Friday, 29th March 2024 16:02
Home / Uncategorized / APPT Auckland: Can a fairytale come true?

By James Potter and Eliot James

There are certainly some great stories here at the PokerStars.net APPT SkyCity Auckland Festival of Poker. The first of these may be Canadian Mark Oosterveld.

The Canadian won his way through to the tournament for only $6 in a $2 Rebuy, one of the many qualifying tournaments that PokerStars runs for the APPT. If Mark was to be crowned the Champion here he would certainly have turned a handsome dividend on that wisely invested $6.

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In New Zealand for all of $6, Oosterveld is looking to parlay that into a big payday

The other great story is that of Assadour Assadourian. You might recognize the name if not the face. Assadour’s son, Eric, is one of the hottest properties in Australian poker right now and among many other titles was the 2007 PokerStars.net APPT Macau High Roller Champion.

Assadour is a relative newcomer to the poker scene as he has a very successful lighting business back home in Australia. Even though he is ‘wet behind the ears’ when it comes to poker he has certainly made his presence felt here by winning 3 Main Event seats in the many satellites that have been running.

It looks like the Assadourian gene pool has poker running through the veins of this father and son combination with Senior already off to a flyer with over 20k in chips.

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Assadour Assadourian looking to one-up his son in the APPT Auckland Main Event

In other not so pleasant news, Emad Tahtouh has just described his start to the PokerStars.net APPT Auckland Main Event as “death by a thousand paper cuts” as his stack has dwindled to around 2000. Tahtouh was very focused for this event and was looking for a good finish but has run into a few big hands and has found himself on the wrong side of an excellent bluff.

Players have just returned from the first break and are straight into level three with blinds of 100/200. Only 11 players so far have exited the tournament, however with the blinds moving up casualties will soon follow.

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