APPT Auckland: Simon Watt keeps the title on home soil

Kiwi Simon Watt eliminated Gerome Guitteau in the final heads-up duel to take home $209,085. His win ensures that the title stays in New Zealand for the second year in a row.

After 3 days of poker, Simon Watt of New Zealand outlasted 262 players to emerge as the champions of the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Auckland Main Event. He takes home NZD $209,085 for his efforts.

Watt who qualified for the event online via a $22 rebuy satellite tournament on PokerStars had entered the final day in the middle of the pack but nonetheless confident of strong showing. In the end, he eliminated overnight chip leader Gerome Guitteau after just 15 minutes of heads-up play.

Pocket fives win it for Watt

Watt and Guitteau went into the duel for the championship almost even in chips. Guitteau held a slight lead with 2.6 million chips against Watt's 2.3 million.  Two key hands however fell in Watt's favour to ensure that the title remains on home soil for the second year running.

In the first hand, 900,000 was already in the middle before the flop as Watt's three-bet on the button was called by Guitteau. The flop came and Guitteau pushed all-in with only to be snap-called by Watt who had . Watt however spiked the on the turn and the river came to cripple Guitteau as he went down to just 540,000 chips.

A few hands later, it was all over as Watt won the race with his against Guitteau's . Guitteau's second place finish earned him a very respectable NZD $142,020, but he will surely be disappointed with the result after putting up a dominant performance in the final table for most of the day.

Here are the full results from the final table:

PokerStars APPT Auckland Results
Place	Name	Prize (NZD)
1st	Simon Watt	$209,085
2nd	Gerome Guitteau	$142,020
3rd	Jason Brown	$82,845
4th	Ke Sijia	$55,230
5th	Richard Lancaster	$42,606
6th	Jens Walther	$31,560
7th	Assadour Assadourian	$23,670
8th	Lance Climo	$18,936
9th	Michael Shinzaki	$14,202