Anyone plan on attending? https://wptmedia.s3.amazonaws.com/wp...-flyer_rev.pdf

Any locals from Auckland? or have been to Skycity?

I spent about 6 months there total several years ago. Great city and country, good cheap food, very safe apart from the occasional late night bar fight. Check out Food Alley during the day and the White Lady in the middle of the night. Definitely try to make a vacation out of it and see the rest of the country.

Rake in cash games is very high but players used to be quite bad.

I play in Auckland & there are a few things:

1. Like any small poker room, they usually have max 10 tables which are only full Friday & Saturday nights.

2. The cash game rake is 10% capped at $15 for $1/$3 and $2/$5. The $5/$5 rake is 0 up to $45, $5 up to $95 & 10% capped at $15 beyond that - easily the cheapest rake.

3. Despite the absurd rake, the game is beatable thanks largely in part to a large pool of recreational players who are really quite bad.

4. The Casino has a legislated monopoly so is the only poker room in the North Island - there is a casino in Christchurch which also has a few poker tables.

5. The tournaments are usually weighted toward high blind / 10bb avg stack final tables so lots of push/fold. Not many of the regs there will be familiar with deep ante play tournaments.

6. The player pool is pretty bad.

7. The main issue is 'supervision' - a lot of the supervisors have no idea about poker and make some crazy rulings because they misunderstand things: eg, some don't even know how a rebuy works and if you bust they say you need to have at least one chip in order to rebuy! Crazy but it happened in the WPT level 2 satellite last weekend. There is a lot of 'attitude' & they don't listen to players when they make silly mistakes. The service is probably the worst thing about this place. That said, there are some who are genuinely good.

8. They are training up a lot of new dealers who are pretty bad as well & doubtful they will be ready for WPT. Expect to see mistakes every 2nd hand (at least that's what is happening now, 3 weeks before WPT).

Over-all, this should be a great event & while there may be some logistical issues, this should be a lot of fun.

Outside of Poker, Auckland is a great city (known as the city of sails) - great food, plenty of bars/nightclubs, restaurants & cafes. Wonderful views of the harbour & plenty to distract you. People are pretty friendly.

Lastly, no tipping here! You don't / can't tip dealers & tipping is not normal in New Zealand. There is zero expectation for tipping.