First ever female champion takes out inaugural SKYCITY tournament

As the final cards of the inaugural SKYCITY Lee Nelson Deep Stack Series Main Event hit the table on last night, Angie “Ice Queen” Fitzgerald from Epsom, Auckland arose victorious as the first female player to win a major SKYCITY poker tournament. She collected NZD $32,610.00 and the title of the 2010 SKYCITY Lee Nelson Deep Stack Series Main Event winner. Simon Watt from Auckland’s North Shore picked up NZD $21,600.00 for second place.

Play began at 12:15pm on Saturday 27 March with 108 hopefuls sitting at the SKYCITY Auckland poker tables. Some regular faces to New Zealand tournaments appeared at the tables for the inaugural tournament including, SKYCITY Poker Ambassador Brooke Howard-Smith, Lee ‘Final Table’ Nelson, Dan Sing, Richard Lancaster, Comedian Mike King, SKYCITY Festival of Poker 2009 winner Simon Watt, Auckland Anniversary Poker Champs 2010 winner James Honeybone and from Melbourne, Australia Tony Dunst.

After the 12 rounds of Day 1 were complete, Mike King, Tony Dunst, Simon Watt and James Honeybone survived along with 18 other players to come back and stack their chips for Day 2 of the Lee Nelson Deep Stack Series Main Event.

The second and final day of the tournament began at 12:30pm with the remaining players, playing cautiously and tight to avoid elimination. Blinds began at 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante.

After three hours of play, only 15 of the 22 players remained vying it out to make it to the top 11 to claim a prize. At 5:20pm, player numbers dropped to the final nine and the final table for the 2010 SKYCITY Lee Nelson Deep Stack Series Main Event was brought together. Play continued on the final table with a crowd of over 50 spectators until 12:30am when Angie went ‘all-in’ with a pair of fours against Simon’s seven and five. The final cards gave Angie four of a kind, fours over Simon’s three of a kind sevens and the title of 2010 SKYCITY Lee Nelson Deep Stack Series Champion.

The results for the main event were:

11. Kevin Peters - Rotorua - $2,160.00
10. Jeffery Fitzpatrick – Auckland - $2,920.00
9. Wilbur Tarn Yu – Auckland - $3,240.00
8. Asokan Sing – Auckland - $3,780.00
7. James Honeybone – Tauranga - $4,320.00
6. Goy Zheng – Auckland - $5,400.00
5. Matthew Mitchell – Rotorua - $8,210.00
4. Danny Tavita – Auckland - $10,800.00
3. Xidong Du – Wellington - $12,960.00
2. Simon Watt – Auckland - $21,600.00
1. Angie Fitzgerald – Auckland - $32,610.00

The next major event on the SKYCITY Auckland poker calendar is the SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open which will be held on from 5-7 June.