The ANZPT is known for providing players with an experience that goes beyond the poker felt. It’s the opportunity for players to visit new cities around Australia and New Zealand and enjoy everything that our great region has to offer. Not to mention, the chance to have some fun with other players away from the tables.
At the recent ANZPT in Perth, players came together for a table tennis and pool tournament. Well, that event was raised a notch here in Sydney where an official PokerStars spade trophy, engraved and all, was awarded to the winner of the first ever ANZPT Lawn Bowls tournament.
Many may not be aware but we actually have a couple of highly-talented lawn bowlers in the Australian poker community. I guess if there’s a “sport” that poker players are going to excel at, it’s one that involves no athletic ability whatsoever. However I have been assured by Dale Marsland that at the higher levels of competition, there is in fact a lot of strategy involved in lawn bowls. You could possibly even draw comparisons to heads-up poker.
Marsland has played competitive pennant lawn bowls but even his prowess is topped by former ANZPT Adelaide runner-up Jesse McKenzie who, in his younger days, actually trained at the Australian Institute of Sport.
It seemed inevitable that the ANZPT Sydney Lawns Bowls tournament would become a battle between these two lawn bowling titans. After all, there was clearly not enough hyperactivity in lawn bowls for Danny McDonagh to ever stand a chance.
In the end it was McKenzie who rolled his way to the trophy to forever be etched in Australian lawn bowling history.
Sadly, Roy Bhasin missed out on the extra-curricular activities triple crown as a no show at the lawn bowls, but we’re pleased to report the Team PokerStars Pro has arrived at The Star this evening for the ANZPT Sydney Main Event. He’s one of 211 entrants so far on Day 1A with registration still open, so we’ll looking at another big number for this event. Other notables in tonight’s field include former ANZPT champions Grant Levy, Martin Kozlov, Scott Kerr, Dave Allan, David Lim and Michael Kanaan who won this very event back in 2011.
Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.
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