By JAMES PUGSLEY, December 31, 2011

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.

By JAMES PUGSLEY, 25th November, 2011

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.

By JAMES PUGSLEY, AUGUST 28TH, 2011

After taking a massive chip lead on day 2, Turker fell from grace courtesy of his hyper-aggressive style.

After two more days of grueling deep stacked play, the final table of APPT Snowfest is ready. There were a number of harsh casualties as the play continued onto day 2, with Koray Turker taking an early lead above day 1C chip leader Alicia Sale. Koray dominated play for a long time, only to later find himself all in with A5 offsuit against Tom Grigg’s pocket Kings.

Starting out with a lot of history and action between the two, the spot finally came when Griggs 3-bet Turker’s initial raise of 1800 to 4750, only to have Turker reportedly tout that Griggs was “about to get owned”, as he clicked it back to roughly 12,000 total. Griggs followed with the 5-bet to induce further action, and Turker pulled the trigger only to be shown Griggs’ monster hand with the pot around 192,000, or 250 big blinds. It was then not to be for Turker, who crashed out spectacularly as the day wore on, which also saw Alicia Sale’s dreams crushed, as her big stack was swiftly acquired by 2010 APPT Sydney champion Jonathan ‘xMONSTERxDONGx’ Karamalikis.

After a massive call hero call against Tom Griggs with AQ high in a 4-bet pre-flop pot, German Marcus Schreiner shot to the chip lead at the end of day 2, which left the field with 21 players. Day 3 was delayed to a late start in order to give players some more rest, and more time to enjoy the deep structure. APPT and SKYCITY officials eventually made some changes to the structure, in order to keep the average stack size as large as possible. After a few eliminations, the first of the big names to go was Cole Swannack, who pushed his stack into the middle after Matty Yates made a 3-bet preflop. Swannack was instantly called by pocket kings, only to table a measly 56 offsuit himself. Swannack found some hope when the flop ran out A 2 4, but ultimately found bricks on the turn and river to finish in 15th.

As the day wore on, Ben Paurini saw his great tournament come to an end; after picking what looked like a great cold 4-bet spot, shipping AQs over the top of active players Matty Yates and Marcus Schreiner. Schreiner, who eventually made a relatively thin call off with 55, then held to knock out Paurini, who was rewarded $6,000 for his efforts. Shortly after, Ryan Mckay’s tournament life came to an end too, as he found himself all-in and crushed by Hugh Cohen’s pocket tens, with Ryan holding 33. Gavin Vickers was the next to join the rail, having turned his initial freeroll qualifier on Pokerstars into a healthy $7,720 for 12th. Eleventh place went to Charles Caris after shoving all-in pre-flop with A2o and failing to improve against Karamalikis’ pocket tens.

Jackson Zheng was eliminated in 10th place, rivered, ironically, by the card he had called for.

The day finally came to an end in brutal fashion, with kiwi Jackson Zheng falling just short of another big final table. Zheng had raised from under the gun with KcQc, only to have Matty Yates call from the small blind. The flop fanned Th Ks 4d, which was met with a check, a bet from Zheng, and a flat call from Yates. The turn brought the Queen of spades, which led Zheng to follow with another barrel, this time for 24,000 total. Yates then check-raised all in for a further 90,000 to Zheng, who instantly made the call, despite the boards’ dangerous texture. Zheng obviously knew he was ahead as he watched Yates table just As Qh for just middle pair and a gutshot. Excitement ensued on the rail as the river was left to be dealt. Thinking perhaps that he could fade a card through calling for it himself, Zheng then called for the Jack to the come on the river. Moments later the dealer had put out the J of hearts, dashing Zheng’s chances of a commanding chip count going into the final table, eliminating him in 10th for $7,720 in change. Behind Schreiner, Yates is now second in chips, holding the highest count of any New Zealander left.

Here are the final table chip counts:

Seat 1: Hugh Cohen (Australia) 146,500 PokerStars Qualifier
Seat 2: Marcel Schreiner (Germany) 591,500
Seat 3: Daniel Laidlaw (Australia) 193,000 PokerStars Qualifier
Seat 4: Jonathan Karamalikis (Australia) 174,000 PokerStars Qualifier
Seat 5: Carl Knox (New Zealand) 180,500
Seat 6: Tom Grigg (Australia) 296,000
Seat 7: Matty Yates (New Zealand) 523,500
Seat 8: John Waterman (New Zealand) 153,500 PokerStars Qualifier
Seat 9: Xiao Dong Xia (China) 107,500

For more profiling information regarding players not covered here, please see Pokerstars’ ongoing blog for the event, found here. With a table combining many Aussies and Kiwi’s, it’s certainly shaping up to be a trans-tasman battle of epic proportions.  We’ll be doing a round-up to cover action after the final table is concluded, so stay tuned — it’s going to be a long day.

After a one year leave of absence from the APPT, Auckland 2006 WSOP Main event champion Joe Hachem is rumoured to be returning to Auckland for this years event.

Joe’s brother and ANZPT tour leader Tony Hachem will almost certainly make the trip to the City of Sails in September but not many expected to see the return of his much in demand brother. Pokerstars have recently narrowed their Australasian team to just Tony, Joe and New Zealander Lee “Final Table” Nelson dropping regular visitors Grant Levy, Emad Tahtouh and perenial crowd favorite Eric Assadourian.

Instead SKYCITY expects a swarth of Australia’s latest poker sensations to make the journey many of whom played just a month ago in The ANZPT Queenstown.

With the ANZPT Circus well and truly settled in and distracting most Kiwi poker players it’s easy to forget that 11000 kilometers away in Las Vegas over 7000 punters signed up for Event #57 of this years World Series aka The Main Event. (That’s Main with a capital M) The good news for poker is that it looks like the dip in entries over the last two years was recession based and that numbers are once again on the rise. More good news is that as the field has narrowed there have been a healthy amount of pros, sponsored and semi sponsored players doing well. I think the odd “every day guy doing well” in The Main Event is ok, but god forbid poker’s main display piece becomes the domain the of Jamie Goldesk luck fest and it’s seen more as pokies than poker. This year it’s best especially interesting for Kiwis, Simon Watt is fresh off OUR (lol) first bracelet win and local favorite and often honorary Kiwi Tony Dunst traveled deep (50th) (Tony has only been here twice but they were GOOD trips) For Simon it’s been an amazing 12 months. An APPT win, A WSOP win and now a cash in the main event.

The real question I have as this phase of the WSOP wraps up and finds it’s “November 9″ is will Simon’s success in the US inspire more New Zealanders to move there for the business end of the season. We have plenty of talented poker players (I should know, my dead money funds their buy ins) Simon should just be the start of what is an invasion of the continental United States. Kiwis all looking for the same thing. The Main event Bracelet in 2011… Do it… Do it…

Brooke Howard-Smith