PokerStars 2008 APPT Auckland Champion is Daniel Craker!

October 13, 2008

The 2008 Asia Pacific Poker Tour Auckland Main Event was won by fellow countryman Daniel Craker. The poker player from the town of Wellington made his way to the APPT through an online Mega Satellite. Craker has now made a name for himself not only in his hometown but globally, as the newest PokerStars APPT Champion. The biggest poker tournament New Zealand has ever seen brought 306 players together from 21 countries to partake in a chance for part of the $856,800.00 prize pool.

The final table had players holding chips in varying degrees of chip amounts; the chip leader going in was Luke Standford with $860,000 and the player with the least amount of chips was Jani Karke with 49,000. Daniel Craker was somewhat in the middle with a chip count of 447,000. Nine exhausting hours later saw Craker up against fellow Aussie, Matthew Konnecke going neck and neck in the heads-up match.

Gaining much needed steam after only two hands, Craker pulled out in front when he bet 1.7 million chips with his pair of twos. The New Zealand countryman took the Main Event APPT SkyCity Festival Title along with $257,000 (NZD) and a free entry into the APPT Main Grand Final in Sydney, Australia this December and a chance to win its $1 Million top prize. For his efforts, Konnecke was able to walk away with second place and cash winnings of $162,792.

Daniel had this to say about his final hand, “It was heads-up and I had pocket two. I was pretty tired and my strategy was to play aggressive and I raised it. He re-raised, I went all in…and they held up.

APPT host and SkyCity Auckland Executive Manager Ejaaz Dean said this regarding the event, “The final table was sensational. The crowd participation, the quality of the players and the quality of the hands was second to none.”

The 2008 PokerStars APPT Auckland Main Event results are:

1. Daniel Craker (New Zealand) - $257,040
2. Matthew Konnecke (Australia) - $162,791
3. Wang Jung (New Zealand) - $85,680
4. Dan Sing (New Zealand) - $59,976
5. Luke Stanford (New Zealand) - $46,267
6. Nathanael Seet (Singapore) - $34,272
7. Jani Karke (Finland) - $25,704
8. Michael Mariakis (Australia) - $19,706
9. Wai Yuen (United Kingdom) - $14,565

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