Event 11 and Event 12 coverage

Once again we are fortunate to have one of our favourite NZ poker players representing in Macau at the lastest APPT event. Dan Sing has a big following in the Auckland poker scene and he’s kindly sent back a telegram of the latest goings-on up in Macau.

Not only do we get a run down of the table action, but Dan also adds his own unique spin on things as he see’s them.

Grab a coffee and settle in, you’ll enjoy this……

Dan Sing

After an essentially failed ANZPT Sydney effort all round I didn’t really have the desire to write up a storm so to speak. In summary it went like this

•    Made it relatively deep into day 2
•    Sucked the kumara
•    Went out with the La Vida Team
•    Got pissed
•    Pretended we won
•    Had giant mud crabs
•    Came home
•    Read bank statement
•    Gave myself an uppercut.

Anyway, despite what is basically a *spoiler alert* similar Macau session, I thought I would give you something to read and if anything some travel advice on Macau for those of you keen on venturing up here.

I was conveniently required to be in Hong Kong for a work opportunity at the same time as the APPT festival was running in Macau so I thought I would hatch a plan.

Rough exchange rate NZD 1 = HKD 5

The main event entry is HKD40,000 which is way too expensive for my liking and as I didn’t have time to play the phase satellites I decided to play the deep stack HKD1500 and the HKD10,000 HKD500K guarantee and pending result would decide whether I would fork out for the main.

The way I see it is that if you aren’t a sponsored pro and you can’t satellite in to an event you really shouldn’t be playing.

Click here to read the rest of the story……

Event 11 No Limit Holdem Deep Stack  $1,500(1,350+150) – 10k start bank

This event was a good chance to get a feel for the card room and the regulars who play there.

With 100+ runners it was nowhere near as big as I had hoped. We often get 100 players to a $300 deep stack event in Auckland even outside a major event period.

It is easy to forget that Macau is a destination venue, and hence they do not have a large local population to call on for tourneys.

Game on.

I immediately like my table as there were two Euro internet bashers and a balance of rocks and fish. The two Euros are obviously mates and are having their own private conversations about players on the table between hands in what sounds like Swedish.

It’s funny how people think a foreign language is enough to disguise what is being said. We shall call them Benny and Bjorn – if they were speaking Dansk I could have called them Barbie Girl and Dr Jones.

Benny is more aggressive than Bjorn, growing pots to 4K in the first blind level, and firing out huge three barrel bluffs.

I manage to improve my stack to around 13K working the right spots and not having to show down any hands but at the back of my mind all I really want to do right now is stack one of Team ABBA.

Blinds 100/200

I attack Benny’s BB from the cut-off raising to 550 with Js6s

My stack 13,000 Benny’s stack 9000

He calls and we see the a flop of KsJc8s pot 1200

I couldn’t have hoped for a much better flop for my late position steal attempt that got contested.

He checks and I lead out for 800

He calls quickly and we see the turn – 4s

Boom!

There is now 2800 in the pot

He checks and after taking a moment I figure whilst the card is great for me it could also keep him in the hand if he called my bet with a pair and a back door straight and / or flush draw which just improved.

I am not 100% on what he has however there are loads of hands I can rule out based on his profile ie. All the hands he three bets me with raising out of the cut off in the BB, all the hands he is likely to lead out with on the flop, and all the hands he is likely to check raise with on the flop.

He checks to me and I elect to bet 1425

Again he calls quickly and the river fires out the Ah

I have swollen the pot to 5650 and Benny has around 6k left.

Benny tanks.

The ace is only really good for me if it improves his hand. If he already had something the ace may put him off calling my river value bet.

If his intention was to float me out of position and trying to move me off a potentially textured couple of streets the ace certainly slows him down.

Benny checks.

I know I get paid off by two pair here and if he didn’t have two pair before he could easily have a hand like As8x that calls the flop to either improve or outplay and the spade on the turn keeps him in the hand.

If he intended to put in a move he’s now given up the hand by checking in which case he doesn’t call any bet. If any of the other logical hands are there I think he will call off a decent bet so I fire out 4000. A bet that I want to appear poorly thought out and bluffish as I know Benny thinks I will probably check behind on that board if I have showdown value.

Benny calls and I rake in a big pot.

Two hands later Bjorn stacks off on a flush draw and is sent to the rail. I guess not without the same level of fan tears as when ABBA broke up in 1982.

This was the only highlight of my day on the felt.

Our table breaks not long after and I somehow manage to be – as they say in Macau  – “Lest bik bly” and I get moved 4 more times in the next 3 levels.

For the next hour or so I am basically card dead, have to lay down hands when I am caught stealing to maintain a playable stack size and finally end up shoving with AK over a raise and getting called off by a player with twice my stack with 77.

I bust out 19th with the top 13 getting paid. #@$%*

On the bright side, I check into my room at the The Hard Rock Hotel which is mint. The pool complex is stunning and you can’t beat the HKD28 menu downstairs at the Yo noodle bar within the City of Dreams Complex.

Hainan Chicken Rice at City of Dreams Yo Noodle Bar HKD 28 – Good Times

Event 12 No Limit Holdem $500,000 Guarantee  $10,000 ($9,200+$800) – 10K start bank.

As I make my way to the poker room up the four levels of escalators, I pass through all the hideous Swarovski crystal beads dangling all over the Grand Lisboa which reminds me of the Franklin Rd neighbour that went a little overboard this Christmas. “Under Pressure” by David Bowie and Queen is randomly selected on the ipod shuffle. This would turn out to be a seemingly accurate prelude to my day ahead.

When I reach the top, the first person I run into is none other than the godfather of NZ Poker Graeme “Kiwi G” Putt. 3rd on the New Zealand all time money list only behind Lee Nelson and Jamil Dia who have both won the Aussie Millions main event.

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=512

Despite being fellow members of the 2009 State of Origin winning NZ Poker Team (self plug), it takes Graeme a moment to recognise me amongst a room full of Asians.
I mean after all we do all look the same.

Graeme and I joke about this over coffee, however, there is something in this to lift your poker game.

Hard Rock Hotel Macau

Player Profiling

On two separate occasions this trip I was confused about a player’s identity. First a young Chinese guy is moved to my table who I don’t initially recognise. Turns out it’s none other than Steve an Aussie Chinese guy I have played and chatted with on numerous occasions but in reality I am not expecting to see him here so to me he’s just another Asian fuller who isn’t Bryan Huang.

Second, an older Chinese man who I mis-profiled based on my experience with another older Chinese man. Turns out he wasn’t that guy at all. What was worse was that I had played him during the APPT final in Sydney 2008 and he was a much more dangerous player than I had initially thought. I skilfully ran my AKs into his AA for 80% of my stack in the 9th level.

New Zealand is such a multi-cultural melting pot that this seldom applies.  On the other hand, imagine yourself playing APPT Macau / Cebu / Manila or even encountering the numerous Greek or Lebanese players in Sydney. You can’t just click on “notes” and write “tard calls pot OOP on 2 streets w a gut for 70% of stk”

The key here is really putting your memory to work. It is not enough to make basic mental notes about the players.  You really need to keep your memory sharp in order to be able to distinguish and recognise players over the course of a poker festival. Whether you need to drink a V, eat some ginko nuts or smoke some weed*, this is a crucial aspect of the game.

*http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/11/marijuana-could/

Like most of Asia everything is for show and can juice this by a factor of ten when it comes to cash. When you order Champagne at Cubic (one of the hot spots in the AIA Tower), it comes with a random fireworks stick sellotaped to the side of the bottle which is lit up whilst the bottle is en route to your table. This is not because you’re your birthday, it is merely a reminder to everyone else in the bar who is wasting the most cash.

Macau is a place where riches are made and lost. If you go broke at least you can travel around for free taking the various hotel shuttles everywhere you need to be as long as you’re happy to go via the ferry terminal.

I run into Lee aka “The Panda” and a few ex Sky City Auckland boys grinding out the 50/100 and 100/200 cashies at The Venetian whilst Nathaniel Seet (6th APPT Auckland 2008) reportedly took down a HKD2.1M  pot last night at the Wynn in a slightly bigger game – I bet he got the champagne with the Roman Candle….

D

Dan Sing returns with another tale from the trenches at the Aussie Millions at Crown Casino, Melbourne

After a nice deep 10 hour sleep and a Lucky Chans Yum Cha Breakfast with my travel buddies Richie Lancaster and Jeff Putt (The yum cha not the sleep) it was time to battle.

Despite being one of the shorter stacks at my table I had a relatively fortunate table draw with only one gun on my table who was seated in the cut-off to my BB. He’s a super aggressive UK pro raising four times and orbit and happened to be called “Dan Carter”. We shall call him “Dan Carter(not)”.

http://www.pokerpages.com/players/profiles/70190/dan-carter.htm

Seated to my left was a middle aged Chinese man who was very short stacked had shipped his stack in twice in the first 3 hands winning both races and one time tabling Ts8s finding a great spot against 66. In the same hand I open folded 44 only to see a 4 hit the turn. I usually mock people who tell you these kind of stories as the action would never have seen them in the hand in the first place not to mention the fact that they would certainly not have managed to see the turn unless the third player in the hand checked down to bust a player.

Looking at this in print it reads as stupid as it sounds….

In the next hand before the action came to me I could see the Chinese guy was going to shove again. He had already peeked at his cards and had his stack in hand. I look down at KK and slightly over min raise. Sure enough he announces “Orrrr Ing” and for the first time in 3 shoves he has a decent hand showing AQo. His two double ups mean he has about 70% of my stack now which I graciously add to my chips as the board bricks out.

In deep stack events i usually like to set myself short term goals and my first short term goal today was to double up and make the money. I didn’t have enough chips to chip up around the bubble so I make 2 significant folds when we are getting close.

FOLD # 1 – my stack 80K blinds 1500/3000

UTG I have AhKh and raise to 7500

A pretty handy young player shoves all in for 30K
DC(not) re shoves for 100K – surely an isolation raise.

This is not what I would call a particularly big fold but it is a nice hand to have to lay down. i open fold.

Tabled hands AcKs vs AdKd

Chop Chop Chop Meh.

FOLD # 2 – my stack 75K blinds 2000/4000 ante 500

Fat Aussie Boy with 160K raises to 10500
DC(not) with 100K re raises to 32000

Action to me in the SB. I have JJ. My thought process here is that Fat Aussie Boy is likely to be stealing the blinds. It is also likely that DC(not) knows this and is basically calling him out with the 3 possible scenarios not being so bad ie. playing the flop in position, being forced to fold to a shove, calling a shove if he really has it.

If I shove here and do a bit of acting they could both fold bringing me up to 125K – nice work for no show down. Added to this I have only tabled KK AKs AQ AK since the start of the day.

The problems I have with this are:

1. Both Fat Aussie Boy and DC(not) are good enough that I am not getting any reliable information from them as to the strength of their hands.
2. One of them may really have a hand.
3. One of the Poker News reporters just came over to ask me how a hand (which i wasn’t involved in) played out for the live reporting blog. Random as that sounds, what it means to a player like DC(not) is that even if he didn’t know me before and perhaps profiled me as a fish or a Nit at that stage, the journo has now somehow managed to give me “poker kudos” so DC(not) will now give me credit for being able to make that play with a less than premium hand to which he may call a lot lighter.
4. They both have more chips than me.
5. I can probably pick a better spot.
6. We are close to the money.
7. We are close to the money.
8. If I bust here this would be a pretty short story.
9. In the back of my mind I can hear Mike King’s voice saying “Nothing stupid Dano…”

I ask myself “what would Lee Nelson do?” and in reality I know that Lee would have figured all this shit out 3 minutes ago and his hand would be in the muck by now.

I toss the jacks and Fat Aussie Boy folds. Hmmmm.

——————

Almost at the Bubble – blinds 2000/4000 ante 500 The Wooosaaahh effect.

I have basically shut shop being essentially card dead and not wanting to contest pots this close to the money with my stack size. After the blinds have passed through me I am down to 60K which I know I can ride till the bubble bursts.

The aggresors are raising every pot as you do around the bubble and I pick up AsKs UTG.

I raise to 11K and Fat Aussie Boy reraises to 25K.

I immediately know that open folding my AhKh earlier was a mistake. All it told Fat Aussie Boy it that I can make big folds which is what he is expecting me to do here.

I should jam it here however we are at hand for hand so I elect to call and see the flop first.

Fat Aussie Boy knows all of this. The only thing he doesn’t know is the true strength of my hand.

The flop peels out Jack high and I am forced to give up the hand. The double up spot ended up costing me a chunk of my stack.

Woooosaaaaaahhh.

——————–

Who brings a knife to a gun fight?? blinds 3000/6000 – a succession of Kill Phil poker plays.

A few hands earlier a young skinny American kid with an oversized ego is moved to our table and is conveniently seated between Fat Aussie Boy and DC(not). He has 100K and is taking up too much of the felt with his chips 8 inches in from the edge with his shirt, 1st generation i-pod and snacks tucked in behind them ON the table. The table immediately dislikes him as his first play is to announce raise, then string raise to 12100 to which the dealer tosses him back his 100 which he complains about trying to justify his need for that extra 100 chips to be in the hand. Cammmmaaan shut the %$#@ up already.

He is the kind of player that Dennis Huntly would make probably make cry on the table. For those of you who don’t know Dennis, earlier in the day he upset a young interweb nerd alert on his table when contesting a pot after telling him to “come back when you start shaving.”

As Kudos to Dennis we’ll call our boy Kindergarten Crybaby (KC). We’ll also call Fat Aussie Boy FAB now as I do not battle him again and no longer feel the need to mock him.

It was clear that FAB -160K, KC-100K and DC(not)-120K wanted to battle for the blinds despite being on the bubble with thirteen tables in play.

Hand # 1

Folded to FAB in the SB who raises to 15K
KC announces all in
FAB folds

Hand # 2

Folded to KC in the SB who raises to 13K
DC(not) announces all in
KC folds

a few hands later after FAB steal blinds:

KC raises to 13K
DC(not) announces all in
KC calls

DC(not) shows JJ / KC shows QQ

Boom! ship ship

KC now has 250K DC(not) has 13K

DC(not) then ships his last 13K in with AJ only to be called by the BB with Q7 as the board runs out Q 5 6 4 3

On another table a player with less than 1BB cashes – and that’s how the bubble burst. Ch-Ching.

I fall victim to the Crybaby on tilt. Blinds 3000/6000

After three embarrassing plays and one poor attempt to float a player KC has donked off 200K and is down to 50K.

I look down at As9s and shove for 37500

it is folded to KC in the SB who reshoves for 50K

He turns over K6o – wtf is heard from the rail.

I think you can work out the rest.

Window card Ace followed by 4 6 K 8

Of course I LOVE the call just not the result.

I finish 81st out of 1143 down a few Heinekins and rail for Jeff “The Butcher” Putt who manages 24th, a sterling effort only to be busted by US pro and bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst.

We continue the revelry with Kiwi boys Steve “Smitty” Smith who also cashed deep and Phillip Wilcocks (2nd ANZPT Gold Coast and final table APPT Cebu) until 8 security guards escort Philip off the premises for being “too intoxicated”. Legend.

No poker for me today but I do believe Jeff is shouting Emperor Crab for dinner.

Thanks to all for the good luck wishes it all helps and even if I didn’t believe in luck knowing that my posse if railing me from a far makes me try not to play like an idiot and keep cool till after school.

Aussie Millions 2010

As you can see, I’ve been incredibly busy and the poor old Poker NZ site has been left to it’s own devices for a while.

Anyway, I’ve been lucky enough to have some updates from the Aussie Millions from none other than NZ poker legend, Dan Sing.

I’m hoping over the next few days we’ll get more updates as he battles his way through the tournaments for his shot at the Aussie Millions!

Here’s Dan….

Event one $1100 repecharge brought in a huge field of 1143 players.

I started the day pretty rough and within no time my 10k starting stack was down to 8k after raising with AK / AJs / 99 with no less than 2 callers and having to lay down after missing the flop completely.

After a couple of hours I had profiled my table. There was really only 2 guys that I had any respect for, no name pros just solid players. One of them had no pot management skills and was pot betting every street if he had raised pre regardless of the board and built an impressive stack without having to show down any hands.

I made a mental note to stay out of his way until I had a monster or a concealed hand and hopefully take a big pot off him. He was also chucking back the bourbon and cokes and eating the stinkiest salami sandwich so i figured it was only a matter of time before Jim Beam would start playing his hands for him.

I decided to get creative in hands when he had either folded or looked like he was going to as the rest of the table was pretty soft and the only other decent player had managed to short stack himself trying to bluff a fish when he missed a big draw. He should have known better but I guess it was the only way he could win the hand. The fish was a 40+ hairy chested loud mouth sporting the big gold watch and fat gold chain and didn’t know how to fold top pair on a draw heavy board. He was my best spot to value bet to death.

After he limped into a pot I 3 bet with 65 off. The blinds folded and he made the call. The flop comes down A 7 8 rainbow. He checks and I throw a 60% pot bet out. The gin card 9 hits the turn. He checks and I check behind.

The river comes a deuce and he checks and I bet full pot. He overthinks the play thinking the seeming overbet and check on the turn meant I C bet the flop with KQ or similar and calls. I showdown and he mucks. I am almost 100% he called me there with 2nd pair. His player profile would certainly roll the ace if he had it to try and show some disgust for the hand.

For the first time I was above starting stack and from here i managed to grind it up to 18k before getting stuck in a huge pot.

at the 150/300 blind level, Jim Beam min raises to 600. The button who is a young looking Asian smiley kinda guy who we shall call the Bali Bomber makes the call and so does the SB. I am in BB with what Brooke refers to as “Faces” ie Fake Aces – A4 and make the value call and we head 4 way to the flop with about 2500 in the pot.

Flop J 6 4 rainbow.

It’s checked around to the button and the Bali Bomber fires out a 1000 bet. His tells are pretty elementary so I raise it to 2100 figuring he folds complete air and calls if he has a draw.

An unexpected thing happens and the pre flop raiser Jim Beam calls and so does the Bali Bomber.

This hand is starting to smell worse than his sandwich.

In the first instance he didn’t do his usual C bet after raising pre which initially I put down to the fact that we were 4 way to the flop and he wasn’t going to risk wasting chips in a hand he couldn’t win. In theory someone had to have something.

The pot is now over 9k.

There are 2 things going through my head here. Either he is making what he thinks is a value call with 2 overcards which would be retarded or he has flopped a monster. I can’t be sure that he really has it as there was enough in the pot when i check raised the Bomber for him to take down with a repop. As far as the Bomber is concerned I can no longer put him on a particular draw. My initial thoughts was that maybe has had a a gutshot with 78 suited or maybe he has A6 and is trying to spike 2 pair or trips. When he makes the call on the flop he announces “ok gamble” which is always handy…

The evil turn.

The turn card brings the 4c putting 2 clubs on the board.

My hand has improved out of sight. If Jim Beam has JJ or 66 i have to find out now or I may get stack committed on the river.

I lead out for 4500 leaving me 11k. Almost 40% of my stack is now in the pot.

Jim Beam then moves all in and has me and Bali well covered.

The Bali Bomber makes the call.

I am pretty sure that he has filled up so I elect to fold and live to fight another day.

They showdown and sure enough the dirty bastard has 66. The Bali Bomber loses his smile as he turns over 5c3c and is drawing to 2 outs for the straight flush on the river which bricks sending him to the noodle bar.

I try block the hand out of my mind on one hand patting myself on the back for making a good fold on the other hand giving myself an uppercut for battling that spot.

Dirty Short Stack Ninjas

I have been card dead for a while and haven’t played a hand. As a result my stack has dwindled to 7k.

We are now at 300/600 and there are a few stacks less than 3k on the table.

I’m in the BB with K9o

A short stack has limped UTG so has the button and SB completes and I consider shoving here but decide the short stack calls me so I check.

Flop K 6 4 with two spades

I check, the short stack leads out 800 into a 2600 pot. Everyone else folds and I call.

Turn 7h

I announce all in.

He calls and turns over As7s

The river bombs a spade giving his the nut flush and I am down to under 4500. Nice

I decide I can let one orbit of blinds pass through me before it is shove time. Which is exactly what happens.

I get down to 3k. My love rug friend 4 bets UTG and I look down to QQ. The chips go in and he shows 44. The Queens hold up and I’m back to 7K.

I finally find the cards at the 400/800 level

The only other decent player tripled up his tiny stack in a 3 way pot having shipped his last 2600 into the pot from the BB after a raise and a call.

The flop comes down J 4 2 all hearts. The preflop raiser checks and the next player moves all in.

In a retarded play he turns over AsQs

The all in player rolls over T4o and things get better for him with the T hitting the turn bringing hip back to 8k.

3 hands later he is in the cut-off and I am SB. it is folded to him and he open shoves for 8k.

I look down at AA.

BOOM

I’m back to 15k.

A few hands later I pick up AdKd and a player raises to 3k. I shove for 15k. He has about 30k and makes the call tabling AQ off.

BOOM I’m up to 32k.

The next hand is being dealt. I am UTG and limp in with AsTs whilst stacking my new found wealth.

It is folded to the button who also limps. He is a new player to the table and is a painful Brit wanker and I really want to bust him. The BB is also a new player, an older lady with a 30k stack.

The old ladies all play the same. Super nit and married to big hands.

The small blind folds and Supergran checks.

Flop

T T 6

She checks i check Brit Prick leads out for 2000.

Supergran raises to 5000.

I pretty much know what everyone has. The Brit guy has position and a whole lot of fuck all. Supergran has a ten of sorts but doubtful T6 to be raising there.

I am 100% that I have the best hand so have to figure out how to get paid off. I choose to shove all in 32k.

Brit folds and Supergran snap calls with T3.

Ship Ship Ship now I’m up at 70k.

They then break our table which sucks because I was owning it and I get moved to a much stronger table with Tony “Bond18″ Dunst and a few young gun online pros.

With 80 minutes till end of play for the day I pretty much stay out of harms way. I have to lay down to shoves after i’ve opened to steal blinds with AT / KQ and lose a few smaller pots to short stacks when I had dominating hands ie. calling a Short stack shove with Ac9c and losing to his A3 off. I end the day on 45k.

194 players left for day 2. Avg stack 60k.

My pizza should be here shortly then bedtime and battle tomorrow.

Hopefully I can run good tomorrow and make the cash. please please please please mmmm pizza

Massage was the preference for many to ease away early tournament nerves.

Auckland DJ Sam Hill has his first hand pocket K’s busted by a set on the river, sits back and ponders the poker gods.

Tony Hachem and Eric Assadourian (looking to keep his nose clean until tomorrows sitting)

Brooke Howard Smith host of NZ’s Celebrity Joker Poker always a tiger at the table

The Dealers let their fingers do the work as the cards began to fly and the chip stacks began to change shape

Other local faves Dan Singh and Mike King were also in action in the early session, keep an eye out for more pictures.

CELEBRITY POKER TOURNAMENT – noun, a chance to see who out of selected NZ celebrities has an ounce of game at the Poker table.

The SKYCITY Celebrity Invitational gets underway on Tuesday night at 6.15. A stellar field of around 150 entrants from all walks of life will take to the tables for the most part to enjoy the occasion but don’t be fooled by the smiling and handshaking, there is more at stake here than purely bragging rights. That’s the great thing about our game, almost everyone fancies themselves as a contender and you can be sure the tension levels will be high come the business end of this event.

Here is the just a sample of the ‘talent’ this tournament has attracted and what could be better than to watch your favourite celebs making calls they should never make and taking down pots the experts tell them they have no rights to be in. Just imagine the fun with some of these potential head to head battles.

Ian Smith & Mark Richardson, Mark Sainsbury & Paul Holmes, Hamish McKay & Neil Waka, Richard Loe & Allan Whetton, Siobhan Marshall & Fleur Saville, Vicky Lee & Aja Rock, Savage & Mareko, Kathryn Powely & Kylie Bailey

So as the SKYCITY Festival of Poker rolls on, get a crew together come up to Level 3, grab a drink then sit back and watch the best live drama there is – POKER !

]]> http://www.pokernz.com/news/online-poker-news/celebrity-poker/feed/ 0 http://www.pokernz.com/archive/local-celebs-help-launch-the-sky-city-nz-poker-open/ http://www.pokernz.com/archive/local-celebs-help-launch-the-sky-city-nz-poker-open/#comments Thu, 28 May 2009 11:12:48 +0000 Admin http://www.pokernz.com/?p=365 It was a regular ‘who’s who’ of the local music and television scene with the launch of Sky City’s NZ Poker Open last night at Auckland’s Sky City.

Dan Sing and Claire Chitham

Many familiar faces were on the felt including Elemeno P’s Dave Gibson, Che Fu, Otis Jackson, Mareko and Dawn Raid’s own ‘Brutha D’. Savage was seen leaving around 9:30pm while Poker Zone resident Dan Sing was still in the game, joined by Claire Chitham and fellow ex Shortland Streeter, Craig Parker.

Dave from ElemenoP

The drinks were flowing and the cameras were still blazing after 10pm when the field was narrowed. While there was no money at stake, it was still a fun event and a great start to the Sky City Poker Open this weekend.

The results finished up like this:

1 – Dan Sing

2 – Mike King

3 – Claire Chitham

According to winner Dan Sing, “…the rest of the night got a little hazy,  think it had something to do with shots and fried chicken!”

If you fancy getting in on the action this weekend, you can get all the information you need at http://www.skycityauckland.co.nz

Che Fu & Craig Parker

The main event kicks off on Sunday with an $1100 buy-in.

However, if this is a little rich for you, how about trying your hand in one of the satellite games? There’s one game tonight at 7:15p and another on Saturday at 4:45p. You can be sure a selection of NZ’s top players will be out to win their share of the $50,000 prize pool so even if you just want to watch, don’t miss the main events on Sunday and Monday.

Saturday night’s $330 side event attracted 68 entracts and was taken out by Angie Fitzgerald who picked up just under $7000.

Sunday’s main event kicked off with 119 contenders from all over NZ including a big contingent from Wellington and Rotorua, and even a player from The Cook Islands making the journey.

At 5pm Dan Cranker (APPT Auckland winner) was still in, along with Martin Cardno (1st in the A$ 500 No Limit Hold’em 2008 PokerNews Cup Championship, Melbourne) and John Pye (3rd in NZ Poker Champs 2008).

Brooke Howard Smith was one of the 1st casualties of the day who was taken out by the young Clay Buskermolen (who just turn 20 about a month ago) and also took out Sky City Poker Zone regular, Dan Sing.

The tournament was played down to level 8 on the final 3 tables before breaking until the Main Event today.

I’ll post another update as it comes to hand or if anyone is at the games, please comment below and let us know how it’s going.