APL NZ National final

The APL New Zealand National final was held in Taupo over Easter weekend.

The winner was a local player, Alan Richardson, who headed off 122 other players to take the title, $2000 and a seat at the APL Poker Tour at Jupiter's Casino.

Second and third, and also getting seats on the APL tour, were Jason Holtham (Porirua) and Grant Little (Bulls).

Myself, I drew a very tough table which included pro player James Honeybone and PokerNZ blogger Dan McLeod among others. I held up well for the first couple of hours, doubling my starting stack, then blew it all in a moment of madness.

Euphoria closes

The closure of the Euphoria bar in Main Street is a major blow to the Upper Hutt pub poker scene. Just a few weeks earlier, the Quinn's Post also stopped hosting poker nights.

Superleague poker head Dave Bennett is currently looking for replacement venues.

On a slightly more positive note, BJ's in Taita have a new game on Wednesday nights.

I have updated my "days of the week" poker listings to reflect these changes.

Update 1 May: The Monday afternoon game will be hosted by the Stokes Valley Cossie club, and the Wednesday evening game will be hosted by the nearby Hut Sports Cafe.