1. OK, if you haven’t already got a PokerStars account, you will need to download the software using our special link:

http://www.pokerstarsnz.net

2. Once you have downloaded the software, open up the file called PokerStarsInstall.exe and follow instructions on screen. (sometimes there is a more recent version of the ofstware available and this will download automatically).

3. Once the program has installed, you want to run the PokerStars program, when it opens up, clik the big red button to the bottom right that says ‘log in’.

4. Then you enter your account details here. If you don’t have a PokerStars account, click the ‘create account’ button and you can create one now. If you already have an account, enter your account details here.

5. Once the PokerStars ‘lobby’ open up, click the big ‘Tourney’ button on the top menu, then click the ‘Private’ button on the 2nd menu down.

6. Once the tournament list has loaded, you are looking for tournament number 302640141 ‘PokerNZ NZPT Freeroll’. Double click this, and register to play. You will need the password that was sent to your email that you used to register on this site. If you aren’t already registered on PokerNZ.com (this site), you need to register an account and the password will be sent to you on signup.

If you have any problems, please visit our Facebook group or the NZ Poker Forum

As many of you know we will be holding an awards (With free drinks!) ceremony during the APPT. It’s a chance for all of us to celebrate what has been a great year for New Zealand poker. Now we need nominees. Nominees will close on Monday the 6th of September. Then the voting begins!

Here are your categories for the PokerNZ.com poker awards. We are seeking 5 nominees for each. Head to the forum and submit your rant. Don’t be afraid to submit your self. Some one has to! {note this is all on The New Zealand poker Forum, so you will need to log on to their site – it’s different to ours }

Note: The year included is from August 1st 2009 to to August 1st 2010

Poker player of the year

(nominate 3 so we can get a runner up lol)

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=6.0

Rookie of the year

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=10.0

Best Tournament

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=11.0

Poker administrator of the year

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=12.0

Bad beat of the year

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=13.0

Best Poker league

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=14.0

Best Home Game

(submit a photo)

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=15.0

Worst Poker Player / play of The Year

http://pokernz.com/forum/index.php?topic=16.0

Get nominating! Voting will begin in a week!

I like/dislike to think of it as ‘the learning curb’ – it’s metaphorical although magical place, a place where things become so clear, a place where everything makes sense, a place your never ever want to be! You can’t avoid it once you see it, but what you learn once you hit it may help you avoid facing it ever again.

Peace

Simon with PokerNZ.com Kings shirt

Simon Watt doesn’t seem to have changed a bit. Less than a year ago he was a shy, quiet poker player thrust into the limelight with his maiden big field tournament win. I remember his reluctance at being interviewed after he’d beaten all comers at the 2009 NZPT Auckland. It was almost as if he secretly wished he’d finished second.

But he’s polite so he finally agreed. In a poker world that’s full of trash talk and young guns that at the age of 20 think they alone have the system beat Simon Watt is refreshing. Yes he’s young and he’s good. He’s certainly the biggest thing New Zealand poker has seen since Lee Nelson.

Eight months after his quarter million dollar win in Auckland Simon found himself in an even trickier position. He was never going to fly under the radar again. Simon Watt, 27, had just become the first New Zealander ever to win a World Series Of Poker bracelet and the almost Million Dollar haul that comes with one.

What’s more he did it by taking down a giant field and a three handed session with two of pokers most celebrated new comers, David “GhettoFabolous” Randell, and Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. Earlier in the year Dwan was so confident he’d win a bracelet this year he’s rumored to have made a number of bets totaling in the millions. He finished 2nd. I had the chance to catch up with the man who vanquished him… And once again I put the nice guy on the spot and pressed record…

What have you been doing since the win Simon?

I’ve been playing lots of poker. I didn’t have too much time to celebrate in Vegas because I was playing a $5k event two days later, then had another half dozen events between then and the Main Event.

Did you have anyone there cheering for you?

When I won the event I had one friend there, Joe, he was cheering very quietly. Daniel Negreanu described it in his blog as golf clapping. Where as Durrrr’s fans were being very loud and rowdy.

I guess immediately after you had a lot more friends…

Yeah I got a few comments and congratulations from some well-known guys. Mike Matusuw came over and said in reference to Durrrr’s bracelet bets: “Thank you for saving us all millions of dollars! How does it feel to be every high-stakes gambler’s hero? They’re gonna, like, put you on the wall in Bobby’s Room or some shit.”

Talk me through some of the pivotal hands in the tournament.

I guess the most important hand was at the final table when we were 3 handed and David Randall (a top online pro: GhettoFabolous) opens the button, I have about 35 big blinds and 3bet with 77 on the Small blind, hoping to induce a 4bet shove from air, he 4bet shoves T6o and I call. My hand holds and I double up into the chip lead for the first time in the tournament.

We had an aggro dynamic going on, so I was expecting him to 4bet shove light a lot. However 77 doesn’t actually play that well against his 4bet air range, I’m only flipping against JTo for example, so it was definitely a very marginal play. It worked out well but a couple of my friends have given me shit about how I played it!

So now you’re heads up with the poker worlds Wunderkind, Tom Durrrr Dwan. Was there any point in time where you felt intimidated?

It’s a little bit crazy looking up and seeing Durrrr but the final table had already been going for four of five hours so you’re no longer intimidated. I had a 2 to 1 chip lead and he never had much more than 30 big blinds, so he couldn’t really out play me too much. If we’d both had 100 big blinds it would be a lot scarier.

I’ve played a lot of heads up cash games online, so it’s an area of the game I’m very comfortable with, which also helped.

A couple of hands from the end, you raise from the button and he flats. The flop comes down Jh, Th, 7c, He leads out and you smooth him, the Ace of hearts come on the turn he throws out about a third of his chips committing more than half his stack to the pot. When you shoved did you expect a call?

I thought he’d be calling some of the time yes… (Grins) If he snap called I would have been in trouble. I wasn’t bluffing… I don’t really want to say what I had… (Laughs) I turned two pair… I had Ace Ten.

Calling the flop is definitely the best option, but on the turn I wasn’t sure what to do, I mean I’m beating his hand a lot but if I shove all in he’s not really calling with worse which makes shoving feel pretty awful. However he only had 13 big blinds behind so eventually I decided to shove and kill his equity share in the pot if he was bluffing, as another heart, K or Q on the river would of been gross.

So, back to the night after…

Before I went to Vegas I said, if I win a bracelet I’m going to have a crazy night and party hard, but I was so exhausted after playing all day that I just went back to the hotel room, had a couple of beers with my friend then crashed out and went to sleep.

Did Joe get anything for the support?

We’d actually swapped a little action in the tournament so that’s enough of a gift.

Can you disclose how much?

I’d rather not (Laughs)

Let him know if he’s getting that kind of action he needs to do more than golf clap! There’s quite an interesting contrast between say a Joe Hachem (not the golf clapping Joe) at the main event with Hachem working the crowd chanting Aussie Aussie Aussie… You’re heads up, you didn’t think about getting a little crazy?

That’s not my style… I was pretty quiet at the final table. I don’t really celebrate hands when I win. I think the only time I celebrated was after the final hand. I sometimes feel a bit bad when someone gets knocked out, or at least feel like it’s rude to celebrate in some over the top way when they have been playing for days straight and have just got some cooler or bad beat that has cost them a ton of money.

Ohhhh did you feel bad for the multi multi millionaire…

I didn’t feel bad for Durrrr, no! He has enough money already…

Have you talked to him since?

No, he would have no reason to want to talk to me. He actually took finishing second pretty well I thought, It must be very frustrating getting through that many players then losing heads up.

I’m guessing you wouldn’t know! Vegas was your second major final table and your second win… Do you think winning NZPT Auckland was a good road map for this one?

Yes definitely. I try not to think about the type of money we’re playing for, and I’m prepared to gamble even if the pay jumps are huge, so I’m always giving myself a good chance to win. I’m not going to sit there and fold and try to jump up pay spots.

Were there any plays at that final table where you were like, “holy crap thank god that worked”

There were two consecutive hands, quite early on at the final table, where I opened, get 3bet by someone in position and I 4bet shove with air, the second hand was against Durrrr. Before that I wasn’t managing to steal many blinds, so it was really good for my table image as people stopped 3betting me as much. It’s the time where I really gained some momentum on the final table, but it could of ended badly if I had actually run into a big hand.

So BACK TO THE WEEKS AFTER… Did you play any more events?

About 6 more events before the main event…

Did you have your sleeves up, bracelet on?

Haha, no! The only time I’ve ever worn the bracelet is when photographers request I wear it for a shoot. I think you look like a bit silly if you walk around wearing one…

Does anyone wear them at the poker table?

I saw a few people yeah. I think someone wearing a bracelet at the table is more likely to be a bad player than a good one. I’d prefer people don’t know who I am at the table but in the tournaments after event 11 lots of people recognized me at the table and said, “oh you’re that guy who beat durrrr”.

Coming into the World Series of Poker Main event, you’re obviously on a pretty amazing run. Did you go in thinking “this is mine”

I never feel like that going into a tournament. There are so many people and so much variance in a big tournament like that. I’m always confident that I have a good chance, better than most, but never feel like I’m going to win until I get very deep.

You did run deep in the Main Event. With about 400 people left and a first place of about 8 million USD what were you thinking?

I knew I had a decent chance. Going into day five I was probably about 50^th with around 450 people left of 7500 starters so I knew that if I had a good day I had a good chance of making a very deep run. But the day went horribly, I bluffed off my chips in about 5 different pots!

How active are you that deep?

I was very active throughout the tournament, especially in position. The players are generally of a low standard in the Main Event so with deep stacks I feel very comfortable playing a lot of hands. Near the bubble I was extremely active and opened nearly every time it was folded to me for an entire two levels.

How much has your game changed since your NZPT win?

I think my tournament play has improved a lot. Before the NZPT last year I’d mainly played cash games online and not really a lot of tournaments, but I’ve put a lot more focus into tournaments since then and fixed some pretty big leaks.

So will you be mainly focusing on live events from now on?

I want to play some live tournaments, but not over do it. I’ll be playing most of the major tournaments around New Zealand and Australia (NZPT, etc), and probably the World Series again next year. My poker focus at the moment is getting better at cash games online, as my real aim is to be able to beat high stakes online cash games. I’d get much more satisfaction from doing that than winning tournaments. There’s so much luck involved in tournaments, but beating high stakes cash games online then I’d know I was good…

Really, no tournaments out there you want?

Of course the Main Event at the World Series. (Grins)

Brooke Howard-Smith

All you have to do is register on this site as a member and we’ll send you out details for our Mega Free Roll to The Auckland NZPT.

The game will be played on the PokerStars platform and FREE.

1. To play you will need a PokerStars account, if you don’t already have one, register with Pokerstars.net { here }.

Once you are greeted with the PokerStars download page, you need to click the big red button.

When you have downloaded the PokerStars software and created your own account, you need to make sure you are a registered member of PokerNZ.com.

2. If you have already posted on this site, you are already a member. If you haven’t joined yet, you can register for that { here }.

We will send a password to the email address you registered with on Friday 3rd Spetember. You will need this password to join the tournament. No password, no play! You will have until Sunday 11am to register on the tournament, but the sooner the better.

The ticket is a full buy in to The Auckland NZPT Valued at $3250 Dollars. You will be responsible for getting your self to Auckland and responsible for your accommodation. To find out more about New Zealand’s biggest poker event THE SKYCITY FESTIVAL OF POKER click { here }

So to recap:

1 – Sign up for PokerStars account here

2 – Make sure you are registered on PokerNZ.com

3 – Check your email Fri 3rd of September for tournament password.

Full instructions on how to find the tournament will be posted on this site and in your email closer to the time.

Meanwhile this is shuffling through my head while they explain what happened:

The Villain had 3 Outs…

3 outs 2 outs 5 outs 17 outs, they’re all outs. That means that your opponent has a chance. And let face it even a 1 outter on the river is a 2% Chance, hardly lotto { you have a .00026% chance of winning lotto }

The villain played it soooo badly…

You want them to play it badly! All the way through this you should have been high fiving yourself. In what other activity do you hear a competitor complaining about how “bad” his opponent was?! Here’s someone who only has 3 outs and they have their stack in. I’ll take that poker any day of the week! Now let’s think it through. Did you play the hand perfectly? Because if you did, then what are you angry about? If you didn’t, may be hit yourself in the face and stop telling me about how bad the beat was.

A while back Eric Assadourian gave me some great advice. He said that in any poker tournament, If you run deep you’ll be bad beat. Just make sure you have them significantly covered when it happens. That advice has changed the way I see the beats when they come. If it happens and I’m on the rail it’s because I didn’t chip up enough in the early levels to have the scmuck covered. Who’s fault is that.

BHS

There’s no doubt that 2010 is shaping up to be a marquee year for poker in New Zealand. Overseas Kiwis are getting great results and here at home poker itself seams unstoppable. No where was this more evident than at the Auckland Invitational. As the host Jarm Joseph got the event under way 19 tables clicked into action and a field size that a few years ago would have seemed unthinkable began to whittle itself down. 7 and a half hours later and Any Two Cards crew member  Fred Wiliams claimed the crown.

Results -

1st Fred

2nd Steve

3rd Terewai

4th Cory

5th JoJo

6th Sam Muir

7th Peter K

8th Gus

9th Keys

10th Sam

11th Amber

12th Berns

13th Lisa

14th Peter

15th Ben

16th Ronnie

17th Tom

18th Charlie

19 Maria

20th P.J.

Where: SKYCITY Auckland Poker Zone

When: Monday September 13th, 7pm

Poker is not a sport. It is a culture and as such has developed it’s own language. Earlier I wrote about hand names, and a list of poker terms, the list is massive but recently I was curious about the origins of the term donkey in poker, so I Googled it and found this claim at About.com:

Definition: If a poker player is called a ‘donkey,’ he’s a bad player who makes blatantly bad poker plays. A weak player.

Donkey is also shortened to “donk” by many players to announce that they’re playing badly or planning to, as in “I’m going to donk it up tonight.” A tournament full of poor poker players is called a donkament.

A Zonkey is a whole new bread of Donkey – Cross between a Zebra and a Donkey – They are usually younger players that hang around or watch good player, pick up some terms and flashy moves then without any real understanding of poker flash it up at a table. They often berate players for being Donkeys just before they 4 bet their stack into a rock.

Also Known As: fish, pigeons.

This I disagree on.  Donkey is a broad negative description that is applied to anyone who plays poorly, but more often than not bad beats people. A fish is usually applied to a losing player. Donkey = bad as they river you, Fish = good as they pay you off… I’ve never heard the term pigeon, no doubt some northern English colloquial stuff there.

On to a couple of other poker terms…

Shark: The most obvious is shark, a very strong player. Clearly, sharks are notoriously vicious, top-of-the-food-chain predators.

Fish: The term fish may have been derived from shark, since fish are largely helpless, bottom-of-the-food-chain prey. It’s a nice bit of structuralist lexicon building, if that is the case.

The Nuts: This terms refers to the best possible hand. I found the following story about its origin here (I have no way of verifying its veracity):

This cool poker term dates way back to the Wild West where cowboys would gather round a table, preferably in a saloon but alternatively around a campfire, and play cards. Back then poker players would not always bet with cash or chips. It was a more rustic time, and men would often bet their horse and wagon on a poker hand. Legend has it that when a cowboy bet his wagon he would unscrew the nuts from his wagon wheels and place them in the pot. The reason behind this gesture was that in the event that he lost the pot he could not leap up, hop into his wagon and ride away with his wager. The fact that he was willing to put those nuts in the pot as surety for the strength of his hand resonated through the prairie, and came to be synonymous with the best hand. A cowboy would only bet “the nuts” when he was convinced that his hand was the best out there. (emphasis added)

BHS

A 5 star video inspired by a poem written based on the real chat of  a player called ‘Ch3ckRaise’, Must See!

Click here to view the embedded video.