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

We are VERY lucky to have the following video provided to us by NotoriousBHS as he interviews some of the celebrities at the Auckland Festival of Poker. It’s a fantastic clip, please comment if you want to see more!

Things got underway at around half past twelve today as the first group of players took to the tables in the SKYCITY Festival of Poker Main Event. Certainly no shortage of caps, hoodies, headphones and sunnies as the field got down to business.

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 – noun, a famous or well known person.

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 !

NZ Poker Open

After an exciting weekend of poker at Auckland’s Sky City, it was Jamie Kristov who emerged victorious last night, taking home $41,300 in prize money.

Day one kicked off on Sunday with 140 players competing for the $140,000 in prize money. Throughout the afternoon and evening, this was whittled down to only 24 players who then came back to play on the final day of the Main Event.

The final results ended up like this with Aucklander Jamie Kristov taking out the main prize, Joe Alis took 2nd place and Tokoroa’s Wendy Cook picking up $16,100 for 3rd place.

1st Jamie Kristov, Auckland, NZ $41300
2nd Joe Alis, Auckland, NZ $26880
3rd Wendy Cook, Tokorua, NZ $16100
4th John Pye, Auckland, NZ $12880
5th David Boyd, Hamilton, NZ $10640
6th Steven “Smitty” Smith Auckland, NZ $6720
7th Jarm “Bad Beat” Joseph $5600
8th James Keenan, Auckland, NZ $4480
9th Kevin Clark, Auckland, NZ $3920
10th Renae Baker, Rotorua, NZ, $3500
11th Bob Sova Palmeston North, NZ $2800
12th Tony Yaldan $2380
13th Warren Price Auckland, NZ $1400
14th Josko Sestan Auckland, NZ $1400

The SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open Pot Limit Omaha Event was also held this weekend and won by Adrian Kitto.

So it was another successful weekend of poker at Auckland’s SkyCity and another event to add to the calendar for next year.

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.