The call was put out – Auckland is yours for the taking. Many answered the call to play for a chance of winning a share of a prize pool worth hundreds of thousands of dollars along with the title of Auckland’s Poker Champion for 2017. What wasn’t expected was that the 2017 winner of Aussie Millions Shurane Vijayaram would put his hand up and compete for the title, wanting to expand his dominance from Australia to New Zealand.
With satellites and side events running from 20 May in the build up to the Main Event of the 2017 Auckland Poker Championships, just under1,000 people participated in the tournaments. 100 people would take the field for the Main Event starting on 2 July featuring fantastic local talent such as Sarah Saifi and Jamie Sadlier alongside international players including Shurane. Throughout the course of the Main Event, players busted out until only 10 were left on the final day and a chance to be crowned winner becoming more than just a wild hope. Shurane would be eventually knocked out in 4th place and with a Kiwi victory secured, the final 3 cut a deal to split the $128,000 prize pool for the top 3 before playing for the title of winner. Jamie Sadlier would go on to knock out Jamie Mulligan and then Jeffrey Bucher to secure the title.
Read on for the full list of placements for the Main Event and all side tournaments:
2017 AUCKLAND POKER CHAMPIONSHIPS MAIN EVENT:
1 Jamie Sadlier $44,200.00* & trophy
2 Jeffrey Bucher $42,000.00*
3 Jamie Mulligan $42,000.00*
4 Shurane Vijayaram $20,000.00
5 Robbie Robin $15,400.00
6 Wending Dai $10,000.00
7 Sarah Saifi $8,000.00
8 Rajko Gojkovic $7,000.00
9 Zhen Giang Lin $6,000.00
10 Tom Brittenden $5,400.00
*Denotes deal made
Deep Stack tournament
1 Tiger Aspell $13,260.00
2 Thomas Brittenden $8,560.00
3 Melanie Healy $5,610.00
4 Anthony Inns $4,280.00
5 Paul Money $3,300.00
6 Gregory Barkla $2,140.00
7 Jiantao (Jerry) Li $1,710.00
8 Norman Herewini $ 1,500.00
9 Richard Morrison $1,280.00
10 Brett Unkovich $1,160.00
Pot Limit Omaha
1st James Wilson $4,140 & trophy*
2nd Silva Warnape $4,130*
3rd Justine Hayes $4,130*
4th Hamish Crawshaw $1,680
5th Manu Luke $1,220
*denotes deal made
Red Hot Wednesday Event
1 Richard Pearce $2,100.00
2 Tom Brittenden $1,380.00
3 Ernie Coetzer $840.00
4 Aaron Lai $660.00
5 Christopher Padilla $480.00
6 David Hagar $300.00
7 Ruzzman Hussan $240.00
Ladies Event
1 Rachel Bellard $4,160.00 (including $2,200 sponsorship to Main Event)
2 Jackie Mira $1,230.00
3 Natalia Rozova $780.00
4 Carol Rewega $540.00
5 Rutheenya Peters $390.00