Huge poker prizepool comes to Auckland

Last year's ANZPT champion David Lim. Photo / Pokernews.

The top poker players in Australasia will this week converge on Auckland's Sky City casino, hoping to take home a share of the $225,000 prize pool from the biggest poker tournament in New Zealand.

Sky City's nine-day Festival of Poker (FOP) culminates in a $2500 buy-in Main Event tournament which starts on Wednesday and Sky City is expecting around 200 card-sharks to front up.

The FOP Main Event has produced four Kiwi winners over the past five years with Daniel Craker ($257,040), World Series of Poker bracelet winner Simon Watt ($209,000), Danny 'Brotha D' Leaoasavaii ($170,000) and Geoff Smith ($80,502) all taking home small fortunes.

Last year Aussie David Lim outlasted a field of 213 players to pocket $110,000.

The series attracts some of the best players from around the world and this year Australian Luke Brabin, who came second in the ANZ Player of the Year in 2013 and recently won a World Series of Poker bracelet, headlines the list.

"We're really looking forward to welcoming people here to take part in the satellite tournaments we've got running over the weekend and up until the main event," said Sky City Auckland Table Games Manager Radha Vellanki.

"Spaces are limited, so players shouldn't leave this to the last minute. While there's a guaranteed prize pool of $225,000 last year the actual prize pool for the 2013 main event was $488,000.

"There are a range of players coming from England, Europe (including Uzbekistan), Australia and Korea - at this stage we have more than 100 players registered and expect more over the weekend."

The Festival of Poker will feature seven events among multiple Satellite tournaments including a No Limit Texas Hold'em Turbo event, Pot Limit Omaha 8 Handed event, No Limit Hold'em Ladies Event, No Limit Texas Hold'em Deep Stack and the PokerStars.net NZPT Sky City Festival of Poker Main Event.

Details on the Satellite tournaments, rules, terms and conditions and how to buy into different events can be found here.

Readers can visit www.nzpt.com plus or the SKYCITY Poker Facebook page, pokerstarsblog.com and pokernews.com for the latest results and photos.