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.

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.

Lee Nelson is the winner of ANZPT Melbourne.

Wilcocks has found himself at the head of many live final tables recently, and apparently had lead quite a quiet tournament to find himself starting with around 1 million chips when the clock was wound back by tournament officials to start play at 8,000/16,000 blind levels. Nelson shared a similar stack as the final table began, and for quite some time, play was very tight. It wasn’t until 2 hours after play had resumed that Danny Chevalier claimed the first scalp of the final table, sending Justin Sanchez of Australia home in 9^th place for $13,020.

Play continued in a relatively solid manner, with Willcocks pushing some action against Chevalier, and Lee chipping up substantially to around 1.7 million. Another two hours gone by, and it was time for a succession of eliminations, which included Brett Chalhoub (8^th), and Stephen Eliesen who took 7^th after shipping Q5o with 10 big blinds into the KQo of Phillip Willcocks from the button. Sporting a self-styled t-shirt with the words “Degenerate Gambler” emblazoned on it — Elisen watched as the board ran out dry, departing with $22,320 for his efforts.

As the blinds continued to increase, effectively making play extremely short-stacked and pre-flop based, more competitors joined the rail. Previous chip leader Tom Wing found the exit shortly after he called a pre-flop all-in from Willcocks who shoved the button, with Wing tabling A7s from the big blind for what he likely thought would be the best hand, but Willcocks held AJs to have him crushed. After there were just five, it was Nelson who would eventually knock out Willcocks, after he lost a succession of pots, firstly against Nick Geogoulas, and secondly against Nelson post-flop. The two eventually got it all-in afterwards when Phillip put in his last 550,000 with 106s from the cut-off position, only to be called by Nelson’s A8 off-suit. While he was able to find a pair on the 6 4 Q rainbow flop that followed, the turn and river came 5 and 7 to deliver Lee with a four to a straight, cementing Willcocks’ 5^th place finish for $31,100.

Phillip Willcocks made yet another impressive run this year at ANZPT Melbourne, unlucky to take 5th -- but $34,000 richer for his pains.

What followed after was a chain of all-in situations, the first of which coming when Nelson opened with a raise to 100,000 from the button with the blinds at 25,000/50,000, and Karan Punjabi moved all in for his last 430,000. Lee made the call and tabled a virtual monster with TT, while Punjabi trailed with just A9o. It was not to be for Australian, as no help came with the dealer, with Karan awarded a healthy $43,090 for his commitment. It was not long after that a similar spot had unfolded, when Danny Chevalier put in his last 825,000 with 33 and was called by Nelson’s ATo. Again Lee found his magic as the board ran out a boat with tens full of Aces, and Chevalier was sent home in 3^rd for $55,180 in change.

Finally as heads-up began, it seemed that Lee was ready to gamble with his massive chip advantage. A few all-in confrontations later,  with relatively equal stacks, both players got all their chips in quite thin. Nick Georgoulas opened to 150,000, and Lee moved all-in, with the effective raise being roughly 2.1 million given Georgoulas own stack size. Whatever the odds though, Nick quickly made the call and tabled 44; with Nelson turning over JhTh for “classic” flip. It was virtually over almost immediately, as the dealer fanned out a flopped flush for Lee, bringing a royal flush re-draw when the board came A K 8, all hearts. The turn brought a harmless brick, leaving Lee as the champion and winner of the $156,550 first prize. The final results are shown below:

1st Lee Nelson (New Zealand) – $156,550
2nd Nick Georgoulas (Australia) – $99,200
3rd Danny Chevalier (Australia) – $55,180
4th Karan Punjabi (Australia) – $43,090
5th Phil Willcocks (New Zealand) – $34,100
6th Tom Wing (Australia) – $27,900
7th Stephen Eliesen (Australia) – $22,320
8th Brett Chalhoub (Australia) – $17,670
9th Justin Sanchez (Australia) – $13,020

Stay tuned to PokerNZ as we continue to follow the ANZPT, with the next chapter in Darwin. We’ll also be on the lookout for Lee, as we’re hopefully able to interview him over his latest tournament conquest.

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.