Poker: Anzpt First Season Ends

The inaugural season of the PokerStars.net Australia-New Zealand Poker Tour has concluded and enters the record books as a success, attracting a total of 1 309 competitors and prize pools worth US$ 2.4 million.

The first four tour stop winners were Karl Krautschneider in Adelaide, Paren Arzoomanian in Sydney, Chris Levick in Melbourne and Danny Chevalier in Queenstown.

The last stop, in Brisbane, saw Australian Scott Kerr fighting it out in the heads up with a New Zealander, Phillip Willcocks, with the honours going to the 21-year-old Aussie on this occasion. The two players had outlasted a 249-strong entry field before facing off across the felt.

In the end, Kerr made a spectacular comeback from being over three fold down in chip counts to ultimately win the heads up holding AQ against Willcocks’ QJ, giving Kerr the title and the main prize of A$168 075.

Kerr, who is a poker dealer from Newcastle in New South Wales, qualified for the tournament online at PokerStars.com.

The first season's Player of the Year award went to Tony Hachem, brother of former WSOP Main Event champion Joe, who achieved top twenty finishes in four of the five events.

He will be a PokerStars sponsored player in the upcoming PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour events this season.

"I am very happy to be the PokerStars.net ANZPT Champion," Hachem said of the award. "This tour has been a fantastic experience. I am looking forward to keeping up my good form when the APPT starts in Macau later this month."

Pokerheads Downunder can expect more of the same in the next season, which PokerStars has already confirmed will take place at the Sky City Casino in South Australia from 9th to 14th February 2010.

Ontario extended its online gambling deadline - 02/06/2012 : It could be awhile yet before Canada's most populous province, Ontario, joins sisters British Columbia and Quebec in offering online gambling to its residents.

ESTIMATED WORTH OF SPANISH ONLINE GAMBLING MARKET? - 02/06/2012 : Jdigital, the newly launched Spanish Association of Digital Play has estimated that the Spanish online gambling market based on gross gaming revenue in 2011 has increased by 20 percent exceeding Euro 370 Million.

Conister Bank launches the IOM's first e-gaming banking product - 02/06/2012 : The Isle of Man-based Conister Bank has announced the launch of the Island’s first ever e-gaming dedicated banking product, created specifically for the Island’s e-gaming operators, with the approval of the local Gambling and Supervision Commission

Betfair has announced No More South African Gamblers - 02/06/2012 : International online gambling group Betfair has announced that it is to bow to court decisions in South Africa declaring online gambling illegal by cutting off South African online punters from February 14.

Dr. Love slot released to the Apple Store - 02/06/2012 : In an innovative move, NextGen Gaming, which recently merged with the NYX group, has released its popular Dr. Love slot to the Apple Store for mobile players to access direct.