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, November 27th, 2011

A poker legend with a menacing gaze, Johnny Chan was unlucky to depart early into the money.

Day 3 of APPT Macau came to an end yesterday in the early hours of the morning, with tournament officials resolving to end play for the day with just 15 players remaining. After facing a thirteen hour long day, players are now scheduled to begin play again today at around midday local time (5 p.m. NZST).

The long day action of saw the demise of a number of key players, as the money bubble loomed with 79 to be paid. Action slowed as the day progressed, and the first of the big casualties was claimed with the elimination of poker legend Johnny Chan. Also claimed before Chan’s departure was kiwi Jackson Zheng, whose A9o couldn’t improve after he put the last of his short stack in to be called by pocket Tens.

With nearly 2.5 million in chips, Sangeeth Mohan of India is the current leader.

As the evening moved on, players witnessed the departure of previous champion Victorino Torres, who put on a great show to cash the event immediately after the year that he won it. Unfortunately day 3 was not a day for kiwis however, with Thomas Ward being the next to depart to the rail. Ward found a monster behind him when he stuck in his final 10 blinds from the cut-off with JT offsuit. His opponent held QQ, and despite a Ten in the window, he could not improve further.

APPT tournament regular Daniel Francis was not long to follow, finding himself in an unlucky spot against Poker Stars Team Online pro Randy “nanonoko” Lew. With short stacks, Francis had all his money in pre-flop, and was called by Lew. Lew held 88 and Francis trailed with 77, and a board full of bricks sent another kiwi hopeful to the rail. The day ended nearly 5 hours later with champion jockey Shane Dye’s good run coming to an end in a double elimination. Dye’s last 260,000 chips went in from the button, and were met with a snap call from India’s Sangeeth Mohan, who held pocket Kings. Sangeeth now holds the chip lead going into the final day. Minutes after Dye’s elimination, chips were being bagged up for the day, with remaining players able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Here are the final 15’s chip counts, with a few notable appearances. Team Pokerstars Online’s Randy Lew will be looking to take a shot at his first international title, and David Steicke is no stranger to asia based live final tables. With another long day ahead and plenty of play to come, today should be interesting to say the least:

Sangeeth Mohan (India) PokerStars — Macau Qualifier 2423000

Kai Yat Fam (Singapore) – 2358000

Jimmy Pan (Netherlands) – 1586000

Zuo Wang China –1540000

Fabian Spiedelmann (Germany) — PokerStars Qualifier 1425000

Jeffrey Rossiter (Australia) – 1173000

Josh Barrett (Australia) — PokerStars Qualifier 1013000

Zheng Tai Tan (Singapore) – 985000

David Steicke (Hong Kong) — PokerStars Player 886000

Randy Lew (Canada) — Team Online 845000

Daniel Nordstrom (Sweden) – 786000

Daoxing ‘Bobo’ Chen (China) 672000

Tsugunari Toma (Japan) – 635000

Baton Fung (Hong Kong) – 338000

Sparrow Cheung (Hong Kong) — 238000

By JAMES PUGSLEY, OCTOBER 12th, 2011

An enigma outside of his ambigous avatar, "prot0" declined an interview with Poker NZ. Speculation continues as to his real persona.

After nearly 3 weeks of long hours at the virtual felts, and 62 events in the books, the 2011 World Championship of Online Poker has finally come to an end. Hosted at Pokerstars.net, WCOOP finished just over two weeks ago, and fielded a total of $47,120,180 in prizes. Since the dust has settled we’ve had some time to review kiwi results, with the main focus being our unknown second place finisher in event #21, who plays under the screen name “prot0.” While it was our intention to interview him regarding his deep run, Pokerstars media has advised that he would like to remain unpublicised in that regard, and so we gathered what information was available about the kiwi’s excellent run.

Prot0 and well known kiwi grinder Jackson Zheng had both made deep runs in event #21, though it was not to be for Zheng, who finished in 80^th. Prot0 then went on to final table the event, entering the last table as one of the short stacks. It wasn’t long before he’d found pocket queens and was all-in against Argentina’s “Soydemillo” who held pocket kings. Crushed despite holding a monster in a great situation, it was then on the kiwi to turn the tables, as the turn brought a queen to give prot0 a boat. Shortly after he was off and running, with a newly minted stack to tangle with the Europeans that remained.

A few collapses later, and they were down to five. With first sitting at around $230,000, and 5^th a meagre $70,000, the remaining entrants then devised a “chop” or deal which would guarantee each of them a six figure payday, with prot0 locking up $145,615 for his efforts. With the money divided relatively evenly, and only the bracelet and $25,000 left to play for, every player began to ramp up the aggression. A few eliminations later, and it was prot0 heads-up with Polish player “gregor7878.” The hand that would decide it all came very early in the match, with prot0 being dealt two black Kings on the button, with blinds at 400,000 / 800,000. The kiwi quickly made a raise to around 1.7 million, and was met with a re-raise to 4.5 million from Gregor, who held a meagre A8 offsuit. Prot0 promptly put in a 4-bet to 7.5 million, and perhaps suspecting a bluff – the Polish player moved all-in for over 30 million in chips. Prot0 immediately made the call, being a crushing favourite with only one run-out between him and New Zealand’s first bracelet. Things looked great at first – the board came K Q J to give the kiwi a set of Kings, but just as easily as the turn had put out a harmless off suit 3, it was on the river that prot0’s dreams were crushed – with a 10 giving Gregor broadway and effectively the tournament.

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. For those who are interested, Prot0′s final table in event #21 is still available for viewing on Pokerstars.net, where all the action is shown with hole cards exposed.

Other notable kiwi finishes included Jason Brown, who plays under the screen name “poker_lord76.” Brown had a slew of deep finishes this WCOOP, which started off with a deep run in event #44 where he came 23^rd, and ended on the final day of the series where he somehow managed to advance to day 2 in both event #60 and the Main Event, which would land him 48^th and 159^th finishes respectively. While surely not the finishes that he had hoped for, both Zheng and Brown had lasted through massive fields of top quality players to make day two in the Main Event, but departed shortly after. A full summary of WCOOP results and all information regarding the events can be found here.

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.

Simon Watt was eliminated toward the end of day 1B, after 4-betting all in with 55.

By JAMES PUGSLEY, AUGUST 26TH, 2011

After three 8 hour days of intense tournament poker, it’s finally time to begin day 2 of ANZPT Queenstown Snowfest. Many big names joined the rail throughout the deep stacked play of the first days, with Pokerstars Team Pro Joe Hachem departing from SKYCITY’s Summit Room around 5 pm on day 1B. Hachem was reportedly knocked out after being shown trips as he triple barreled his stack away on a flop with two tens in the window. Simon Watt also joined the ranks of vanquished champions when he 4-bet shoved 55 into the 99 of Reggie Lyons, who found a board full of bricks to send Watt home.

Cole Swannack returns to day 2 with a massive stack and a wealth of experience.

As for those still in the running, there is a tonne of talent ready to come out of the gates on day 2, which starts today at 12:30. Day 1A saw a slew of competent grinders climb the ranks, with the likes of Jackson Zheng (80,125), Koray Turker (85,075) and Cole Swannack (86,050) all sitting near the top of the leader board after crushing the tables on day 1A. Our chip leader for day 2 however, came from day 1C — where Selina Sale ended the day as overall chip leader at 91,750.

Sale found a massive comeback after limping pre-flop with Ad 6s, only to find the nut flush draw when Leo Boxell raised her and they went three ways to a flop of Qd 9d 2d. Sale then overcame Boxell’s top pair and another contenders flopped flush, by turning the better flush, and was off running. Shortly after, Australian player Joel Dodds ran a massive bluff against the kiwi, who eventually got all her money in with As 3h after again limping in pre-flop. After isolating the action with a raise, Dodds bet out at a board of  Ac 5c 3s, only to find a raise, which he then re-raised again as a bluff. With the turn bringing the K of diamonds, Dodds completed his bluff, putting in the remainder of his stack — with Sale eventually making the call. Dodds tabled QhTh for complete air, while Sale raked in the massive pot to shoot up to 103,000. After losing a few smaller pots, Sale bagged up for the day as chip leader for the whole event.

Alicia Sale leads the day 2 combined field, with an impressive 91,750 to end the day.

Here are the chip leaders as we move into day 2. For more information and comprehensive coverage, you can also check out Pokerstars ANZPT blog, found here.

1 – Alicia Sale (NZ): 91,750

2 – Cole Swannaack (NZ): 86,050

3 – Koray Turker (NZ): 85,075

4- Jackson Zheng (NZ): 80,125

5- Ben Paurini (NZ): 77,225

6 – Marcel Schreiner (Germany): 72,600

7 – Matty Yates (NZ): 62,100

8 – Daniel Laidlaw (Australia): 60,075

9 – Octavian Voegele (Austria): 59,975

10 – Andrew Henrichsen (Australia): 54,450

With a 1st place prize of $94,300, and many good players still remaining,  the most crucial aspects of the tournament are still to come. Stay informed with Poker NZ as we continue coverage over the next few days.

Sky City Poker Open Title Stays in Auckland

(from Press Release)

Poker royalty turned out last weekend for the annual Queen’s Birthday poker tournament, the New Zealand Poker Open at SKYCITY Auckland.  Jackson Zheng from Auckland took away the trophy and title of New Zealand Poker Open winner, outlasting 124 poker playing hopefuls at the tables and collecting NZD $37,110.

The tournament began on Sunday 6 June at SKYCITY Poker with 125 players taking their seats with a starting stack of 15,000 in chips for their NZD $1,100 buy-in. Many of New Zealand’s top poker players were there including New Zealand’s top poker player, Lee ‘Final Table’ Nelson; Brooke Howard-Smith; Richard Lancaster; 2009 SKYCITY Festival of Poker eighth place Lance Climo; 2010 Lee Nelson Deep Stack winner, Angie Fitzgerald and Kevin Clark.

Players bet, raised and folded for ten rounds until the final 29 players remained to go through to the final day.

Dealer’s dealt out the first cards of the final day at midday on Monday 7 June to the final 29 players with the field made up of domestic players from some of the country’s major centres including Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua and Hamilton. Three female players made it through to the final 29 looking to recreate the win seen at the 2010 SKYCITY Lee Nelson Deep Stack by Angie ‘Ice Queen’ Fitzgerald becoming the first female to win a major poker tournament in New Zealand. All three were looking at taking home the trophy in what is a largely male dominated sport.

Chip leader going into the final day was Guobing Yu from Auckland with 165,000 in chips. The chip stack leader changed throughout the day with the final table of nine players coming together at 7.45pm.

All players at the final table played cautiously and tight until Jackson Zheng and Kevin Clark from Auckland were the last two remaining.  The final cards down on the table were Queen 7; Queen, 8, 10, giving Jackson the victory over Kevin with his King, 7 against Kevin’s Ace, 6, giving Jackson the winning hand of two pair Queens and 7s and the title of 2010 SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open winner.

The tournament also included the prestigious NZD $550 buy-in Teams Event with SKYCITY Poker Ambassador Brooke Howard-Smith and Comedian Mike King dominating the field and taking away the title of 2010 SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open Teams Event winners. This is the first major event win for Brooke Howard-Smith.

The results for the main event were:

13. Harry Yi – Auckland – $1,250.00

12. Brian Biggs – Auckland – $2,130.00

11. Brett Unkovich – Auckland – $2,500.00

10. James Smith – Auckland – $3,250.00

9. David Lim – Auckland – $3,630.00

8. Jordon Bryant – Wellington – $4,000.00

7. Lance Climo – Hamilton – $5,000.00

6. Renae Baker – Rotorua – $6,000.00

5. Guobing Yu – Auckland – $9,500.00

4. Robert Wang – Auckland – $11,750.00

3. Ray McCarthy – Auckland – $14,630.00

2. Kevin Clark – Auckland – $24,250.00

1. Jackson Zheng – Auckland – $37,110.00

The next event at SKYCITY Auckland is the 2010 SKYCITY Festival of Poker held September 13 to 19