August 28 2011, Josh Bell

The 2011 PokerStars.net APPT Queenstown Main Event has finally come to its gripping conclusion, with Marcel Schreiner becoming the newest Asia Pacific Poker Tour champion.

This event marked the first time an APPT event was held in Queenstown. The field created the largest prize pool ever recorded in the city. While taking in any share of the NZD$342,900 prize pool would be an impressive feat, it was the NZD$94,300 first-place prize that all the returning players were vying for.

After almost 12 hours of tough play at the final table, including almost four of grueling heads-up play, it was Germany’s Marcel Schreiner and New Zealand local Matt Yates who went toe-to-toe for the title.

Schreiner managed to hold a chip lead at the end of Day 1, Day 2, and Day 3, and at the final table he produced a dominating display to become the eventual champion.

The final table began with some of the finest players from the region taking to the felt. This included the likes of Jonathan Karamalikis, Hugh Cohen and Tom Grigg. By the time all those players had hit the rail in ninth place, eighth place and sixth place respectively, we were already several hours into the final table.

When heads-up play commenced, the two players had similar sized stacks but after a couple of hours, Schreiner showed his domination in the match, and managed to take down a huge majority of the pots to sit with a nice chip lead.

The two players went on to fight it out for over 180 hands and for the majority of them, Schreiner held the chip lead. The exception to this was when the biggest hand of the night occurred. Schreiner and Yates got all of their chips in the middle on a board showing . Yates held against Schreiner’s . The higher kicker for Yates made all the difference since the river bricked out and a big chip lead was finally in the hands of Yates.

The lead didn’t last long though, because Schreiner managed to chip away at Yates and slowly work his way back to a lead before managing to have Yates all-in holding against his own . When the flop hit the felt, Schreiner’s full house had Yates drawing dead and sent him home in second place.

Final Table Results

With Schreiner crowned the first ever APPT Queenstown champion, the sentiment around the event is that it may be set to become one of the most popular on the tour, with not only a great poker event on offer, but with the beautiful city of Queenstown something to marvel at while away from the felt.

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August 27 2011, Donnie Peters

Day 1a of the 2011 PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event wrapped up on Saturday after nine levels of play. A starting field of 346 players came out, and at the end of the day, the field was whittled down to around 200 with Martin Schleich on top holding 182,100 in chips.

There were plenty of notable players in the field including a number Team PokerStars Pros Lex Veldhuis, Johnny Lodden, Martin Hruby, Juan Maceiras and Sandra Naujoks. Unfortunately, they all failed to make it through the day, as was Ana Marquez, the newest member to Team PokerStars Pro.

In Marquez’s bust-out hand, a player who ended up not factoring into the showdown opened with a raise, and Erik van den Berg flatted in the cutoff. In the small blind, Marquez came along, and it was three-handed to the flop.

The dealer spread out the flop and the action checked to van den Berg. He put out a bet of 1,500, and the initial raiser folded without incident. Marquez check-raised to 5,000, and van den Berg promptly reraised to put her to the decision for her full stack. She eventually made the call with , looking to fill in the combo draw to stay alive. Van den Berg, holding , flopped top set to put him in front.

The turn was a very bad card for Marquez, giving van den Berg the full house and leaving Marquez dead to the one-out . The river was a blank, though, and Marquez was sent packing.

On the other side of the coin, a few of the Team PokerStars Pros to thrive were Vanessa Selbst, Andre Akkari and Ville Wahlbeck.

Selbst gained a lot of her chips when she clashed with Domantas Klimciauskas. Selbst five-bet shipped with and got there against Klimciauskas’ pocket kings after an ace flopped. From there, she won another big pot with her own pocket kings against Martial Blangenwitsch’s . All of the money went in on a flop of . The turn and river both blanked and moved Selbst into the early chip lead. She went on to finish the day with 81,500.

A few other notable players able to advance to Day 2 are Mickey Petersen, Chris Moorman, Bryn Kenney, Ivan Freitez and Leo Margets. They’ll have the day off on Sunday while Day 1b is going on before returning back to action on Monday.

Day 1b will begin Sunday at noon CEST (0300 PDT) in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. Another nine levels are on the slate and the field is expected to be much larger than Saturday’s, hopefully growing the full field size to over 800 entrants.

Some of the players who will be in action Sunday include Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Allen Bari, Phil Collins and Eugene Katchalov. You won’t want to miss any action from those poker superstars so be sure to stay tuned to the PokerNews Live Reporting pages for all the coverage.

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