Home / Poker News October 2008 / APPT Auckland final day report: Daniel Craker takes down title
APPT Auckland final day report: Daniel Craker takes down title
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2008-10-14 17:28
Day 3 of the APPT’s Auckland Main Event saw only 11 players return from the initial field of 360. The low number of starters made it a certainty that the final table would be reached shortly. Edward Holdcroft and Eric Mutrie were the first two bust-outs, and they headed to the rail fairly soon, so the final table was set early on in the day. Luke Stanford had the chip lead when the final table was established, with 860,000 chips, followed by Daniel Craker with 447,000 and Wang Jung with 377,000. The other final table participants were: Nathanael Seet (348,000), Wai Yuen (162,000), Dan Sing (198,000), Michael Mariakis (262,000), Matthew Konnecke (80,000) and Jani Karke (49,000).
Even though she wasn’t one of the short-stacks, Wai Yuen would be the first to head to the payout queue. She decided to put her tournament life on the line on an A,K and got a call from Wang Jung with Qc,Jc. The flop came J,4,2, and even though the 3 on the turn gave Yuen some hopes, the 10 on the river sealed her fate.
Jung rode the momentum of this elimination to bust out Michael Mariakis too. Jung’s 7,7 caught a lucky break on the flop of 7,4,6 against Mariakis’ As,Qs. The flop was a Q which gave Mariakis a pair but the river fell a J which sent him to the rail.
Jani Karke, who started the final table with the short-stack, managed to hold on and to pamper it along all the way to 7th place. He finally ran out of gas when his A,10 ran into Daniel Craker’s pocket 9s and the board failed to come through for him.
Nathanael Seet fell at Wang Jung’s hands next, followed by Luke Stanford whose A,8 lost out to Dan Sing’s K,Q.
Sing himself would be the next to fall, but not before staging a several hours long defense of his chances.
Wang Jung – the culprit for most final table eliminations – ran into Daniel Craker’s pocket 8s to bust out in third place.
The heads-up between Craker and Konnecke was an extremely short affair: it only lasted for 2 hands. In the end, Craker’s 2,2 beat Konnecke’s A,9 suited and gave him the win, together with a NZD 257,040 prize and an entry for the APPT’s Sydney Grand Final.
