Nine to Become One at APPT Auckland
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Nine players will return to the SKYCITY Auckland Casino today.
One will emerge as the APPT Auckland champion.
The player arguable in the best position to go all the way is Brisbane’ Australia’s Minh Nguyen. He’s widely regarded as one of the finest poker talents in the region and with a monster chip lead, he’s going to be hard to beat.
There are eight players, however, who will be looking to stop Nguyen.
The player with the second largest stack, Sam Williams, has proven himself a formidable opponent, while prominent players like Aussies Dean Blatt, Michael Guzzardi and Jesse “On The Mac” McKenzie, along with Kiwi Thomas Ward are also still alive and kicking.
Here is how the final nine stack up:
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sam Williams | 633,000 |
| 2 | Ben Rendall | 545,000 |
| 3 | Michael Guzzardi | 296,000 |
| 4 | Dean Blatt | 142,000 |
| 5 | Thomas Ward | 404,000 |
| 6 | Jesse McKenzie | 477,500 |
| 7 | Stephen Thompson | 32,500 |
| 8 | William Rogers | 238,000 |
| 9 | Minh Nguyen | 1,605,500 |
You can learn more about each player in the live reporting blog below. It’s there that you will find full biographies. One of those nine players will eventually take home the APPT Auckland title and the NZ$132,000 top prize.
The cards are in the air from 12:15 p.m. local time today. Blinds kick off at 4,000/8,000.
Don’t miss it!