New Zealand Man Wins Championship
November 8, 2009
Simon Watt has just become the Poker Stars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT)
and Auckland Sky City Festival of Poker Champion. A native Auckland local,
Watt outplayed 262 other poker players to take home the trophy as well as
more than NZ $209,000 as his top prize. The four-day event had a prize pool
worth more than $789,000 NZD, and more than 29 different nationalities in
attendance.
Interestingly enough the first two spots were filled by players who had
qualified through the online poker site Poker Stars. Both Watt and Frenchman
Gerome Gitteau battled it out for the top spot, but it was a short-lived
battle. In fact, the two men only battled for five hands with Watt taking it
with an Ace. Gitteau had actually come to the table with the larger hand
being chip leader, but that did not help him and Watt was named poker
champion.
The final table actually had a German, and French, a United States, and
Chinese player all vying for that top spot. Simon said that he had “enormous
respect” for the players that he had battled through to win the prize, and
that it was “amazing” to be where he was at the moment.
The online poker site was doing very well indeed with their players – as
they saw winner after winner from their core group of poker members. They
saw Team Poker Stars player Eric Assadourian play against his father
Assadour Assadourian – but was unable to beat him. He actually made it to
the final table, and took home seventh place. There were several of their
players that made an impressive showing when all was said and done.
