New Zealand Dominates Day 1a
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The second stop on the 2011 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour kicked off with a bang today at the Sky City Casino located in the beautiful snowy mountains of Queenstown, New Zealand.
While only 40 players took to the felt on the first of three Day 1 flights, the excitement could be felt all around town as more and more elite poker players arrived by the hour. With Queenstown known as the adventure sports capitol of the world it is understandable that many of the players are taking a few days to get amongst the action off the felt, before they take to the tables on either Day 1b or Day 1c.
There were exactly eight different countries represented in the field today, including the likes of Australia, the U.S.A, the United Kingdom, New Caledonia and Spain but at the end of the day it was all New Zealand at the top of the chip leader board.
The three heftiest bags at the end of Day 1a belonged to New Zealand natives Cole Swannack, Koray Turker and Jackson Zheng.
Swannack is no stranger to success on the APPT, with a 3rd place finish at the 2010 APPT Macau event. Swannack will return on Friday with 86,050 in chips.
The name Koray Turker is quickly becoming recognisable during the fifth season of the APPT, with Turker managing to accumulate a monster-stack early at both the Melbourne and now Queenstown events. Turker managed to bag up just under a thousand less than Swannack, with 85,075 in chips.
While his above countrymen will be looking to stop Zheng from winning this event, the fact is Zheng knows what it takes to win on home-felt, taking down the New Zealand Poker Open in Auckland earlier this year, for a nice NZ$50,615 score.
Play is set to kick off at 12.30 p.m local time tomorrow with plenty of big name players yet to take to the felt. Join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team as we again bring all the coverage from the APPT Queenstown Main Event!