New Zealand's best poker player's ready for biggest poker competition

Full House As New Zealand’s Best Vie To Make It To Las Vegas

New Zealand’s best poker players will be chasing a seat in one of Sin City’s biggest poker competitions, when they battle it out at the Auckland Regional Final of the National Pub Poker League (NPPL) on Saturday 21st April.

The NPPL, already firmly established in Australia, was launched in New Zealand six months ago and is now the biggest poker competition of its kind in the country.

The NPPL provides free Jack Daniel’s No limit Texas Hold’em tournaments in participating bars around Australia and New Zealand. Each season is 13 weeks long, and at the end of each season the top players advance to Regional Finals (held in Auckland, Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and various states in Australia).

The top 16 players from these regional finals proceed to play in the National Final held in Auckland at the end of the year and the grand prize is a place in a world class, high stakes poker tournament in Las Vegas.

Hamish Drury, Jack Daniel’s brand manager for New Zealand, is looking forward to the Auckland Regional Final which he believes will attract some of the best poker talent New Zealand has to offer.

“Poker really has become a world-wide phenomenon over the past couple of years, and the recent spate of celebrity poker television programmes certainly proves how popular the game has become amongst both men and women,” says Mr Drury.

“We are expecting up to 800 people to participate in, or watch, the Auckland Regional Finals, and with a spot in the National Final in Australia at stake, there is certainly a lot to play for.”

No money changes hands during the NPPL. However, there are a range of competition prizes on offer so the league is perfect for first timers, amateurs or ‘pro players’, who want to try bluffing, raising, playing short stacked and multi-table tournament play without risking hard cash.

Source:Press Release: National Pub Poker League