Monday 16 April 2007
Local Students Deal Out Poker Lesson
L to R - Zhitina Wang and Zhou Yi winners of the 2007 Peter Peko Teams Event at Christchurch Casino.
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Two local university students took a field of forty to school tonight at the Peter Peko Teams Event at Christchurch
Casino. Along with the title, Zhou Yi (Joey) and Zhitina Wang (Bob) also won $8,000 in cash.
The two university rivals (Zhou Yi recently graduated with a Commerce Degree from Canterbury University while Zhitina
Wang currently studies Applied Computing at Lincoln University) joined together to form a formidable team and both were
ecstatic with their victory.
“We have both had some smaller tournament wins but to win a major event like the Peter Peko Teams Event is really
awesome. We were both overwhelmed when we saw we had the cards to take it out,” says an excited Zhou Yi.
When asked what they intend to do with their winnings Zhitina Wang says he is keen to try his hand at the main event
during the festival week of poker at Christchurch Casino – The New Zealand Poker Championships.
“The main event is a true test of poker ability. I now have the confidence after we won tonight and to test myself
against such a large field would be awesome,” says Zhitina Wang.
Poker Operations Manager Mick Ryan says that both players complimented each other well.
“They both played it pretty safe at the start but as there confidence grew and the game charged on they started to play
more aggressively and were able to knock out some big players. It was great to see the local boys take down two very
strong Melbourne based players (Warren Pritchard and Sam Korman).” Mick Ryan believes the penultimate hand was a real
clutch situation.
“The second to last hand was a real nail biter. It saw a big swing in the local boys favour when they pulled a pair of
sevens. The boys from across the ditch were always going to struggle to come back from that,” says Mick Ryan.
The 2007 Peter Peko Teams Event Pot limit Omaha/Holdem Freeze out requires two poker players to team up and play 15
minutes of Texas Holdem and then 15 minutes of Omaha each. Each team member plays in 30-minute lots until a winner is
found. Peter Peko was a well-known Wellington poker player who is considered by some to be the best poker player ever to
come out of New Zealand. Peter Peko passed away in 1994. This is the fifth year the Peter Peko Memorial Tournament has
been held in memory of the 7 times Australian poker champion, but the first time it has been run as a teams event.
On Tuesday night (April 17), the poker action continues with the South Island Championships at the Christchurch Casino.
The main event, the $500,000* New Zealand Poker Championships runs from 19-21 April.
Peter Peko Teams Event Tournament Results
1. Zhou Yi and Zhitina Wang $8,000
2. Warren Pritchard and Sam Korman $5,000
3. Dan Ching and Terry Lin $3,000
4. Leo Boxell and Paul Pederson $2,200
5. Glen Counsell and Leon Forde $1,800
6. Chris Chang and Leon Deon $1,500
7. Tim Edward and Eric Assadourian $1,300
8. Andrew Dimock and Glen Matheson $1,200
ENDS