Thursday, August 30, 2007

In the land of the long black cloud

I have just arrived in New Zealand. The plane was delayed by 6 hours (fun, fun) so didn't land until 4 in the morning. New Zealand is a beautiful country, but it sure does rain a lot here, hasn't stopped since I got off the plane. I'm hoping to get some skiing in while I'm here; the mountains are about six hours drive away, so might go down in the weekend.

Played a few hours of poker this morning and had another winning session. I think that since Neteller returned the American funds, online poker has been a little bit softer. Couldn't be sure but a few months ago online poker at the major sites seemed really tight.

Today' Topic: Poker in New Zealand.

Wide scale recognition of poker in New Zealand has been a relatively recent phenomenon. It has only been in the last three years that Poker rooms have opened in the Auckland and Christchurch casinos. Poker is shown on pay TV, and a local poker show has been played on free to air TV. More and more pubs and bars are offering free weekly pub poker competitions. Recently a lot of poker articles have been written in the local media mainly about the popularity of poker around the world.

Not many New Zealand players have had international poker tournament success. Probably New Zealand's best known poker player is "Lee Nelson" who has made around 2 million dollars on the tournament circuit.

Like most of the world, Poker seems to be going from strength to strength in New Zealand, and a healthy future seems assured.

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