Local man wins APPT Auckland Championship

AUCKLAND, New Zealand -- (PRESS RELEASE) -- Tonight Auckland local Simon Watt became the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Auckland SKYCITY Festival of Poker Champion, outplaying 262 rivals over three days to take home the Championship trophy and over NZ$209,000!

The event started back on Wednesday, the four day event has been expertly run by the casino known for the largest poker tournaments in New Zealand, Sky City Auckland. There were 29 different nationalities that were in contention for the title and the $789,000 NZD prize pool. This continued to the final table with a German, French, US and Chinese, joining the antipodeans.

The first two places were taken by players who qualified via PokerStars with Simon making his way through via a $22 qualifier, not a bad return on investment. The heads up battle between Simon Watt and Frenchman Gerome Gitteau was shorter than expected, it only took the courageous local five hands to take out the championship. Gerome was unlucky in the first of these when a good read saw him call when he a pair of eights after the flop, up against Watt's Ace, 4. Unfortunately the ace arrived on the turn which crippled the man who came to the final table as chip leader. The very next hand Simon's pair of fives held up and the hometown hero was crowned champion of Auckland.

The 26 year old software developer was delighted with his victory. After the win Simon exclaimed, it has been an amazing field to come through, all the people I have played against I have enormous respect for but I have been feeling lucky all week and this seems to have helped."

One of the great stories of the tournament was the progress of Team PokerStars PRO Australia Eric Assadourian and his father Assadour Assadourian. Eric finished the best of the team in 19th but could not outdo his father. Assadour made it through to the final table and an impressive seventh place. The other notable players in the international field included Lee Nelson, Tony Hachem, Emad Tahtouh, Grant Levy, Celina Lin and Bryan Huang. Returning champion Daniel Craker also had an impressive return falling just short of a repeat final table knocked out in 29th place.