Hip-hop star Brotha D wins £80,000 APPT Auckland
New Zealand hip-hop legend Brotha D wins APPT Auckland Main Event
| by Alligator Blood |  September, 20th 2010 |
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Above: Brotha D celebrates winning the APPT Auckland title
BROTHA D, the 40-year-old 'Godfather' of New Zealand hip-hop, has won the country's biggest poker tournament.
The music icon beat a field of 218 players from around the world to scoop NZD $170,000 (£80,000) at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Auckland Main Event.
Danny 'Brotha D' Leaoasavaii already describes himself as a father, husband, entrepreneur, artist, activist, businessman and pioneer.
He can now add APPT Champion to that impressive list.
Brotha D said: "This is awesome, you know.
"There are some really good poker players in New Zealand.
"We just don't get the opportunity to travel as much as everybody else.
"This is the ultimate competition for us in New Zealand. We look forward to this every year.
"This is an awesome place, you know. We come here just to play and work on our craft."
The hip-hop legend bossed the final table at Skycity and by the time play was five-handed stage, his victory already seemed certain.
With more than half the chips in play sitting in front of Brotha D, the other four remaining players looked like sitting ducks.
Online qualifier Tom Grigg then emerged as the only real threat. Grigg, a 25-year-old student from Melbourne, Australia, won a key race against the musical star when play was three-handed to pull within 600,000 of the long-standing chip leader.
Grigg eliminated PokerStars qualifier Srdjan Mitrovic in third place shortly thereafter, and from that moment on it was a fight to the finish line.
The heads-up duo fought tooth and nail, exchanging the chip lead multiple times, even getting it all in on three separate occasions with the same hand.
In the end, Grigg moved all in over the top of a 160,000 min-raise from Brotha D for his last 880,000 holding jack-ten and Brotha D looked him up with the ace-king of spades.
A queen-high board ran out in favor of Brotha D, who became the third consecutive New Zealand-born APPT Auckland champion.
Grigg, who won his seat to the APPT Auckland Main Event in a $22 3x Turbo Rebuy event on PokerStars, picked up NZD $107,900 (£50,000) in 2nd.
"He (Brotha D) played really, really well I think," he said.
"I kind of felt like I could wait for spots and get it in. I didn't have to bluff, really, to win.
"That was my thought process. In the end, obviously it didn't work out, but he played really well."
APPT Auckland Main Event 2010
Final results
1st: Danny 'Brotha D' Leaoasavaii (New Zealand) - $170,000
2nd: Tom Grigg, Online Qualifier (Australia) - $107,900
3rd: Srdjan Mitrovic, Online Qualifier (New Zealand) - $60,500
4th: Danny Silk, Online Qualifier (Australia) - $49,050
5th: Tamas Lendvai, Online Qualifier (Hungary) - $40,900
6th: Ropati Toleafoa (New Zealand) - $34,300
7th: Santi Soriano Ramos, Online Qualifier (Spain) - $27,800
8th: Noah Vogelman, Online Qualifier (United States) - $21,250
9th: Leo Boxell (Australia) - $16,350
