Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT)

History and info about the ANZPT

The Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) was founded in 2009 by Pokerstars to create a local tournament series for the players. Australia and New Zealand are very isolated countries, so providing them with their own tournament series to establish poker and help it grow was the mission with the ANZPT. The ANZPT is not a tournament series for the professional players, offering tournaments with buy-ins from AUD $220 to AUD $2,200 it caters more to the regular and hobby players.

The series is very popular attracting people from all over the countries to play the different events. The first season a total of 1,309 players participated in the events and in the latest season a total of 2,201 players attended. This shows a 40% growth over a four year period, which is not common for live poker tournaments in these days. The popularity could come from the professionalism that surrounds the events as well as the many different tournaments offered at each destination.

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The ANZPT is hosted in six different locations in Australia and New Zealand each season, to reach as wide a audience as possible. Most of the events take place in Australia, with only one or two taking place in New Zealand, due to the limited amount of casinos and players. Each destination offers a unique tournament schedule, with many small side events and a main event. The many different tournaments are played over 6-12 days and gives players a chance to focus on poker.

Pokerstars is the main sponsor of the ANZPT and provides added prizes and online satellites for the tournament series. This gives players a chance to qualify for the events for only $0.55, making it possible for even the hobby player to play the main event. Pokerstars sends hundreds of players to the events every year which provides a good atmosphere among the players trying to play a real live tournament for the first time. With a professional setup and surroundings, the ANZPT is also popular among foreigners, who travel all the way to Australia and New Zealand to take part in the events.


Player of the Year Award

After each season of the ANZPT a player is awarded the player of the year award, through a pointbased leaderboard. Players earn points by participating in the main event of each destination as well as finishing in the money.

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The winner of the leaderboard will receive a sponsorship contract for the APPT Asian Championship of Poker and the runner up receives a entry to a main event of the ANZPT including accommodation.

Below you can see the winners of the season that has been played so far:

Year

Name

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Country

2009

Tony Hachem

Australia

2010

Tony Hachem

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Australia

2011

Danny Chevalier

Australia

2012

Mishel Anunu

Australia

2013

Iori Yogo

Japan

Tony Hachem managed to win the award the first two years it was running, being the only player to win it two times and in a row.


Biggest Cash Winners

Despite being a tournament series targeted mainly at the locals, the ANZPT has provided some big prize pools through the years, with players winning a good amount of money. We have found the five biggest overall winners and put them in the table below:

Name

Country

Prize (In AUD $)

Sam Ravazi

England

$326,125

Dejan Divkovic

Bosnia

$258,440

Paren Arzoomanian

Australia

$246,500

Michael Kanaan

Australia

$242,444

Angelo Hanataj

Australia

$228,762

 

Despite the fact that most players participating in the events, it is two foreign players that has won the most money in the ANZPT. Both Sam and Dejan both won the two biggest events there has been under the ANZPT, which is the reason that they are topping the list.

Most Overall Cashes

Running for more than five seasons and with multiple events each season, many players has finished in the money at the ANZPT. However some players are better at winning money than others, making them finish in the money more often.

Two time ANZPT player of the year winner Tony Hachem has finished in the money a total of nine times which is by far most of all. His nine cashes includes his ANZPT Perth Main Event win in 2010, providing him with AUD $132,750. Runner up to the title is Ricky Kroesen, who has cashed at total of seven times, but never won any major events.

Most Final Tables

Australian player Danny Chevalier has reached the final table of the ANZPT a total of four times, which is most of all players participating in the ANZPT. Despite reaching the final table in four events, he never won any events in the series on his own, but has won the ANZPT team event in 2011.