2011 Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Update, Schedule
Punters, continuing to start the new right on the front foot, here's our Aussie sports gossip special, including a look at the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour for 2011. After this you're bound to want to try lady luck at races or ringside, but for the moment, get ready for more of a new year's feast of news. Media Man International and Gambling911 continue to deliver the best in gambling, entertainment and sports news found anywhere on the world wide web...
2011 Australia New Zealand Poker Tour Update...
The third season of the Australia-New Zealand Poker Tour, or ANZPT for short, is coming together A total of eight events are booked in, starting in February with a trip to Adelaide for an AUD $2,400 buy-in tournament from the 2nd to 6th. The event’s field is capped at 200 runners. From Adelaide, the ANZPT crew will travel to the Burswood Casino for ANZPT Perth from March 23rd to 27th. The stop features an AUD $2,500 buy-in Main Event that, like the Adelaide event, is capped at 300 players. Following the sojourn to Perth, PokerStars officials will pack their belongings and head to Sydney, where the Star City Casino will host another AUD $2,500 buy-in Main Event. The Sydney stop is capped at a healthy 500 entrants. You can catch the marquee tournament starting on April 13th; it will crown a champion 4 days later. The fourth stop on the ANZPT Season 3 schedule is at the Jupiters Hotel and Casino for ANZPT Gold Coast. The AUD $2,500 buy-in event takes place between May 17th and 22nd and will reach capacity when 350 players have punched their tickets. Following the Gold Coast festivities, ANZPT Canberra will play out at Casino Canberra. The tournament takes place from June 10th to 13th and is the smallest event capacity-wise at 240 players. Three other ANZPT events are on the books for Season 3. However, PokerStars has not yet announced a buy-in or dates for ANZPT Queenstown, ANZPT Melbourne, or ANZPT Darwin. What is known is that the trio of tournaments will take place at the SkyCity Queenstown, Crown Melbourne, and SkyCity Darwin, respectively. The first stop in Adelaide features a 13-day festival of poker that includes 16 events starting on January 25th. The richest tournament on the docket is not the Main Event, but rather the AUD $4,000 buy-in Big Stakes Event, which will pan out on February 6th. The series features several strict regulations, including one regarding betting and raising. Text found on the ANZPT website explains, “Adelaide Casino is very strict regarding string bets/raises – it is recommend that players announce the amount of the raise or release all of the chips in hand over the line in one single motion.” If you have an iPod or that sort of thing, don't bring it because the Apple ipod device will not be banned at ANZPT Adelaide due to government regulations. In addition, according to PokerStars, “If you act out of turn and the intervening player bets more, you forfeit your out of turn bet if you fold.” In October, Danny “Brotha D” Leaoasavaii came away with the win in Darwin, the final stop of the second season of the ANZPT, and picked up AUD $57,000. ANZPT Season 2 Player of the Year Tony Hachem finished 10th in the tournament, adding another AUD $5,000 to his poker bankroll, and Billy “The Croc” Argyros also made the final table. For winning the ANZPT Player of the Year title, Hachem took home entry into four PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) events as well as either the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event or the Aussie Millions Main Event. Hachem logged 252 Player of the Year points during Season 2 and edged out John Maklouf, who accrued 233. Amazingly, the top 51 players on the ANZPT Season 2 Player of the Year leaderboard from from Australia.
Here is the preliminary schedule for Season 3:
ANZPT Adelaide: Adelaide Casino
AUD $2,400 buy-in
February 2nd to 6th
ANZPT Perth: Burswood Casino
AUD $2,500 buy-in
March 23rd to 27th
ANZPT Sydney: Star City Casino
AUD $2,200 buy-in
April 13th to 17th
ANZPT Gold Coast: Jupiters Hotel & Casino
AUD $2,500 buy-in
May 17th to 22nd
ANZPT Canberra: Casino Canberra
AUD $2,200 buy-in
June 10th to 13th
ANZPT Queenstown: SkyCity Queenstown, ANZPT Melbourne: Crown Melbourne and ANZPT Darwin: SkyCity Darwin
Did Boxing Great Manny Pacquiao Spend A Night At Star City Casino In Sin City Sydney?...
Manny Pacquiao, a boxing legend around the world as well as a congressman in his home country of the Philippines, is believed to be holidaying in Sydney. But unlike the extravaganza that accompanied Oprah, there is little fanfare with one of the world's best fighters. What we know is that Pacquiao, whose next fight is scheduled for May 7 against ''Sugar'' Shane Mosley in Las Vegas, had planned to visit Australia. After spending Christmas in Boracay, where he, his wife Jinkee and their children Emmanuel Jr, Michael, Princess and Queenie, rode banana boats and did some scuba diving, they boarded Japan Airlines flight JL-742 and left for five days in Tokyo, with the wish of seeing Disneyland, before flying to Australia to see in the New Year. "We need to take a longer vacation to make the kids happy," Jinkee said before the family left Manila. ''Their father had been busy for the past months, but it is well worth it because we'll be spending long vacation with him.'' There was a reported sighting at Star City Casino - but so far attempts to find the holidaying superstar have been met with a jab to the ribs. The Philippines-Australian Community Foundation, which had attempted to bring Pacquiao to Sydney previously, was guarded and said its chairman Manny Villon was out of town. The Philippines Consulate was closed due to the public holidays, and after hours help suggested calling another day, while Star City staff said they had no record of any Pacquiaos staying there. His adviser Mike Koncz, who has accompanied the boxer on his trip, has stated that Pacquiao, the first boxer in history to win 10 world titles in eight different weight divisions, is due to return to the Philippines on January 10. Let's hope for a good, clean fight, and one that punters get their money's worth.
Shane Warne's Warnie TV Show Get The Axe; No Hit 'Em For Six...
Warne's much-hyped turn as a television chat show presenter has been cut short, with Channel 9 dumping the series early. Five episodes of Warnie were originally expected to air, however Nine has shelved plans for the final episode, due to be shown tomorrow night. The show has struggled to find viewers since it first went to air on November 24. This was despite Warne getting the likes of James Packer, Sir Michael Parkinson, Dannii Minogue, Sting, Jeremy Clarkson, Susan Boyle and Coldplay singer Chris Martin to join him for a chat. The first show averaged a respectable 854,000 viewers nationally, but the second slumped to a dismal 486,000 and the third episode bounced back to 762,000. Channel Nine have axed Shane Warne's cricket-centric chat show Warnie, blaming the Australian cricket team's poor Ashes performance, dwindling ratings and Warnie's disconcertingly white teeth (except the last one). The network had already aired four episodes of the show and despite securing interviews with big name talent like James Packer, Michael Parkinson, Dannii Minogue, Sting, Jeremy Clarkson, Susan Boyle and Chris Martin, Warnie eventually fell to the programming guillotine with Nine deciding to axe the fifth and final episode, meant to air tomorrow night. "The reality is that the series wrapped up after the Melbourne Test and so there was no need for a show on January 6," a spokeswoman told the press. To make Shane Warne feel better I've created a composite of literally the worst sportsman-turned-television-personality Australia could ever produce...
Readers... er, punters, how did you like our report? How did you see in the new year? Tell us in the forum.
If you have a bet, please bet with your head, not over it, and for God's sake, have fun.
*Greg Tingle is a special contributor for Gambling911
*Media Man http://www.mediamanint.com is primarily a media, publicity and internet portal development company. Gaming is just one of a dozen sectors covered
