren Yoon from Malaysia with12,000 chips in play.

For a list of the survivors and their chip counts click here

Head to the PokerStars Blog for the all the details of todays play.

APPT Cebu Main Event-Day 1B 4/26/12 12:15 PM – $100000

Last Name	First Name	Country	Chip Count	Nationality
Martins	Antonio	Macau	119000
Hasse	Julian	Germany	97600	Pokerstars Qualifier
Chen	Daoxing (bobo)	China	67900
Bang-ortmann	Daniel	Qatar	66500	Pokerstars Qualifier
Glasko	Petr	Russia	63000
Nordstrom	Hans Daniel	Sweden	61700	Pokerstars Player
Novikov	Artyom	Thailand	61300	Pokerstars Player
Lam	Charles	Hong Kong	55800	Pokerstars Qualifier
Junzhong	Loo	Malaysia	55400	Pokerstars Qualifier
Cheung	Park Yu (sparrow)	Hong Kong	54000	Pokerstars Player
Kuo	Hui-chen (Kitty)	Taiwan	49500	Pokerstars Qualifier
Wang	Tian Jian	China	44100	Pokerstars Player
Berlin	Nachman	Canada	43000	Pokerstars Qualifier
Kim	Daejang	Korea	42700	Appt Cebu Satellite Winner
Zhao	Feng	Singapore	41800	Pokerstars Qualifier
Pang	Xue Bin	Singapore	40800	Pokerstars Qualifier
Wong	Kenneth	Hong Kong	40600	Pokerstars Qualifier
Lisawad	Pakinai	Thailand	38500
Amourette	Antoine	United Kingdom	35700	Pokerstars Qualifier
Ortiz	Mark Anthony	Philippines	33500
Nielsen	Karsten	Thailand	30100	Pokerstars Player
Woon	Yoke Wei	Malaysia	27500	APPT CEBU Satellite Winner
Bouchard	Andre	Canada	25900
Chainani	Dhanesh	Singapore	25900	Pokerstars Player
Fransson	Stefan	Sweden	25600
Chavelier	Danny	Australia	25000	Pokerstars Sponsored Player
Glennon	Jarrod	Australia	23400	Pokerstars Qualifier
Lee	Yipo	Taiwan	21800
Castro	Mario	Macau	21200
Cazemier	Janno	Afghanistan	21200	Pokerstars Qualifier
Wright	Anthony	Uk	21200
Muto	Katsuhiro	Japan	20700
Lin	Hung Sheng	Taiwan	19800
Watanabe	Takayuki	Japan	19700
Kobov	Andrey	Russian Federation	18900	Pokerstars Qualifier
Lin	Celina	China	18000	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro
Kim	Gap Young	South Korea	16900	Pokerstars Player
Tran	Linh	Canada	14800
Nikolaidis	Kostas	Greece	13600	Pokerstars Qualifier
Rozen	Mikael	Sweden	13500	Pokerstars Player
Yoon	Daren	Malaysia	12000	Pokerstars Player
Im	Vivian	Korea	9400	Pokerstars Asia Team Pro