Thursday, 28th March 2024 19:13
Home / Uncategorized / APPT8 Auckland Day 1C: Brotha D in the house!

Day 1c of the APPT Auckland Main Event is ticking along nicely with almost 80 entrants approaching the end of the registration period. We’ll have the official numbers once registration closes and the prize pool is announced.

We’re pleased to report that Edison Nguyen has arrived safe and sound, so it’s game on as far as the ANZ Player of the Year award is concerned, but Nguyen wasn’t the last notable player to register today.

Just a few minutes later we were joined by an icon of New Zealand poker. He’s a former champion of this very event, and the first player to win both an APPT and ANZPT title – a feat that he achieved in a time span of just six weeks. And a man who can lay down beats both on and off the poker felt.

That man is of course, Danny “Brotha D” Leaoasavaii.

Brotha D’s back-to-back wins were back in 2010 but his achievement was so significant, that now some four years later, there’s only one other man in history who has been able to match the APPT/ANZPT double, and that’s Grant Levy.

There are a couple of other incredible side notes to Brotha D’s 2010 success. He only won his seat into the 2010 APPT Auckland Main Event by winning a celebrity poker event just a few days earlier. He then went on to win the whole damn thing, defeating Australian young gun Tom Grigg heads-up.

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Six weeks later he was in Darwin winning the ANZPT title, but it’s worth noting that he also won two other side events that week as well. One was in a $550 No Limit Holdem event, the other was a drinking contest against ANZPT Social Activities Manager Danny McDonagh. The man was just unbeatable!

Brotha D’s poker resume shows something rarely ever seen in this game – nothing but an unblemished record of victories.

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The “Godfather of New Zealand Hip Hop” has taken his seat in this year’s APPT Auckland Main Event and is looking to make history once again as the first player to win two APPT titles. Brotha D certainly doesn’t play as regularly as we saw back in 2010 but if anyone can win two titles, it’s probably Brotha D. And he’ll rock the house while he’s doing it!

Heath “TassieDevil” Chick is a Freelance Contributor for the PokerStars Blog.

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