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
