Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Kiwi crown heading back to Australia

Intro: The title of New Zealand poker champion is again heading off-shore after Sydney’s Eric Assadourian collected the title at Christchurch Casino.

Eric Assadourian’s name might not rate along side those of Hachem, Benson or Vos when it comes to Australia’s top tournament players.
However, it’s not hard to make a case that the Sydneysider is among Australia’s most consistent tournament players of the past 12 months.
Last year, the 28-year-old outlasted a field of 395 to win the first prize of $80,850 at the Melbourne Poker Championships.
In the main event, Assadourian did it the hard way, confidently taking on the reigning world champion Joe Hachem and top WA player Aleks Lackovic in the final three.
He then finished second in the Pot-Limit Omaha event at the Victorian Championships later in 2006.
However, Assadourian celebrated his biggest tournament payday by taking out the 2007 New Zealand Poker Championships main event at Christchurch Casino on April 22, just four days after he collected the NZ Pot-Limit Omaha title.
Assadourian outplayed Wellington’s Richard Grace and a field of more than 100 participants to take out the championship trophy, claim prize money of $100,000 and win a main event seat at the 2007 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas (worth $US10,000).
He did it the hard way after being down to $7500 in chips before doubling up and taking a healthy stack of $54,000 to the final table.
“When I made it to the final table I only had one thing on my mind and that was to win the tournament. People kept folding around me and I was able to build up a decent stack. I used all my experience to win the tournament, but I was made to really work for it,” Assadourian said.
Richard Grace, a ‘house husband’ from Wellington, collected $60,000 as runner-up, which he said would make his student loan disappear.
“And as my wife and I are planning to travel to the UK soon, so this will help out a lot,” he said.
Christchurch Casino poker operations manager Mick Ryan acknowledged the quality of Assadourian’s play during the final table.
“I was great to see a Kiwi there at the end, but Eric Assadourian showed throughout the tournament he is a very shrewd player and knows when to take a risk. It was a brilliant tournament and a fitting end to a perfect week of poker,” Ryan said.
Assadourian said he looked forward to defending both titles next year: “The hospitality at Christchurch Casino has been exceptional, and without doubt I’ll be back next year. I’ll be recommending that all my poker also come to New Zealand next year.”
To cope with demand, the main event was split into two flights with 51 players lining up on the opening day.
Jovo Scekic, who won the South Island Poker Championship earlier in the week, was chip leader ($80,400) at the end of the day as just 15 players survived to contest day two.
Earlier in the night reigning NZ champion Alan Goodrum exited the tournament from what he called a very tough table.
“It was disappointing to exit early but that’s poker. I was running hot all night and unfortunately got taken down by four nines when I had a straight. My table (which included Assadourian and Scekic) was very tough,” Goodrum said.
The second flight of 49 was reduced to 12, including the University of Canterbury Lecturer of American History, Professor Peter Field.
although it can prevent him from competing.
“One of the main aspects of my job contains a lot of public lecturing, this is great when you come to a poker table because you don’t feel nervous,” Field said of his experience in the NZ Poker Championships.
2006 Aussie Millions champion Lee Nelson (another winner at the 2007 NZ championships) was ominously placed in 10th chip position while David Bradford led the second flight field on $78,600.
However, Nelson was an early casualty on the last day as the final table of Assadourian, Grace, Jan Suchanek, Constantin Harach, David Bradford, Nick Wright, Jovo Scekic, Mark Ericksen and Dean McIver was established, with Assadourian eventually prevailing.
There are exciting times ahead for the New Zealand Poker Championships in 2008 and beyond according to Christchurch Casino marketing manager Simon Cater.
“Next year, the NZ Poker Championships will celebrate 10 years. Plans are already in place to build on the recent success of the rebranded NZ Poker Championships, offering greater prizes, greater entertainment and greater satisfaction for all those that continue to attend and support New Zealand’s premier poker tournament,” Carter said.

• The 2007 NZ Poker Championships kicked off seven days earlier with the $20,000 Christchurch Casino Celebrity Challenge for Charity.
Pulp Sport’s Ben Boyce emerged victorious in the winner-takes-all event. On his way to victory Boyce took down Joker Poker’s Brooke Howard-Smith to win the $20,000 prize.
Others to fall by the way side included Newstalk ZB’s Kerre Woodham, Leigh Hart (Moon TV), Toni Marsh (TV3), Laural Barrett (Miss Universe NZ), Rico Gear (All Black), Brendon Cole (Dancing with the Stars), Bill and Aja Rock.
Boyce’s donated the money to his chosen charity, the Rambo Charitable Trust.
“The Rambo Charitable Trust truly is a great organisation that helps many at risk kids achieve new goals in life through encouraging active participation in sporting pursuits,” Boyce said.
“My goal was to beat Brooke Howard-Smith and to win the tournament for the Trust was a real bonus. Brooke was like a yappy terrier all night so it was great to take him down at the end.”

• PokerNetwork Player of the Year for 2006 Lee Nelson battled a small but strong field for 13 hours to emerge Canterbury poker champion, taking home a first prize of more than $NZ21,000.
The 64-year-old conquered a field of 88 and arguably the strongest final table of the week, which included Star City’s Poker Face-Off champion Zhi Hong Ma and vastly experienced Aussie duo Gary Benson and Martin Comer plus last year’s main event runner-up Nick Nicolaou.
Despite a solid run of form in NZ, Nicolaou is still seeking a breakthrough win at the Christchurch after he bowed in third spot when Nelson’s AK busted the Sydneysider’s pocket queens.
It came down to a classic heads-up showdown between Comer (fourth in the 2005 Aussie Millions) and Nelson (the 2006 Aussie Millions winner). The man known as ‘Final Table’ picked his mark and defeated Comer for his first title since pocketing $1.3 million at Crown in January last year.

• Two local university students took a field of 40 to school in the Peter Peko Teams Event. Along with the title, Zhou Yi (Joey) and Zhitina Wang (Bob) also won $8000.
The two university rivals (Zhou Yi recently graduated with a Commerce Degree from Canterbury University while Zhitina Wang is currently studying Applied Computing at Lincoln University) formed a formidable team.
The local team faced a tough heads-up battle against experienced Aussie Sam Korman and Warren Pritchard but won a key pot on the second last hand to set up their win.
The event required two players to team up and play 15 minutes of Texas Hold’em and then 15 minutes of Omaha each. Each team member played in 30-minute lots until a winner emerged.
Peter Peko was a well-known Wellington poker player who is considered by many to be the best NZ poker player ever to come out of New Zealand. He passed away in 1994. This is the fifth year the Peter Peko Memorial Tournament has been contested in memory of the seven-time Australian poker champion, but the first time it was run as a teams’ event.

• Jovo Scekic has fought off a late challenge from popular NZ comedian Mike King to win the South Island Poker Championships, and a prize of more than $20,000.
The Aussie said he won a crucial hand when play had reached the final two tables, which gave the chips necessary to muscle his way to the title.
King said he was thrilled but disappointed to finish second to Scekic, who took out the win with pockets eights in the deciding hand.

• Eventual NZ main event champion Eric Assadourian packed his best game for the trip across the Tasman as shown by his victory in the NZ Pot Limit Omaha Championship.
But he did it the hard way against a final four that included Lee Nelson and Leo Boxell (both former PokerNetwork players of the year). Boxell, who took out the masters’ title at last year’s Melbourne championships, finished runner-up.

Results: 2007 New Zealand Poker Championships

Event 1: $770 Canterbury Championship No Limit Hold’em (entrants 89, total prize pool $A62,300

1 Lee Nelson (NZ) $A21,800
2 Martin Comer (Australia) $A12,460
3 Nick Nicolaou (Australia) $A6230
4 Hemi Farrell (Australia) $A4980
5 Glen Council (NZ) $A4360
6 Paul Gorman (Australia) $A3740
7 Nick Webb (NZ) $A3120
8 Gary Benson (Australia) $A2490
9 Zhi Hong Ma (Australia) $A1870
10 Monica Eastick (Australia) $A1250

Event 2: Peter Peko Teams Event (entrants XX, total prize pool XX)
1 Zhou Yi and Zhitina Wang $8000
2 Warren Pritchard and Sam Korman $5000
3 Dan Ching and Terry Lin $3000
4 Leo Boxell and Paul Pederson $2200
5 Glen Counsell and Leon Forde $1800
6 Chris Chang and Leon Deon $1500
7 Tim Edward and Eric Assadourian $1300
8 Andrew Dimock and Glen Matheson $1200

Event 3: South Island Poker Championship (entrants XX, total prize pool XX)

Event 4: New Zealand Pot-Limit Omaha Championship (entrants XX, total prize pool XX)

Event 5: New Zealand Poker Championship main event (entrants XX, total prize pool XX)

1 Eric Assadourian (Australia) $100,000
2 Richard Grace (NZ) $60,000
3 Jan Suchanek $40,000
4 Constantin Harach (NZ) $32,000
5 David Bradford (NZ) $27,000
6 Nick Wright $21,000
7 Jovo Scekic $16,000
8 Mark Ericksen $13,100
9 Dean McIver (Australia) $10,000
10 Matt Davidow $10,000
11 Helen Jurgens $10,000
12 Choon Won $10,000
13 Peter Field (NZ) $8000
14 Ivar Rivernaes $8000
15 Dennis Huntly (Australia) $8000
16 Michael Balthazar $8000