The ANZPT â Australia New Zealand Poker Tour was a southern hemisphere poker tour operated by PokerStars. It ran for seven seasons from 2009 before closing in 2015 after merging with the APPT â Asia Pacific Poker Tour.
The ANZPT â Australia New Zealand Poker Tour was created in 2009 as a series of poker tournaments for local players in the Australia and New Zealand region, as the low entry (around AS2,000) were not attractive for professional players from US or Europe to travel so far to the region. This helped establish PokerStars live events in the region by encouraging local players to participate in tournaments under the PokerStars brand, glamour and prestige. <br/> <br/> Between 2009 and 2015, several cities had the presence of ANZPT, in Australia they were: Adelaide, Sydney, Gold Coast, Perth, Canberra, Melbourne and Darwin and in New Zealand the cities chosen were Queenstown and Auckland. <br/> <br/> During the 7 seasons, several awards were distributed to the Players of the Year, with Tony Hachem being the biggest champion, winning two years in a row in the first and second seasons. Tony is the brother of Joe Hachem, the 2005 World Series of Poker main event winner. In 2013, Anthony Hachem, son of Joe Hachem won ANZPT Melbourne. <br/> <br/> At the same time, PokerStars organized another tour in the vicinity, with the APPT â Asia Pacific Poker Tour even having some tournaments from seasons 5, 6 and 7 happening together, expanding the reach of the APPT tournaments in the Pacific. <br/> <br/> In 2015, it was announced by Global Poker Tours Ltd., a subsidiary for live events of Amaya Inc. (owner of PokerStars between 2014 and 2019), that ANZPT would merge with APPT and the brand would cease to exist, with only APPT continuing to organize poker events in the pacific region. "I have been very proud to be a part of the ANZPT," said APPT and ANZPT President Danny McDonagh. "There have been many memorable stops including Darwin, Gold Coast, and Queenstown together with the big city venues such as Sydney and Melbourne. The tour has preserved the freeze out format in the $2,000 range, a decision vindicated by how popular the series has been with players." <br/> <br/>