The PokerStars APPT Auckland had 263 players registered, including some of the areas top pros like Tony Hachem, Grant Levy, Emad Tahtouh, Celina Lin and Eric Assadourian. The rest of the field consisted of PokerStars qualifiers and the new generation of New Zealand such as Neil Stewart, Josh Eagan, Shaun Goldsbury, James Honeybone and reigning champion Daniel Craker.
A total of four PokerStars qualifiers made it to the final table, where Frenchman Gerome Guitteau did most of the damage.
The first player to bust out of the final table was American Michael Shinzaki when his Kd-5h ran into the Ac-Jd that Gerome Guitteau was holding. The board brought an Ace and no other cards came to Shinzaki’s rescue. Just fifteen minutes later the first PokerStars qualifier Lance Climo hit the rail. Crowd favorite Assadour Assadourian unfortunately busted next in seventh place.
German PokerStars qualifier Jens Walther faced Gerome Guitteau and the cards once again favored Gerome. Jens exited the tourney in sixth place for NZD $31K. Guitteau was the responsible for busting out Richard Lancaster just 35 minutes later.
Two out of the three men left at the table where from New Zealand. Gerome was the chip leader, followed closely by Simon Watt and the short stack Jason Brown. Brown made a move when he was holding pocket fives but unlucky for him his fellow countryman Watt called with pocket kings, and the board brought a king and a pair of sixes which gave Watt a full house and Jason was out of the tournament.
The heads-up battle lasted only a few hands and in the end it was Simon Watt who emerged victorious. He is a local that won his ticket to the main event with a $22 re-buy event at PokerStars.
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